Author: Jonas Bilinkevicius

How to get the date a file was created

Answer:

Solve 1:

1   uses
2     Windows, Systutils;
3   
4   function GetFileCreateDate(TheFile: string): TDateTime;
5   var
6     SearchRec: TSearchRec;
7     DT: TFileTime;
8     ST: TSystemTime;
9   begin
10    Result := 0;
11    try
12      if (FindFirst(TheFile, faAnyFile, SearchRec) = 0) then
13      begin
14        FileTimeToLocalFileTime(SearchRec.FindData.ftCreationTime, DT);
15        FileTimeToSystemTime(DT, ST);
16        Result := EncodeDate(st.wYear, st.wMonth, st.wDay) +
17          EncodeTime(st.wHour, st.wMinute, st.wSecond, 0);
18      end;
19    finally
20      FindClose(SearchRec);
21    end;
22  end;



Solve 2:
23  
24  {This function returns the file creation timestamp of the specified file.
25  Uses-clause order dependency: if "Windows" is used, it must come before "SysUtils".}
26  
27  function GetFileCreationTimestamp(const FileName: string): TDateTime;
28  var
29    SearchRec: TSearchRec;
30  begin
31    if (FindFirst(Filename, faAnyfile, SearchRec) = 0) then
32    begin
33      FindClose(SearchRec);
34      if ((SearchRec.FindData.dwFileAttributes and FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY) = 0) then
35        Result := UTCFileTimeToLocalTimestamp(SearchRec.FindData.ftCreationTime)
36      else
37        raise Exception.Create('GetFileCreationTimestamp: File is a directory.');
38    end
39    else
40      raise Exception.Create('GetFileCreationTimestamp: File does not exist.');
41  end;
42  
43  {This function converts a TFileTime in UTC to a TDateTime for the local time zone.}
44  
45  function UTCFileTimeToLocalTimestamp(const UTCFileTime: TFileTime): TDateTime;
46  var
47    LocalFileTime: TFileTime;
48    FATDateTime: LongInt;
49  begin
50    if (FileTimeToLocalFileTime(UTCFileTime, LocalFileTime)) then
51      if (FileTimeToDosDateTime(LocalFileTime, LongRec(FATDateTime).Hi,
52        LongRec(FATDateTime).Lo)) then
53        Result := FileDateToDateTime(FATDateTime)
54      else
55        raise
56          Exception.Create('UTCFileTimeToLocalTimestamp: Timestamp conversion error.')
57    else
58      raise Exception.Create('UTCFileTimeToLocalTimestamp: Timestamp conversion 
59  error.'
60  end;



Solve 3:
61  
62  function FileTimeToLocalDateTime(filetime: TFileTime): TDatetime;
63  var
64    LocalFileTime: TFileTime;
65    dostime: Longint;
66  begin
67    FileTimeToLocalFileTime(filetime, LocalFileTime);
68    if FileTimeToDosDateTime(LocalFileTime, LongRec(dostime).Hi, LongRec(dostime).Lo)
69      then
70      Result := FiledateToDatetime(dostime)
71    else
72      Result := 0.0;
73  end;
74  
75  procedure GetFileTimes(filename: string; var creationtime, lastaccesstime,
76    lastwritetime: TDateTime);
77  var
78    srec: TSearchRec;
79  begin
80    if FindFirst(filename, faAnyfile, Srec) = 0 then
81    try
82      with SRec.FindData do
83      begin
84        creationtime := FileTimeToLocalDateTime(ftCreationTime);
85        lastaccesstime := FileTimeToLocalDateTime(ftLastAccessTime);
86        lastwritetime := FileTimeToLocalDateTime(ftLastWriteTime);
87      end;
88    finally
89      FindClose(SRec);
90    end
91    else
92      raise Exception.Create('File %s not found!', [filename]);
93  end;


You get from a TDatetime to string via Format, FormatDatetime, DateTimeToStr etc..