295

If I have a string saying "abc.txt", is there a quick way to get a substring that is just "abc"?

I can't do an fileName.IndexOf('.') because the file name could be "abc.123.txt" or something and I obviously just want to get rid of the extension (i.e. "abc.123").

0

13 Answers 13

499

The Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension method gives you the filename you pass as an argument without the extension, as should be obvious from the name.

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4 Comments

Was gonna suggest: string.Format( "{0}\\{1}", Path.GetDirectoryName( path ), Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension( path ) ) ... but I saw an even better version below using Path.Combine instead of String.Format!
Preserving the path is not a desired effect, note that the method name is GetFileNameWithoutExtension. If path preservation was promised, then the method name should have been different. The method description is also quite specific, only the filename with no extension is returned. The OP doesn't specify that he requires the path. Quite the contrary.
@dukevin nothing about this question has anything to do with the path. It simply asks for removal of extension from the filename.
For those who need it, the fully qualified function name is System.IO.path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension
352

There's a method in the framework for this purpose, which will keep the full path except for the extension.

System.IO.Path.ChangeExtension(path, null); 

If only file name is needed, use

System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(path); 

5 Comments

This is the correct answer. The accepted answer strips file path
This is a better answer as it preserves the path
The null has a magic value here. If you use String.Empty aka "" you will be left with a trailing [.] dot.
I disagree this answer is better. GetFileNameWithoutExtension is more explicit. Although it IS nice knowing about its potentially undesired side effect and the existence of an alternative to avoid it.
Doesn't work in Powershell v5.1 or v7.1. The system interprets [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($FilePath,$null) the same as [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($FilePath,'') or [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($FilePath,[string]::Empty).
60

You can use

string extension = System.IO.Path.GetExtension(filename); 

And then remove the extension manually:

string result = filename.Substring(0, filename.Length - extension.Length); 

2 Comments

@Bio, actually that get's the length of the extension, and then grabs the filename up until the extension.
If you decide to ignore System.IO.Path functionality is not better if you get the extension as: string extension = filename.Substring(filename.LastIndexOf('.')); ?
33

String.LastIndexOf would work.

string fileName= "abc.123.txt"; int fileExtPos = fileName.LastIndexOf("."); if (fileExtPos >= 0 ) fileName= fileName.Substring(0, fileExtPos); 

3 Comments

Watch out for files with no extension, like foo/bar.cat/cheese!
String.LastIndexOf is dangerous for accomplishing something like this. For files with no extension, as @Cameron has stated above, your results may be not what you want. The safest way to do this is using @Logman's answer above.
@Shiva but for logman answer you need access to the file. If you only have the filename as string....
17

I used the below, less code

string fileName = "C:\file.docx"; Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(fileName), Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fileName)); 

Output will be

C:\file

2 Comments

And what if my directory separator is '/' ;)?
Use Path.Combine() rather than specifying "\\".
16

If you want to create full path without extension you can do something like this:

Path.Combine( Path.GetDirectoryName(fullPath), Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fullPath)) 

but I'm looking for simpler way to do that. Does anyone have any idea?

Comments

4

You maybe not asking the UWP api. But in UWP, file.DisplayName is the name without extensions. Hope useful for others.

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1

if you want to use String operation then you can use the function lastIndexOf( ) which Searches for the last occurrence of a character or substring. Java has numerous string functions.

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0

I know it's an old question and Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtensionis a better and maybe cleaner option. But personally I've added this two methods to my project and wanted to share them. This requires C# 8.0 due to it using ranges and indices.

public static string RemoveExtension(this string file) => ReplaceExtension(file, null); public static string ReplaceExtension(this string file, string extension) { var split = file.Split('.'); if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(extension)) return string.Join(".", split[..^1]); split[^1] = extension; return string.Join(".", split); } 

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0
ReadOnlySpan<char> filename = "abc.def.ghi.txt"; var fileNameWithoutExtension = RemoveFileExtension(filename); //abc.def.ghi string RemoveFileExtension(ReadOnlySpan<char> path) { var lastPeriod = path.LastIndexOf('.'); return (lastPeriod < 0 ? path : path[..lastPeriod]).ToString(); } 

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-3
 /// <summary> /// Get the extension from the given filename /// </summary> /// <param name="fileName">the given filename ie:abc.123.txt</param> /// <returns>the extension ie:txt</returns> public static string GetFileExtension(this string fileName) { string ext = string.Empty; int fileExtPos = fileName.LastIndexOf(".", StringComparison.Ordinal); if (fileExtPos >= 0) ext = fileName.Substring(fileExtPos, fileName.Length - fileExtPos); return ext; } 

2 Comments

This doesn't answer the question.
Why would you write an extension method for this? Aside from this very specific case, String.GetFileExtension() makes no sense whatsoever. However, the function is carried over everywhere, and it's supposed to denote behavior specific to any String. Which is not the case.
-8
 private void btnfilebrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { OpenFileDialog dlg = new OpenFileDialog(); //dlg.ShowDialog(); dlg.Filter = "CSV files (*.csv)|*.csv|XML files (*.xml)|*.xml"; if (dlg.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { string fileName; fileName = dlg.FileName; string filecopy; filecopy = dlg.FileName; filecopy = Path.GetFileName(filecopy); string strFilename; strFilename = filecopy; strFilename = strFilename.Substring(0, strFilename.LastIndexOf('.')); //fileName = Path.GetFileName(fileName); txtfilepath.Text = strFilename; string filedest = System.IO.Path.GetFullPath(".\\Excels_Read\\'"+txtfilepath.Text+"'.csv"); // filedest = "C:\\Users\\adm\\Documents\\Visual Studio 2010\\Projects\\ConvertFile\\ConvertFile\\Excels_Read"; FileInfo file = new FileInfo(fileName); file.CopyTo(filedest); // File.Copy(fileName, filedest,true); MessageBox.Show("Import Done!!!"); } } 

3 Comments

Please don't just post code, it's a lot more helpful to explain your answer alongside the code.
Large part of the code is completely irrelevant. Explanation is missing. This is not useful.
The code is too specific to a problem different from one in question.
-8

This implementation should work.

string file = "abc.txt"; string fileNoExtension = file.Replace(".txt", ""); 

1 Comment

What about abc.txt.pdf? :-)

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