Adding "_old" to a file name

This is a trivial problem. The reason I'm here is to get a better idea of how to use Java's numerous APIs for working with files, folders, and paths. I'm hoping this specific example will help.

Problem Statement

I want to rename a file like this:


/path/to/myFile.txt

to this:


/path/to/myFile_old.txt

Ugly Solution

I've been trying to find a concise way to do this, and this is the best I can come up with:

Files.move(
        Paths.get(file),
        Paths.get("/" + FilenameUtils.getPath(file) + FilenameUtils.getBaseName(file) + "_old" + FilenameUtils.getExtension(file)));

It works, which is why I'm not on Stack Overflow, but

• It's not portable because of the hardcoded "/".

• It's really cumbersome -- specifically I don't like how verbose org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils is, and how I have to convert my Strings to Paths with Paths.get.

I've looked at using java.io.File or java.nio.file.Paths.resolve... but I haven't found anything tidy.

I think that the approach of the question lacks only a better usage of the API of java.nio.file.Path.

Using the old java.io.File seems very ugly nowadays, when we have java.nio.*, where all the stuff like file separators is supported much better.

// ...
String originalFile = "/path/to/myFile.txt";
Path originalPath = Paths.get(originalFile);
String backupFileName = buildBackupFileName(originalPath.getFileName().toString());
Path backupPath = originalPath.getParent().resolve(backupFileName);
Files.move(originalPath, backupPath); // add options if necessary
// ...

private static String buildBackupFileName(String fileName) {
  String backupSuffix = "_old"; // or move it in a static constant 
  int lastDotIndex = fileName.lastIndexOf(".");
  if (lastDotIndex > -1) {
    return fileName.substring(0, lastDotIndex) + backupSuffix + fileName.substring(lastDotIndex);
  }
  return fileName + backupSuffix;
}

Other ways to build the backup file name: use StringBuilder or String.format, with or without the above FilenameUtils.

StackExchange Code Review Q#110720, answer score: 4