File.GetCreationTime Method

Note
This method may return an inaccurate value, because it uses native functions whose values may not be continuously updated by the operating system.

The path parameter is permitted to specify relative or absolute path information. Relative path information is interpreted as relative to the current working directory. To obtain the current working directory, see GetCurrentDirectory.

If the file described in the path parameter does not exist, this method returns 12:00 midnight, January 1, 1601 A.D. (C.E.) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), adjusted to local time.

NTFS-formatted drives may cache information about a file, such as file creation time, for a short period of time. As a result, it may be necessary to explicitly set the creation time of a file if you are overwriting or replacing an existing file.

For a list of common I/O tasks, see Common I/O Tasks.

The following example demonstrates GetCreationTime.

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            DateTime fileCreatedDate = File.GetCreationTime(@"C:\Example\MyTest.txt");
            Console.WriteLine("file created: " + fileCreatedDate);
	    }
    }
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

• FileIOPermission 

  for reading from the specified file. Associated enumeration: FileIOPermissionAccess.Read

Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference

Other Resources