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.

Getting File Extension in Python

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:

• 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.

Get File Extension using Pathlib Module

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'
>>> 

Conclusion

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.