Getting suffix of filename in /bin/sh script.

[matt robinson]

What would be the fastest method of parsing the suffix off of a 
filename?  Say, I have filename.c, and I want to check for the
.c portion?  (I have multiple files I want, not just .c, so I
need to know what the suffix is in order to choose a compiler.)
I would appreciate any information from anyone.  Please E-mail,
and if people would like, I can compose a list and post to this
newsgroup.  Thanks!

Matt Robinson -- yakker at ucrmath.ucr.edu -- ..!{uci,ucsd}!ucrmath!yakker