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Home Interviews How can you determine the creation time or last modified time of a file? – MindStick
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1 Answers

ICSM Computer
ICSM Computer 07 May 2025
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In C#, you can determine the creation time, last modified time, and last access time of a file using the File.GetCreationTime, File.GetLastWriteTime, and File.GetLastAccessTime methods from the System.IO namespace.

Example: Get file timestamps

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string filePath = @"C:\example.txt";

        DateTime created = File.GetCreationTime(filePath);
        DateTime modified = File.GetLastWriteTime(filePath);
        DateTime accessed = File.GetLastAccessTime(filePath);

        Console.WriteLine("Created: " + created);
        Console.WriteLine("Last Modified: " + modified);
        Console.WriteLine("Last Accessed: " + accessed);
    }
}

UTC versions (for consistency across time zones)

  1. File.GetCreationTimeUtc(filePath)
  2. File.GetLastWriteTimeUtc(filePath)
  3. File.GetLastAccessTimeUtc(filePath)

You can also set these times using:

  1. File.SetCreationTime(filePath, DateTime.Now)
  2. File.SetLastWriteTime(...)
  3. File.SetLastAccessTime(...)

Lists timestamps for all files in a folder?

C# example that lists the creation time, last modified time, and last accessed time for all files in a directory:

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string folderPath = @"C:\MyFolder"; // Change to your target folder

        if (Directory.Exists(folderPath))
        {
            string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(folderPath);

            foreach (string file in files)
            {
                DateTime created = File.GetCreationTime(file);
                DateTime modified = File.GetLastWriteTime(file);
                DateTime accessed = File.GetLastAccessTime(file);

                Console.WriteLine("File: " + Path.GetFileName(file));
                Console.WriteLine("  Created      : " + created);
                Console.WriteLine("  Last Modified: " + modified);
                Console.WriteLine("  Last Accessed: " + accessed);
                Console.WriteLine();
            }
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Directory not found: " + folderPath);
        }
    }
}

Optional: Recursively include subfolders

Replace:

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(folderPath);

With:

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(folderPath, "*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

This way, you get file timestamps for all files including subdirectories.

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