Directory.GetCreationTime(String) Method

Definition

Gets the creation date and time of a directory.

public static DateTime GetCreationTime (string path);

Parameters

path
String

The path of the directory.

Returns

A structure that is set to the creation date and time for the specified directory. This value is expressed in local time.

Exceptions

The caller does not have the required permission.

.NET Framework and .NET Core versions older than 2.1: path is a zero-length string, contains only white space, or contains one or more invalid characters. You can query for invalid characters by using the GetInvalidPathChars() method.

path is null.

The specified path, file name, or both exceed the system-defined maximum length.

Examples

The following example gets the creation time of the specified directory.

using System;
using System.IO;

class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        try
        {
            // Get the creation time of a well-known directory.
            DateTime dt = Directory.GetCreationTime(Environment.CurrentDirectory);

            // Give feedback to the user.
            if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(dt).TotalDays > 364)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("This directory is over a year old.");
            }
            else if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(dt).TotalDays > 30)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("This directory is over a month old.");
            }
            else if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(dt).TotalDays <= 1)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("This directory is less than a day old.");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("This directory was created on {0}", dt);
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString());
        }
    }
}

Remarks

Note

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

This method is equivalent to File.GetCreationTime.

If the directory 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.

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.

The case-sensitivity of the path parameter corresponds to that of the file system on which the code is running. For example, it's case-insensitive on NTFS (the default Windows file system) and case-sensitive on Linux file systems.

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

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also