Question

I am trying to get name of a File object without its extension, e.g. getting “vegetation” when the filename is “vegetation.txt.” I have tried implementing this code:

openFile = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
String[] tokens = openFile.getName().split(".");
String name = tokens[0];

Unfortunately, it returns a null object. There is a problem just in the defining the String object, I guess, because the method getName() works correctly; it gives me the name of the file with its extension.

Do you have any idea?

Answer 1

If you want to implement this yourself, try this:

String name = file.getName();
int pos = name.lastIndexOf(".");
if (pos > 0) {
    name = name.substring(0, pos);
}

(This variation doesn’t leave you with an empty string for an input filename like “.txt”. If you want the string to be empty in that case, change > 0 to >= 0.)

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You could replace the if statement with an assignment using a conditional expression, if you thought it made your code more readable; see @Steven’s answer for example. (I don’t think it does … but it is a matter of opinion.)

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It is arguably a better idea to use an implementation that someone else has written and tested. Apache FilenameUtils is a good choice; see @slachnick’s Answer, and also the linked Q&A.