We often need to access various file properties for a different purposes. Among the file properties, the creation and modification time of a file are most commonly used ones. We can achieve the same functionality and use it for various utility purpose, using multiple methods. Some of the methods of doing this are discussed below.
Using time module to get file creation & modification date or time in Python
We will use getctime() and getmtime() function, found inside the path module in the os library, for getting the creation and modification times of the file. Both the above functions return time in seconds since EPOCH (00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970) (time is of float datatype). Since that number doesn’t resemble an understandable timestamp, we would have to convert that time, i.e. it becomes recognizable. For that purpose, we would be using ctime() function found inside the time library.
Example 1: Converting the time in seconds to a timestamp
The timestamp of the above code has the following format qualifiers –
[Day](3) [Month](3) [day](2) [Hours:Minutes:Seconds](8) [Year](4)
Python3
import osimport time# Path to the file/directorypath = "myfile.txt"# Both the variables would contain time# elapsed since EPOCH in floatti_c = os.path.getctime(path)ti_m = os.path.getmtime(path)# Converting the time in seconds to a timestampc_ti = time.ctime(ti_c)m_ti = time.ctime(ti_m)print(f"The file located at the path {path} \was created at {c_ti} and was " f"last modified at {m_ti}") |
Output:
The file located at the path myfile.txt was created at Mon Jun 27 14:16:30 2022 and was last modified at Thu Jul 7 16:25:52 2022
Where the word inside the bracket is the cue for what is being displayed, and the number following it within the parenthesis displays the length it will occupy.
Example 2: Timestamp in ISO 8601 format
By default, the ctime() function would return a timestamp of the aforementioned syntax. In order to change it, we would have to pass it to strptime() function (also found inside the time library) to create a time structure (object) out of it. Then we can pass format specifiers to strftime(), to create a custom timestamp out of the time structure. In the following code, we will be getting the modification time of the same file in ISO 8601 timestamp format.
Python3
import osimport timepath = r"myfile.txt"ti_m = os.path.getmtime(path)m_ti = time.ctime(ti_m)# Using the timestamp string to create a# time object/structuret_obj = time.strptime(m_ti)# Transforming the time object to a timestamp# of ISO 8601 formatT_stamp = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", t_obj)print(f"The file located at the path {path} was last modified at {T_stamp}") |
Output:
The file located at the path myfile.txt was last modified at 2022-07-07 16:25:52
Using the datetime module Get file creation & modification date or time in Python
Classes for working with date and time are provided by the Python datetime module. Numerous capabilities to deal with dates, times, and time intervals are provided by these classes. Python treats date and datetime as objects, so when you work with them, you’re really working with objects rather than strings or timestamps.
Example 1: Get Create And Modification Time Of a File Using os.path.getmtime
Python’s os.path module, a submodule of the OS module, is used to manipulate common path names. Python’s os.path.getmtime() method can be used to determine when the given path was last modified.
Python3
import datetimeimport ospath = r"myfile.txt"# file modificationtimestamp = os.path.getmtime(path)# convert timestamp into DateTime objectdatestamp = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp)print('Modified Date/Time:', datestamp)# file creationc_timestamp = os.path.getctime(path)# convert creation timestamp into DateTime objectc_datestamp = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(c_timestamp)print('Created Date/Time on:', c_datestamp) |
Output:
Modified Date/Time: 2022-07-07 16:25:52.490759 Created Date/Time on: 2022-06-27 14:16:30.123721
Example 2: Get Create And Modification Time Of a File Using pathlib.Path
os.path module is a submodule of the os module in Python used for common path name manipulation. Return an os.stat result object, similar to os.stat, that contains details about this path.
Python3
import datetimeimport pathlib# create a file pathpath = pathlib.Path(r'myfile.txt')# get modification timetimestamp = path.stat().st_mtime# convert time to dd-mm-yyyy hh:mm:ssm_time = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp)print('Modified Date/Time:', m_time)# get creation time on windowscurrent_timestamp = path.stat().st_ctimec_time = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(current_timestamp)print('Created Date/Time on:', c_time) |
Output:
Modified Date/Time: 2022-07-07 16:25:52.490759 Created Date/Time on: 2022-06-27 14:16:30.123721
