在不使用任何库的情况下，你可以使用String方法，如下所示:

        String[] splits = fileNames.get(i).split("\\.");

        String extension = "";

        if(splits.length >= 2)
        {
            extension = splits[splits.length-1];
        }

下面是一个正确处理.tar.gz的方法，即使是在目录名中有点的路径中:

private static final String getExtension(final String filename) {
  if (filename == null) return null;
  final String afterLastSlash = filename.substring(filename.lastIndexOf('/') + 1);
  final int afterLastBackslash = afterLastSlash.lastIndexOf('\\') + 1;
  final int dotIndex = afterLastSlash.indexOf('.', afterLastBackslash);
  return (dotIndex == -1) ? "" : afterLastSlash.substring(dotIndex + 1);
}

创建afterLastSlash是为了更快地查找afterLastBackslash，因为如果字符串中有一些斜杠，它就不必搜索整个字符串。

原始String中的char[]被重用，没有在那里添加垃圾，JVM可能会注意到afterLastSlash立即是垃圾，以便将其放在堆栈而不是堆上。

如果你在项目中使用Spring框架，那么你可以使用StringUtils

import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;

StringUtils.getFilenameExtension("YourFileName")

从文件名获取文件扩展名

/**
 * The extension separator character.
 */
private static final char EXTENSION_SEPARATOR = '.';

/**
 * The Unix separator character.
 */
private static final char UNIX_SEPARATOR = '/';

/**
 * The Windows separator character.
 */
private static final char WINDOWS_SEPARATOR = '\\';

/**
 * The system separator character.
 */
private static final char SYSTEM_SEPARATOR = File.separatorChar;

/**
 * Gets the extension of a filename.
 * <p>
 * This method returns the textual part of the filename after the last dot.
 * There must be no directory separator after the dot.
 * <pre>
 * foo.txt      --> "txt"
 * a/b/c.jpg    --> "jpg"
 * a/b.txt/c    --> ""
 * a/b/c        --> ""
 * </pre>
 * <p>
 * The output will be the same irrespective of the machine that the code is running on.
 *
 * @param filename the filename to retrieve the extension of.
 * @return the extension of the file or an empty string if none exists.
 */
public static String getExtension(String filename) {
    if (filename == null) {
        return null;
    }
    int index = indexOfExtension(filename);
    if (index == -1) {
        return "";
    } else {
        return filename.substring(index + 1);
    }
}

/**
 * Returns the index of the last extension separator character, which is a dot.
 * <p>
 * This method also checks that there is no directory separator after the last dot.
 * To do this it uses {@link #indexOfLastSeparator(String)} which will
 * handle a file in either Unix or Windows format.
 * <p>
 * The output will be the same irrespective of the machine that the code is running on.
 *
 * @param filename  the filename to find the last path separator in, null returns -1
 * @return the index of the last separator character, or -1 if there
 * is no such character
 */
public static int indexOfExtension(String filename) {
    if (filename == null) {
        return -1;
    }
    int extensionPos = filename.lastIndexOf(EXTENSION_SEPARATOR);
    int lastSeparator = indexOfLastSeparator(filename);
    return (lastSeparator > extensionPos ? -1 : extensionPos);
}

/**
 * Returns the index of the last directory separator character.
 * <p>
 * This method will handle a file in either Unix or Windows format.
 * The position of the last forward or backslash is returned.
 * <p>
 * The output will be the same irrespective of the machine that the code is running on.
 *
 * @param filename  the filename to find the last path separator in, null returns -1
 * @return the index of the last separator character, or -1 if there
 * is no such character
 */
public static int indexOfLastSeparator(String filename) {
    if (filename == null) {
        return -1;
    }
    int lastUnixPos = filename.lastIndexOf(UNIX_SEPARATOR);
    int lastWindowsPos = filename.lastIndexOf(WINDOWS_SEPARATOR);
    return Math.max(lastUnixPos, lastWindowsPos);
}

学分

复制自Apache FileNameUtils Class - http://grepcode.com/file/repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-io/commons-io/1.3.2/org/apache/commons/io/FilenameUtils.java#FilenameUtils.getExtension%28java.lang.String%29

Java 20 EA

从Java 20 EA(早期访问)开始，终于有了一个新方法Path#getExtension，它将扩展名作为字符串返回:

Paths.get("/Users/admin/notes.txt").getExtension();              // "txt"
Paths.get("/Users/admin/.gitconfig").getExtension();             // "gitconfig"
Paths.get("/Users/admin/configuration.xml.zip").getExtension();  // "zip"
Paths.get("/Users/admin/file").getExtension();                   // null

如何(使用Java 1.5 RegEx):

    String[] split = fullFileName.split("\\.");
    String ext = split[split.length - 1];