Hello all
I found at www.allapi.net a sample of "GetFileInformationByHandle" API function. Seem useful because returns a lot of info by a single API declaration. It uses a FILETIME type to return the creation date value. Here is the code:

Private Const OPEN_EXISTING = 3 Private Type FILETIME     dwLowDateTime As Long     dwHighDateTime As Long End Type Private Type BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION     dwFileAttributes As Long     ftCreationTime As FILETIME     ftLastAccessTime As FILETIME     ftLastWriteTime As FILETIME     dwVolumeSerialNumber As Long     nFileSizeHigh As Long     nFileSizeLow As Long     nNumberOfLinks As Long     nFileIndexHigh As Long     nFileIndexLow As Long End Type Private Declare Function GetFileInformationByHandle Lib "kernel32" _     (ByVal hFile As Long, lpFileInformation As BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION) _     As Long Private Declare Function CreateFile Lib "kernel32" 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 Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" _     (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long Private Sub Form_Load()     Dim hFile As Long, FileInfo As BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION     'create a handle to the file 'c:\autoexec.bat'     hFile = CreateFile("c:\autoexec.bat", 0, 0, ByVal 0&, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, ByVal 0&)     'retrieve the file information     GetFileInformationByHandle hFile, FileInfo     'close the handle     CloseHandle hFile     'show the result     MsgBox "File size: " + CStr(FileInfo.nFileSizeLow), vbInformation End Sub

Now, I'd like to retrieve the file creation date, but was not able to modify the above routine in order to get a formatted date from the FileInfo.ftCreationTime.dwLowDateTime (or .dwHighDateTime) variable. I tried adding the following lines

mydate = FileInfo.ftCreationTime.dwHighDateTime     Debug.Print mydate     dmydate = CDate(mydate)   ' ****     Debug.Print dmydate     MsgBox "File creation date: " & dmydate, vbInformation

The row with the asterisks ' **** causes the error, though the previous Debug.Print line writes in fact a long integer number, as stored in the mydate var. I tried with CDate, CLng, adding the low and high part, ... but got only Overflows or Not-matching type errors, and didn't understand what the values returned by the FILETIME structure are.
I can't use the FileDateTime function, as it return the last modify date of the file, and I need the creation date.
Anybody can help me?

PS is there any place where I can find samples on API types' usage? I found many web pages about the API funcs, but none explaining the various items' meanings of the types used into them. Thankz And Regardz.

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hi

will the following code

dim mydate as sting mydate=format(FileInfo.ftCreationTime.dwHighDateTime, "dd/MM/yyyy") debug.print mydate

solve your purpose.



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The FILETIME data structure is a 64-bit value representing the number of 100-nanosecond intervals since January 1, 1601. So, you cannot just convert it (neither with Format function), you will get an overflow error, so you need to convert it to system time.

Add this to declarations:

Private Type SYSTEMTIME     wYear As Integer     wMonth As Integer     wDayOfWeek As Integer     wDay As Integer     wHour As Integer     wMinute As Integer     wSecond As Integer     wMilliseconds As Integer End Type Private Declare Function FileTimeToSystemTime Lib "kernel32" ( _     lpFileTime As FileTime, lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME) As Long

And Form_Load event code:

Private Sub Form_Load() Dim hFile As Long Dim FileInfo As BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION Dim SysTime As SYSTEMTIME     'create a handle to the file 'c:\autoexec.bat'     hFile = CreateFile("c:\autoexec.bat", 0, 0, ByVal 0&, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, ByVal 0&)     'retrieve the file information     GetFileInformationByHandle hFile, FileInfo     'close the handle     CloseHandle hFile     ' Convert file time to system time     FileTimeToSystemTime FileInfo.ftCreationTime, SysTime     MsgBox "File created on " & DateSerial(SysTime.wYear, SysTime.wMonth, SysTime.wDay) End Sub

And, Yronium, for the question about API structures, the best place would be MSDN.  

