How to get file extension from string in C++

Question

Given a string \"filename.conf\", how to I verify the extension part?

I need a cross platform solution.

Answer 1

For char array-type strings you can use this:

#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>

int main()
{
    char filename[] = "apples.bmp";
    char extension[] = ".jpeg";

    if(compare_extension(filename, extension) == true)
    {
        // .....
    } else {
        // .....
    }

    return 0;
}

bool compare_extension(char *filename, char *extension)
{
    /* Sanity checks */

    if(filename == NULL || extension == NULL)
        return false;

    if(strlen(filename) == 0 || strlen(extension) == 0)
        return false;

    if(strchr(filename, '.') == NULL || strchr(extension, '.') == NULL)
        return false;

    /* Iterate backwards through respective strings and compare each char one at a time */

    for(int i = 0; i < strlen(filename); i++)
    {
        if(tolower(filename[strlen(filename) - i - 1]) == tolower(extension[strlen(extension) - i - 1]))
        {
            if(i == strlen(extension) - 1)
                return true;
        } else
            break;
    }

    return false;
}

Can handle file paths in addition to filenames. Works with both C and C++. And cross-platform.

Answer 2

Using std::string's find/rfind solves THIS problem, but if you work a lot with paths then you should look at boost::filesystem::path since it will make your code much cleaner than fiddling with raw string indexes/iterators.

I suggest boost since it's a high quality, well tested, (open source and commercially) free and fully portable library.

Answer 3

Is this too simple of a solution?

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
  std::string fn = "filename.conf";
  if(fn.substr(fn.find_last_of(".") + 1) == "conf") {
    std::cout << "Yes..." << std::endl;
  } else {
    std::cout << "No..." << std::endl;
  }
}

Answer 4

Assuming you have access to STL:

std::string filename("filename.conf");
std::string::size_type idx;

idx = filename.rfind('.');

if(idx != std::string::npos)
{
    std::string extension = filename.substr(idx+1);
}
else
{
    // No extension found
}

Edit: This is a cross platform solution since you didn't mention the platform. If you're specifically on Windows, you'll want to leverage the Windows specific functions mentioned by others in the thread.

Answer 5

Actually, the easiest way is

char* ext;
ext = strrchr(filename,'.') 

One thing to remember: if '.' doesn't exist in filename, ext will be NULL.

Answer 6

Or you can use this:

    char *ExtractFileExt(char *FileName)
    {
        std::string s = FileName;
        int Len = s.length();
        while(TRUE)
        {
            if(FileName[Len] != '.')
                Len--;
            else
            {
                char *Ext = new char[s.length()-Len+1];
                for(int a=0; a<s.length()-Len; a++)
                    Ext[a] = FileName[s.length()-(s.length()-Len)+a];
                Ext[s.length()-Len] = '\0';
                return Ext;
            }
        }
    }

This code is cross-platform