How to get File Created Date and Modified Date

Question

I have an .NET EXE file . I want to find the file created date and modified date in C# application. Can do it through reflection or with IO stream?

Have a look at the `File` class, should't be that hard: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.file.aspx — Max, Apr 23 '14 at 11:48

score 180 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:51

180

You could use below code:

DateTime creation = File.GetCreationTime(@"C:\test.txt");
DateTime modification = File.GetLastWriteTime(@"C:\test.txt");

answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:51

waitefudge

3

if i want to know the same thing with file bytes. how could it be? – Zaheer Ul Hassan Oct 17 '17 at 07:50
6

Note--if it comes back with a minimum date it's probably because the file doesn't exist/invalid path, etc. (It doesn't throw an exception) – Jeff Jul 04 '19 at 18:15

score 49 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:47

49

You can do that using FileInfo class:

FileInfo fi = new FileInfo("path");
var created = fi.CreationTime;
var lastmodified = fi.LastWriteTime;

answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:47

Selman Genç

Per the link, "If you are performing multiple operations on the same file, it can be more efficient to use FileInfo instance methods instead of the corresponding static methods of the File class, because a security check will not always be necessary." – VoteCoffee Feb 12 '20 at 18:23

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:48

9

File.CreationTime to get Created time

answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:48

Sajeetharan

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:48

7

Use :

FileInfo fInfo = new FileInfo('FilePath');
var fFirstTime = fInfo.CreationTime;
var fLastTime = fInfo.LastWriteTime;

answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:48

These things don't stand alone. The are part of a class. Which class? – David Heffernan Apr 23 '14 at 11:50
The SystemIO class – stuicidle Jun 27 '18 at 12:48

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:52

Returns the date and time the specified file or directory was last written to.

string path = @"c:\Temp\MyTest.txt";
DateTime dt = File.GetLastWriteTime(path);

For create time File.GetCreationTime Method

DateTime fileCreatedDate = File.GetCreationTime(@"C:\Example\MyTest.txt");
Console.WriteLine("file created: " + fileCreatedDate);

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:50

4

You can use this code to see the last modified date of a file.

DateTime dt = File.GetLastWriteTime(path);

And this code to see the creation time.

DateTime fileCreatedDate = File.GetCreationTime(@"C:\Example\MyTest.txt");

answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:50

markieo

just remember, there is a bug going back to the 90s in NTFS - windows OS gui - that mixes the created date with the modified date (ever wonder why they never fixed it?) – MC9000 Jan 18 '22 at 00:45

6 Answers6