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PowerShell cmdLet Split-Path

The split-path cmdLet allows to select parts such as directories, filenames or extensions from a path.

Unlike resolve-path, split-path also returns a value if the specified path does not point to an existing directory or file.

The type of the returned value is a string. Its value depends on the option that is passed to split-path.

If the path drive:\dirOne\dirTwo\file.ext is used in split-path, the following parts of the path are returned:

Option used	Returned value	Comment
	`drive:\dirOne\dirTwo`	The directory in which a file is located, or a directory's parent directory
`-parent`	`drive:\dirOne\dirTwo`	Requires PowerShell 6 or later
`-leaf`	`file.ext`
`-leafBase`	`file`	Requires PowerShell 6 or later
`-extension`	`.ext`	Note that it also returns the dot. Requires PowerShell 6 or later
`-qualifier`	`drive:`
`-noQualifier`	`\dirOne\dirTwo\file.ext`
`-isAbsolute`	`$true`	Compare with the static method `IsPathRooted()` of the .NET class `System.IO.Path`

PowerShell 5.1: extract file base name or extension

PowerShell 5.1 does not have the -leafBase or extension option. But it is still possible to get a file's base name or extension.

The following statement uses the -replace operator to apply a regular expression that returns a file's base name, here: ghi.

(split-path /abc/def/ghi.txt -leaf )  -replace '\.[^.]*$'

Similarly, the following statement returns the extension, however, unlike -extension, without a dot (that is: txt).

(split-path /abc/def/ghi.txt -leaf )  -replace '[^.]+\.'

In order to also return the dot, the following statement can be used:

(split-path /abc/def/ghi.txt -leaf )  -replace '.*(\.[^.]+)$', '$1'

Test script

These results of the result table were obtained with the following test script:

$path = 'drive:\dirOne\dirTwo\file.ext'

#  Get directory that contains the path:
#
split-path $path
#
#  drive:\dirOne\dirTwo

#
#  Get parent directory. In case of
#  files, get directory in which file is
#  located
#
split-path $path -parent
#
#  drive:\dirOne\dirTwo

#  Get parent directory's parent directory
#
split-path (split-path $path -parent) -parent
#
#  drive:\dirOne

#  Get file name only:
#
split-path $path -leaf
#
#  file.ext

#  Get file's extension (requires Powershell 6)
#
split-path $path -extension
#
#  .ext

#  Get file name without extension:
#
#    -leafBase requires PowerShell 6.
#     Use [IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($path)
#     in earlier versions.
#
split-path $path -leafBase
#
#  file

#  Check if path is absolute:
#
split-path $path -isAbsolute
#
#  True

#  Get drive of path:
#
split-path $path -qualifier
#
#  drive:

#  Get entire path without drive:
#
split-path $path -noQualifier
#
#  \dirOne\dirTwo\file.ext

Github repository about-PowerShell, path: /cmdlets/path/split/go.ps1

PowerShell cmdLet Split-Path

PowerShell 5.1: extract file base name or extension

Test script

See also