import time
mylist = ['sadasda.asdad']*10000000
start_time = time.clock()
[ x[:x.rfind('.')] for x in mylist ]
print(time.clock() - start_time, "seconds rfind")
start_time = time.clock()
[ x.split('.')[0] for x in mylist]
print(time.clock() - start_time, "seconds split")
3.5121710000000004 seconds rfind
3.4531870000000002 seconds split