Does FileInfo.Extension return the last *.* pattern, or something else?

26,652

Solution 1

It will return .gz, but the explanation from MSDN (FileSystemInfo.Extension Property) isn't clear why:

"The Extension property returns the FileSystemInfo extension, including the period (.). For example, for a file c:\NewFile.txt, this property returns ".txt"."

So I looked up the code of the Extension property with reflector:

public string Extension
{
    get
    {
        int length = this.FullPath.Length;
        int startIndex = length;
        while (--startIndex >= 0)
        {
            char ch = this.FullPath[startIndex];
            if (ch == '.')
            {
                return this.FullPath.Substring(startIndex, length - startIndex);
            }
            if (((ch == Path.DirectorySeparatorChar) || (ch == Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar)) || (ch == Path.VolumeSeparatorChar))
            {
                break;
            }
        }
        return string.Empty;
    }
}

It's check every char from the end of the filepath till it finds a dot, then a substring is returned from the dot to the end of the filepath.

Solution 2

[TestCase(@"C:/testfile.txt.gz", ".gz")]
[TestCase(@"C:/testfile.txt.gz.zip", ".zip")]
[TestCase(@"C:/testfile.txt.gz.SO.jpg", ".jpg")]
public void TestName(string fileName, string expected)
{
    FileInfo info = new FileInfo(fileName);
    string actual = info.Extension;
    Assert.AreEqual(actual, expected);
}

All pass

Solution 3

It returns the extension from the last dot, because it can't guess whether another part of the filename is part of the extension. In the case of testfile.txt.gz, you could argue that the extension is .txt.gz, but what about System.Data.dll? Should the extension be .Data.dll? Probably not... There's no way to guess, so the Extension property doesn't try to.

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Codeman
Author by

Codeman

I'm a software engineer in Seattle

Updated on October 03, 2020

Comments

  • Codeman
    Codeman over 3 years

    I'm curious what exactly the behavior is on the following:

    FileInfo info = new FileInfo("C:/testfile.txt.gz");
    string ext = info.Extension;
    

    Will this return ".txt.gz" or ".gz"?

    What is the behavior with even more extensions, such as ".txt.gz.zip" or something like that?

    EDIT:

    To be clear, I've already tested this. I would like an explanation of the property.