How to Get File Extension in Python
We can use Python os module splitext() function to get the file extension. This function splits the file path into a tuple having two values – root and extension.
Here is a simple program to get the file extension in Python.
import os # unpacking the tuple file_name, file_extension = os.path.splitext(“/Users/pankaj/abc.txt”) print(file_name) print(file_extension) print(os.path.splitext(“/Users/pankaj/.bashrc”)) print(os.path.splitext(“/Users/pankaj/a.b/image.png”))
Output:
File Extension in Python
- In the first example, we are directly unpacking the tuple values to the two variables.
- Note that the .bashrc file has no extension. The dot is added to the file name to make it a hidden file.
- In the third example, there is a dot in the directory name.
We can also use pathlib module to get the file extension. This module was introduced in Python 3.4 release.
>>> import pathlib >>> pathlib.Path(“/Users/pankaj/abc.txt”).suffix ‘.txt’ >>> pathlib.Path(“/Users/pankaj/.bashrc”).suffix ” >>> pathlib.Path(“/Users/pankaj/.bashrc”) PosixPath(‘/Users/pankaj/.bashrc’) >>> pathlib.Path(“/Users/pankaj/a.b/abc.jpg”).suffix ‘.jpg’ >>>
It’s always better to use the standard methods to get the file extension. If you are already using the os module, then use the splitext() method. For the object-oriented approach, use the pathlib module.
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