Get File Time [C#]

This example shows how to get file time informations, when any file was created, last modified or accessed. To get file datetime info you can use either static methods of File class or instance methods of FileInfo class.

Get file times using File class

Use File class when you want to get just one specific time, for example if you are only interested in a file last modification time. To do this use static method File.GetLastWriteTime with file path as a parameter. File class also provides static methods to get file creation time or file last access time. You can also get this times in UTC, e.g. to get file last write time in UTC use File.GetLastWriteTimeUtc.

[C#]

// local times
DateTime creationTime = File.GetCreationTime(@"c:\file.txt");
DateTime lastWriteTime = File.GetLastWriteTime(@"c:\file.txt");
DateTime lastAccessTime = File.GetLastAccessTime(@"c:\file.txt");

// UTC times
DateTime creationTimeUtc = File.GetCreationTimeUtc(@"c:\file.txt");
DateTime lastWriteTimeUtc = File.GetLastWriteTimeUtc(@"c:\file.txt");
DateTime lastAccessTimeUtc = File.GetLastAccessTimeUtc(@"c:\file.txt");

// write file last modification time (local / UTC)
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTime);     // 9/30/2007 2:16:04 PM
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTimeUtc);  // 9/30/2007 6:16:04 PM

Get file times using FileInfo class

Use instance of FileInfo class when you want to get more than one file time or any other informations about the file (like file attributes). Advantage is that you will get all needed informations just in one disk access. See following example.

[C#]

FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo(@"c:\file.txt");

// local times
DateTime creationTime = fileInfo.CreationTime;
DateTime lastWriteTime = fileInfo.LastWriteTime;
DateTime lastAccessTime = fileInfo.LastAccessTime;

// UTC times
DateTime creationTimeUtc = fileInfo.CreationTimeUtc;
DateTime lastWriteTimeUtc = fileInfo.LastWriteTimeUtc;
DateTime lastAccessTimeUtc = fileInfo.LastAccessTimeUtc;

// write file last modification time (local / UTC)
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTime);     // 9/30/2007 2:16:04 PM
Console.WriteLine(lastWriteTimeUtc);  // 9/30/2007 6:16:04 PM

Files and Folders Examples

[C#] FileStream Open File – how to open file using file stream
[C#] FileStream Read File – how to safely read file stream
[C#] Read Text File – how to read lines from text file
[C#] Load Text File to String – how to load text from file to string
[C#] Get Files from Directory – how to get files from directory
[C#] Delete All Files – how to delete files from the specified directory
[C#] Get Application Directory – how to get application or assembly folder
[C#] File Attributes – how to get or set file attributes
[C#] Get File Time – how to get last modification time of a file
[C#] Open File With Associated Application – how to launch the default application

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Get File Time [C#]

Get file times using File class

Get file times using FileInfo class

Files and Folders Examples

See also