Document Classification using File Names

Rapid document classification is critical in several time-sensitive applications like digital forensics and large-scale media classification. Traditional approaches that rely on heavy-duty deep learning models fall short due to high inference times over vast input datasets and computational resources associated with analyzing whole documents. In this paper, we present a method using lightweight supervised learning models, combined with a TF-IDF feature extraction-based tokenization method, to accurately and efficiently classify documents based solely on file names, that substantially reduces inference time. Our results indicate that file name classifiers can process more than 90% of in-scope documents with 99.63% and 96.57% accuracy when tested on two datasets, while being 442x faster than more complex models such as DiT. Our method offers a crucial solution to efficiently process vast document datasets in critical scenarios, enabling fast and more reliable document classification.