Python: Get last modified information of a file

Last update on March 31 2025 12:52:47 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

38. File Last Modified Info

Write a Python program to get the last modified information of a file.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Import the os and time modules
import os, time

# Define a function called last_modified_fileinfo which retrieves the last modified date and time of a file
def last_modified_fileinfo(filepath):
    # Get the file status using os.stat() function
    filestat = os.stat(filepath)
    # Get the last modified date and time in local time
    date = time.localtime((filestat.st_mtime))

    # Extract year, month, and day from the date
    year = date[0]
    month = date[1]
    day = date[2]
    # Extract hour, minute, and second
    hour = date[3]
    minute = date[4]
    second = date[5]
    
    # Year
    strYear = str(year)[0:]

    # Month
    if (month <=9):
        strMonth = '0' + str(month)
    else:
        strMonth = str(month)

    # Date
    if (day <=9):
        strDay = '0' + str(day)
    else:
        strDay = str(day)

    # Format the date and time as a string in the format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"
    return (strYear+"-"+strMonth+"-"+strDay+" "+str(hour)+":"+str(minute)+":"+str(second))

# Print an empty line
print()
# Print the last modified date and time of the file 'test.txt'
print(last_modified_fileinfo('test.txt'))
# Print an empty line
print()

Output:

2017-04-19 15:15:52

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

• This code imports the modules "os" and "time".
• It defines a function named "last_modified_fileinfo()" which retrieves the last modified date and time of a file specified by 'filepath'.
• Inside the "last_modified_fileinfo()" function:
• It gets the file status using the "os.stat()" function, which returns a tuple containing several pieces of information about the file, including the last modified time.
• It converts the last modified time to local time using "time.localtime()".
• It extracts the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second from the obtained date.
• It formats the date and time into a string in the format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS".
• It prints the last modified date and time of the file 'test.txt' by calling the "last_modified_fileinfo()" function.

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a Python program to fetch and display the last modified timestamp of a specified file in a human-readable format.
• Write a Python script to get the last modified date of a file and then calculate how many days ago it was modified.
• Write a Python program to obtain the file modification time and then compare it with the current time to compute the file’s age in hours.
• Write a Python function to retrieve a file's last modified time and then format it into "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" using the os module.

Python Code Editor:

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