Setting file creation timestamp in Java

user263078 picture user263078 · Feb 8, 2012 · Viewed 23.6k times · Source

I know setting the creation timestamp doesn't exist in Java because Linux doesn't have it, but is there a way to set a file's (Windows) creation timestamp in Java? I have a basic modification timestamp editor I made right here.

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class chdt{
    static File file;
    static JFrame frame = new JFrame("Input a file to change");
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try{

            final JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser();
            fc.setMultiSelectionEnabled(false);

            //BufferedReader bf = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
            //System.out.println("Enter file name with extension:");
            //String str = bf.readLine();
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Input a file to change.");
            frame.setSize(300, 200);

            frame.setVisible(true);

            int retVal = fc.showOpenDialog(frame);
            if (retVal == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
                file = fc.getSelectedFile();
                frame.setVisible(false);
            } else {
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "3RR0RZ!  You didn't input a file.");
                System.exit(0);
            }

            //System.out.println("Enter last modified date in 'dd-mm-yyyy-hh-mm-ss' format:");
            //String strDate = bf.readLine();
            String strDate = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter last modified date in 'dd-mm-yyyy-hh-mm-ss' format:");

            SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy-HH-mm-ss");
            Date date = sdf.parse(strDate);

            if (file.exists()){
                file.setLastModified(date.getTime());
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Modification is successful!");
            }
            else{
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "File does not exist!  Did you accidentally it or what?");
            }
        }
        catch(Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "3RR0RZ");
        }
    }
}

Answer

harperska picture harperska · Feb 12, 2015

Here is how you do it in Java 7 with the nio framework:

public void setFileCreationDate(String filePath, Date creationDate) throws IOException{

    BasicFileAttributeView attributes = Files.getFileAttributeView(Paths.get(filePath), BasicFileAttributeView.class);
    FileTime time = FileTime.fromMillis(creationDate.getTime());
    attributes.setTimes(time, time, time);

}

the BasicFileAttributeView.setTimes(FileTime, FileTime, FileTime) method arguments set the last modified time, last accessed time, and creation time respectively.