Question

I want to get just the filename using regex, so I’ve been trying simple things like

([^\.]*) 

which of course work only if the filename has one extension. But if it is adfadsfads.blah.txt I just want adfadsfads.blah. How can I do this with regex?

In regards to David’s question, ‘why would you use regex’ for this, the answer is, ‘for fun.’ In fact, the code I’m using is simple

length_of_ext = File.extname(filename).length filename = filename[0,(filename.length-length_of_ext)] 

but I like to learn regex whenever possible because it always comes up at Geek cocktail parties.

Answer 1

Try this:

(.+?)(\.[^.]*$|$) 

This will:

• Capture filenames that start with a dot (e.g. .logs is a file named .logs, not a file extension), which is common in Unix.
• Gets everything but the last dot: foo.bar.jpeg gets you foo.bar.
• Handles files with no dot: secret-letter gets you secret-letter.

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Note: as commenter j_random_hacker suggested, this performs as advertised, but you might want to precede things with an anchor for readability purposes.