Path.GetFileName Method

Definition

Namespace:

System.IO

Assembly:

System.Runtime.dll

Overloads

GetFileName(ReadOnlySpan<Char>)	Returns the file name and extension of a file path that is represented by a read-only character span.
GetFileName(String)	Returns the file name and extension of the specified path string.

GetFileName(ReadOnlySpan<Char>)

Source:

Path.cs

Returns the file name and extension of a file path that is represented by a read-only character span.

public:
 static ReadOnlySpan<char> GetFileName(ReadOnlySpan<char> path);

public static ReadOnlySpan<char> GetFileName (ReadOnlySpan<char> path);

static member GetFileName : ReadOnlySpan<char> -> ReadOnlySpan<char>

Public Shared Function GetFileName (path As ReadOnlySpan(Of Char)) As ReadOnlySpan(Of Char)

Parameters

path

ReadOnlySpan<Char>

A read-only span that contains the path from which to obtain the file name and extension.

Returns

ReadOnlySpan<Char>

The characters after the last directory separator character in path.

Remarks

The returned read-only span contains the characters of the path that follow the last separator in path. If the last character in path is a volume or directory separator character, the method returns ReadOnlySpan<T>.Empty. If path contains no separator character, the method returns path.

See also

• File path formats on Windows systems

GetFileName(String)

Source:

Path.cs

Returns the file name and extension of the specified path string.

public:
 static System::String ^ GetFileName(System::String ^ path);

public static string? GetFileName (string? path);

static member GetFileName : string -> string

Public Shared Function GetFileName (path As String) As String

Parameters

path

String

The path string from which to obtain the file name and extension.

Returns

String

The characters after the last directory separator character in path. If the last character of path is a directory or volume separator character, this method returns Empty. If path is null, this method returns null.

Exceptions

ArgumentException

.NET Framework and .NET Core versions older than 2.1: path contains one or more of the invalid characters defined in GetInvalidPathChars().

Examples

The following example demonstrates the behavior of the GetFileName method on a Windows-based desktop platform.

String^ fileName = "C:\\mydir\\myfile.ext";
String^ path = "C:\\mydir\\";
String^ result;
result = Path::GetFileName( fileName );
Console::WriteLine( "GetFileName('{0}') returns '{1}'", fileName, result );
result = Path::GetFileName( path );
Console::WriteLine( "GetFileName('{0}') returns '{1}'", path, result );

// This code produces output similar to the following:
//
// GetFileName('C:\mydir\myfile.ext') returns 'myfile.ext'
// GetFileName('C:\mydir\') returns ''

string fileName = @"C:\mydir\myfile.ext";
string path = @"C:\mydir\";
string result;

result = Path.GetFileName(fileName);
Console.WriteLine("GetFileName('{0}') returns '{1}'",
    fileName, result);

result = Path.GetFileName(path);
Console.WriteLine("GetFileName('{0}') returns '{1}'",
    path, result);

// This code produces output similar to the following:
//
// GetFileName('C:\mydir\myfile.ext') returns 'myfile.ext'
// GetFileName('C:\mydir\') returns ''

Dim fileName As String = "C:\mydir\myfile.ext"
Dim pathname As String = "C:\mydir\"
Dim result As String

result = Path.GetFileName(fileName)
Console.WriteLine("GetFileName('{0}') returns '{1}'", fileName, result)

result = Path.GetFileName(pathname)
Console.WriteLine("GetFileName('{0}') returns '{1}'", pathname, result)

' This code produces output similar to the following:
'
' GetFileName('C:\mydir\myfile.ext') returns 'myfile.ext'
' GetFileName('C:\mydir\') returns ''

Remarks

The returned value is null if the file path is null.

The separator characters used to determine the start of the file name are DirectorySeparatorChar and AltDirectorySeparatorChar.

Because \ is a legal file name on Unix, GetFileName running under Unix-based platforms cannot correctly return the file name from a Windows-based path like C:\mydir\myfile.ext, but GetFileName running under Windows-based platforms can correctly return the file name from a Unix-based path like /tmp/myfile.ext, so the behavior of the GetFileName method is not strictly the same on Unix-based and Windows-based platforms.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.

See also

• File path formats on Windows systems
• File and Stream I/O
• How to: Read Text from a File
• How to: Write Text to a File