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Thanks both, I'll give it a run.
Another question: the file I'm attempting to read creation date it's already open - I'm writing onto it, and I have to write in it's creation date too - so I'm asking if this game of Create/CloseHandle have any effect on it. What do you think, Goran? You are the API master here.

[Edited by yronium on 24-02-2004 at 02:21 PM GMT]

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If you want to change created/modified/accessed date, then you can use SetFileTime API. I will post a quick example, beacuse it needs time to be converted to FileTime format (the same you have received in BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION structure) and, further more, you can convert it to GMT time to be accurate.

private Declare Function SetFileTime Lib "kernel32" Alias "SetFileTime" (ByVal hFile As Long, lpCreationTime As FILETIME, lpLastAccessTime As FILETIME, lpLastWriteTime As FILETIME) As LongPrivate Const GENERIC_WRITE = &H40000000 Private Const OPEN_EXISTING = 3 Private Const FILE_SHARE_READ = &H1 Private Const FILE_SHARE_WRITE = &H2 Private Type FILETIME     dwLowDateTime As Long     dwHighDateTime As Long End Type Private Type SYSTEMTIME     wYear As Integer     wMonth As Integer     wDayOfWeek As Integer     wDay As Integer     wHour As Integer     wMinute As Integer     wSecond As Integer     wMilliseconds As Integer End Type Private Declare Function CreateFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateFileA" (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal dwShareMode As Long, ByVal lpSecurityAttributes As Long, ByVal dwCreationDisposition As Long, ByVal dwFlagsAndAttributes As Long, ByVal hTemplateFile As Long) As Long Private Declare Function SystemTimeToFileTime Lib "kernel32" (lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME, lpFileTime As FILETIME) As Long Private Declare Function LocalFileTimeToFileTime Lib "kernel32" (lpLocalFileTime As FILETIME, lpFileTime As FILETIME) As Long Private Declare Function SetFileTime Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hFile As Long, lpCreationTime As FILETIME, lpLastAccessTime As FILETIME, lpLastWriteTime As FILETIME) As Long Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long Private Sub Form_Load() Dim CurrentDate As Date Dim SysTime As SYSTEMTIME Dim LocalTime As FILETIME Dim GMTTime As FILETIME Dim hFile As Long     CurrentDate = #1/1/2000#     SysTime.wYear = Year(CurrentDate)     SysTime.wMonth = Month(CurrentDate)     SysTime.wDay = Day(CurrentDate)     SysTime.wDayOfWeek = Weekday(CurrentDate) - 1     SysTime.wHour = Hour(CurrentDate)     SysTime.wMinute = Minute(CurrentDate)     SysTime.wSecond = Second(CurrentDate)     SysTime.wMilliseconds = 0     ' Convert system time to local time     SystemTimeToFileTime SysTime, LocalTime     ' Convert local time to GMT     LocalFileTimeToFileTime LocalTime, GMTTime     ' Open file     hFile = CreateFile("c:\text.txt", GENERIC_WRITE, _         FILE_SHARE_READ Or FILE_SHARE_WRITE, ByVal 0&, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, 0)     ' Change created/modified/accessed time     SetFileTime hFile, GMTTime, GMTTime, GMTTime     ' close the handle     CloseHandle hFile End Sub

lpCreationTime,lpLastAccessTime or lpLastWriteTime can be NULL if youdont want to change it.

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hi Yoranium and Goran

It is indeed a wonderful experience for me to have an interaction with u who are such experienced in handling APIs. I will come back if I have any doubts. How u guys wont mind giving me advise or suggestion

Thanks a lot

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Goran:
no need of all the above amount of code, FileTimeToSystemTime works good to me, and I succeeded to store into the file its creation date, even if the file is currently being read by another process. Thanks again.
thirumalaicb:
I don't really think I deserve all your admiration, but I'll try to help you any time I can. You're welcome.


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Real Programmer can count up to 1024 on his fingers