Regular expression to remove a file's extension

Question

I am in need of a regular expression that can remove the extension of a filename, returning only the name of the file.

Here are some examples of inputs and outputs:<

Answer 1

/^(.+)(\.[^ .]+)?$/

Test cases where this works and others fail:

• ".htaccess" (leading period)
• "file" (no file extension)
• "send to mrs." (no extension, but ends in abbr.)
• "version 1.2 of project" (no extension, yet still contains a period)

The common thread above is, of course, "malformed" file extensions. But you always have to think about those corner cases. :P

Test cases where this fails:

• "version 1.2" (no file extension, but "appears" to have one)
• "name.tar.gz" (if you view this as a "compound extension" and wanted it split into "name" and ".tar.gz")

How to handle these is problematic and best decided on a project-specific basis.