How to get type of file?

Question

I'm trying to find a package which would recognise file type. For example

final path = "/some/path/to/file/file.jpg";

should be recognised as image or

final path = "/some/path/to/file/file.doc";

should be recognised as document

Answer 1

You can make use of the mime package from the Dart team to extract the MIME types from file names:

import 'package:mime/mime.dart';

final mimeType = lookupMimeType('/some/path/to/file/file.jpg'); // 'image/jpeg'

Helper functions

If you want to know whether a file path represents an image, you can create a function like this:

import 'package:mime/mime.dart';

bool isImage(String path) {
  final mimeType = lookupMimeType(path);

  return mimeType.startsWith('image/');
}

Likewise, if you want to know if a path represents a document, you can write a function like this:

import 'package:mime/mime.dart';

bool isDocument(String path) {
  final mimeType = lookupMimeType(path);

  return mimeType == 'application/msword';
}

---

You can find lists of MIME types at IANA or look at the extension map in the mime package.

From file headers

With the mime package, you can even check against header bytes of a file:

final mimeType = lookupMimeType('image_without_extension', headerBytes: [0xFF, 0xD8]); // jpeg