index.md

title	slug	page-type	tags	browser-compat
FileSystemHandle.kind	Web/API/FileSystemHandle/kind	web-api-instance-property	Directory File File System Access API FileSystemHandle Property Read-only handle	api.FileSystemHandle.kind

{{securecontext_header}}{{APIRef("File System Access API")}}

The kind read-only property of the {{domxref("FileSystemHandle")}} interface returns the type of entry. This is 'file' if the associated entry is a file or 'directory'. It is used to distinguish files from directories when iterating over the contents of a directory.

Value

A string that can be:

• 'file': If the handle is a {{domxref('FileSystemFileHandle')}}.
• 'directory': If the handle is a {{domxref('FileSystemDirectoryHandle')}}.

Examples

The following function allows the user to choose a file from the file picker and then tests to see whether the handle returned is a file or directory

// store a reference to our file handle
let fileHandle;

async function getFile() {
  // open file picker
  [fileHandle] = await window.showOpenFilePicker();

  if (fileHandle.kind === 'file') {
    // run file code
  } else if (fileHandle.kind === 'directory') {
    // run directory code
  }

}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• File System Access API
• The File System Access API: simplifying access to local files