Node.js — Get a File Name (With or Without Extension)

Node.js can extract a file name from a given path. The path can be an absolute or relative path. You can then let Node.js do the parsing and return the file path.

Node.js Series Overview

  1. String Replace All Appearances
  2. Remove All Whitespace From a String in JavaScript
  3. Generate a Random ID or String in Node.js or JavaScript
  4. Remove Extra Spaces From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  5. Remove Numbers From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  6. Get the Part Before a Character in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  7. Get the Part After a Character in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  8. How to Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. Check If a String Includes All Strings in JavaScript/Node.js/TypeScript
  10. Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript and Node.js
  11. Limit and Truncate a String to a Given Length in JavaScript and Node.js
  12. Split a String into a List of Characters in JavaScript and Node.js
  13. How to Generage a UUID in Node.js
  14. Reverse a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  15. Split a String into a List of Lines in JavaScript or Node.js
  16. Split a String into a List of Words in JavaScript or Node.js
  17. Detect if a String is in camelCase Format in Javascript or Node.js
  18. Check If a String Is in Lowercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  19. Check If a String is in Uppercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  20. Get the Part After First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  21. Get the Part Before First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  22. Get the Part Before Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  23. Get the Part After Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  24. How to Count Words in a File
  25. How to Shuffle the Characters of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  26. Append Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  27. Check if a String is Empty in JavaScript or Node.js
  28. Ensure a String Ends with a Given Character in JavaScript or Node.js
  29. Left-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  30. Right-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  31. Lowercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  32. Uppercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  33. Prepend Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  34. Check if a String is a Number
  35. Convert a String to Buffer
  36. Prevent Line Breaks in String Template Literals
  37. How to Implement a Custom `toString` Method
  38. What Is `Symbol.toStringTag` and How to Use It (Coming soon)

Get the File Name With Extension

You can retrieve the file name from a given path using Node.js’ path module. The path module comes with the Node.js runtime.

Retrieve the file name using the Path.basename method. This method returns the trailing name component from a file path, including the file extension. For example, it returns avatar.png from the path /home/user/avatar.png:

import Path from 'path'

const filename = Path.basename('/home/user/avatar.png')  
// 'avatar.png'

Get the File Name Without Extension

Sometimes you want to retrieve the file name without the extension. You may use the built-in Node.js path module to do that. You can use the Path.parse method to parse a given file path into the individual parts. Then, retrieve the file name without the extension:

import Path from 'path'

const filename = Path.parse('/home/user/avatar.png').name  
// 'avatar'

Use the @supercharge/fs Package

I’m the maintainer of the @supercharge/fs package providing convenient file system utilities. The @supercharge/fs package comes with handy methods to retrieve the file name:

  • Fs.basename(path): returns the file name with extension
  • Fs.filename(path): returns the file name without extension

Here’s the sample code on how to use both functions:

import Fs from '@supercharge/fs'

Fs.basename('/home/user/avatar.png')  
// 'avatar.png'

Fs.filename('/home/user/avatar.png')  
// 'avatar'

That’s it!


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