Java: splitting the filename into a base and extension

I know others have mentioned String.split, but here is a variant that only yields two tokens (the base and the extension):

String[] tokens = fileName.split("\\.(?=[^\\.]+$)");

For example:

"test.cool.awesome.txt".split("\\.(?=[^\\.]+$)");

Yields:

["test.cool.awesome", "txt"]

The regular expression tells Java to split on any period that is followed by any number of non-periods, followed by the end of input. There is only one period that matches this definition (namely, the last period).

Technically Regexically speaking, this technique is called zero-width positive lookahead.


BTW, if you want to split a path and get the full filename including but not limited to the dot extension, using a path with forward slashes,

    String[] tokens = dir.split(".+?/(?=[^/]+$)");

For example:

    String dir = "/foo/bar/bam/boozled"; 
    String[] tokens = dir.split(".+?/(?=[^/]+$)");
    // [ "/foo/bar/bam/" "boozled" ] 

Source: http://www.java2s.com/Code/Java/File-Input-Output/Getextensionpathandfilename.htm

such an utility class :

class Filename {
  private String fullPath;
  private char pathSeparator, extensionSeparator;

  public Filename(String str, char sep, char ext) {
    fullPath = str;
    pathSeparator = sep;
    extensionSeparator = ext;
  }

  public String extension() {
    int dot = fullPath.lastIndexOf(extensionSeparator);
    return fullPath.substring(dot + 1);
  }

  public String filename() { // gets filename without extension
    int dot = fullPath.lastIndexOf(extensionSeparator);
    int sep = fullPath.lastIndexOf(pathSeparator);
    return fullPath.substring(sep + 1, dot);
  }

  public String path() {
    int sep = fullPath.lastIndexOf(pathSeparator);
    return fullPath.substring(0, sep);
  }
}

usage:

public class FilenameDemo {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    final String FPATH = "/home/mem/index.html";
    Filename myHomePage = new Filename(FPATH, '/', '.');
    System.out.println("Extension = " + myHomePage.extension());
    System.out.println("Filename = " + myHomePage.filename());
    System.out.println("Path = " + myHomePage.path());
  }
}

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/io/File.html#getName()

From http://www.xinotes.org/notes/note/774/ :

Java has built-in functions to get the basename and dirname for a given file path, but the function names are not so self-apparent.

import java.io.File;

public class JavaFileDirNameBaseName {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
    File theFile = new File("../foo/bar/baz.txt");
    System.out.println("Dirname: " + theFile.getParent());
    System.out.println("Basename: " + theFile.getName());
    }
}

Old question but I usually use this solution:

import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils;

String fileName = "/abc/defg/file.txt";

String basename = FilenameUtils.getBaseName(fileName);
String extension = FilenameUtils.getExtension(fileName);
System.out.println(basename); // file
System.out.println(extension); // txt (NOT ".txt" !)

Tags:

Java

File