Changing file extension in Python

Question

Suppose from index.py with CGI, I have post file foo.fasta to display file. I want to change foo.fasta's file extension to be foo.aln in display file. How can I do it?

Answer 1

os.path.splitext(), os.rename()

for example:

# renamee is the file getting renamed, pre is the part of file name before extension and ext is current extension
pre, ext = os.path.splitext(renamee)
os.rename(renamee, pre + new_extension)

Answer 2

import os
thisFile = "mysequence.fasta"
base = os.path.splitext(thisFile)[0]
os.rename(thisFile, base + ".aln")

Where thisFile = the absolute path of the file you are changing

Answer 3

An elegant way using pathlib.Path:

from pathlib import Path
p = Path('mysequence.fasta')
p.rename(p.with_suffix('.aln'))

Answer 4

Starting from Python 3.4 there's pathlib built-in library. So the code could be something like:

from pathlib import Path

filename = "mysequence.fasta"
new_filename = Path(filename).stem + ".aln"

https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/pathlib.html#pathlib.PurePath.stem

I love pathlib :)

Answer 5

Use this:

os.path.splitext("name.fasta")[0]+".aln"

And here is how the above works:

The splitext method separates the name from the extension creating a tuple:

os.path.splitext("name.fasta")

the created tuple now contains the strings "name" and "fasta". Then you need to access only the string "name" which is the first element of the tuple:

os.path.splitext("name.fasta")[0]

And then you want to add a new extension to that name:

os.path.splitext("name.fasta")[0]+".aln"

Answer 6

Using pathlib and preserving full path:

from pathlib import Path
p = Path('/User/my/path')
new_p = Path(p.parent.as_posix() + '/' + p.stem + '.aln')