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This tutorial shows how to get the file extension from a file name in Python.

os.pathExtract extension from file using module in Python

The Python module os.pathpre-makes useful utility functions for manipulating operating system file paths, including opening, saving, and updating, as well as getting information from file paths.

We will use this module to get the file extension in Python.

os.pathThere is a function splitext()that splits the root and extension of a given file path. The function returns a tuple containing the root string and the extension string.

Let's provide an docxexample of a file path with a .

/Users/user/Documents/sampledoc.docx

The expected output should be the extension .docx.

Declare two separate variables extensionand rootto capture splitext()the results of .

import os

path = "/Users/user/Documents/sampledoc.docx"
root, extension = os.path.splitext(path)

print("Root:", root)
print("extension:", extension)

Output:

Root: /Users/user/Documents/sampledoc
Extension: .docx

The extension is now successfully returned from the root file path.

pathlibExtract extension from file using module in Python

pathlibIs a Python module that contains classes that represent file paths and implements utility functions and constants for these classes.

pathlib.Path()Accepts a path string as an argument and returns a new Pathobject.

pathlib.PathThe object has attributes suffixthat return file extension information.

import pathlib

path = pathlib.Path("/Users/user/Documents/sampledoc.docx")

print("Parent:", path.parent)
print("Filename:", path.name)
print("Extension:", path.suffix)

In addition to the root directory, we can also get the parent file path and the actual file name for a given file path by simply calling the and Pathproperties within the object .parentname

Output:

Parent: /Users/user/Documents
Filename: sampledoc.docx
Extension: .docx

What if the file extension is .tar.gzor .tar.bz2?

pathlibA property is also provided for handling files with multiple suffixes. PathThe property in the object suffixesis a list containing all the given file suffixes. If we use the example above and print out suffixesthe property.

import pathlib

path = pathlib.Path("/Users/user/Documents/sampledoc.docx")

print("Suffix(es):", path.suffixes)

Output:

Suffix(es): ['.docx']

So even if there is only one suffix, the output will be a list.

Now try .tar.gzan example using the extension. To convert a list to a single string, use join()the function on an empty string and accept suffixesthe attribute as an argument.

import pathlib

path = pathlib.Path("/Users/user/Documents/app_sample.tar.gz")

print("Parent:", path.parent)
print("Filename:", path.name)
print("Extension:", "".join(path.suffixes))

Output:

Parent: /Users/user/Documents
Filename: app_sample.tar.gz
Extension: .tar.gz

The actual extensions are now displayed instead of a list.

In summary, osthese pathlibtwo modules provide convenient ways to get the file extension from the file path in Python.

osThe module has a function splitextfor separating the root and filename from the file extension. pathlibCreate a Pathobject and simply store the extension in suffixthe attribute.

It is better to use if you anticipate having multiple extensions in a file pathlib, as it suffixesprovides easy support for multiple extensions using the attribute.