Get date and time of a file

Hi,

Would anyone help me on how do I get the date & time of a file ? Had tried the API "GetFileTime" example, but failed to get it run.

The first try I have got the error of "user-defined type may not passed by ByVal".

I am new to VB, and would like to know what is the different between using the VB code "FileDateTime" and using the API function.

Do you have something similar to this?

Code:

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Public Declare Function GetFileTime ........ ByVal lpszFileTime as FILETIME) As Long

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If so, take out the ByVal part before the lpszFileTime as FILETIME part and it should run (hopefully). The reason for this error is a bit obvious, User Defined Types (in the case FILETIME) can't be passed as a value, because it holds more than one (dwLowFileTime and dwHighFileTime). I think that's right I dunno.

Thanks.
Do I need to use the "CreateFile" to open the file before I need to do use the "GetFileTime" ? If I look at the example, it seems like it involves more than one API function in order to get the date & time of the file.

Yeah that's correct, have a look at my module (or part of it):

Code:

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'Module START
Declare Function CreateFile Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "CreateFileA" (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal dwShareMode As Long, lpSecurityAttributes As Any, ByVal dwCreationDisposition As Long, ByVal dwFlagsAndAttributes As Long, ByVal hTemplateFile As Long) As Long
Declare Function FileTimeToSystemTime Lib "kernel32.dll" (lpFileTime As FileTime, lpSystemTime As SystemTime) As Long
Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Declare Function GetFileTime Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal hFile As Long, lpCreationTime As FileTime, lpLastAccessTime As FileTime, lpLastWriteTime As FileTime) As Long

Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE = &H20
Public Const OPEN_EXISTING = 3
Public Const GENERIC_READ = &H80000000
Public Const GENERIC_WRITE = &H40000000
Public Const FILE_SHARE_READ = &H1
Public Const FILE_SHARE_WRITE = &H2
'Module END

Public Function GetFileTimeB(strFileName As String)
Dim sysTime As SystemTime
Dim filTime(2) As FileTime
Dim FinalString As String
Dim hFile As Long

hFile = CreateFile(strFileName, GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ, ByVal CLng(0), OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE, 0)

If hFile = -1 Then
 'File couldn't be opened.
 Exit Function
End If

GetFileTime hFile, filTime(0), filTime(1), filTime(2)

FileTimeToSystemTime filTime(0), sysTime 'Will only get Creation time.  If you want Last Modified or Accessed, replace filTime(0) with filTime(1) or filTime(2)

FinalString = Format(sysTime.wHour & ":" & sysTime.wMinute & ":" & sysTime.wSecond, "hh:mm:ss") & ";  "
FinalString = FinalString & Format(sysTime.wDay & "/" & sysTime.wMonth & "/" & sysTime.wYear, "dddd dd, mmmm yyyy")

GetFileTimeB = FinalString

CloseHandle hFile        'NEVER FORGET THIS!
End Function

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim strString As String
strString = "C:\WINDOWS\SNDVOL32.EXE"

lblCreated.Caption = GetFileTimeB strString
End Sub

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If all goes well, then lblCreated.Caption should equal a date, a readable one. If it fails, I'll e-mail you my project and you can work it out from that. It's not too complicated.

it works as I am trying to run on the new project. I have got few few question below;

i) Is the constant compulsory to be there ?
ii) the time has been all the while 4 hours different from time the file was created.

The project I am working on requires me to always monitor the interval of the file in a server since it was last modified. Any recommendation ?

Thanks.