How to get file's modifed date on windows/dos command

Question

I have been using the following command to get the file date, however the fileDate variable has been returning blank value ever since we moved to a different server (windows 2003)

FOR /f %%a in ('dir myfile.txt^|find /i " myfile.txt"')  DO SET fileDate=%%a 

Is there any other more reliable way to get the file date?

Answer 1

It works for me on Vista. Some things to try:

1. Replace find with the fully-qualified path of the find command. find is a common tool name. There's a unix find that is very differet from the Windows built-in find. like this:
   FOR /f %%a in ('dir ^|%windir%\system32\find.exe /i "myfile.txt"') DO SET fileDate=%%a

2. examine the output of the command in a cmd.exe window. To do that, You need to replace the %% with %.
   FOR /f %a in ('dir ^|c:\windows\system32\find.exe /i "myfile.txt"') DO SET fileDate=%a
   That may give you some ideas.

3. If that shows up as blank, then again, at a command prompt, try this:

   dir | c:\windows\system32\find.exe /i "myfile.txt"

This should show you what you need to see.

If you still can't figure it out from that, edit your post to include what you see from these commands and someone will help you.

Answer 2

What output (exactly) does dir myfile.txt give in the current directory? What happens if you set the delimiters?

FOR /f "tokens=1,2* delims= " %%a in ('dir myfile.txt^|find /i " myfile.txt"') DO SET fileDate=%%a 

(note the space after delims=)
(to make life easier, you can do this from the command line by replacing %%a with %a)

Answer 3

you can get a files modified date using vbscript too

Set objFS=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments
strFile= objArgs(0)
WScript.Echo objFS.GetFile(strFile).DateLastModified

save the above as mygetdate.vbs and on command line

c:\test> cscript //nologo mygetdate.vbs myfile

Answer 4

Change % to %% for use in batch file, for %~ta syntax enter call /?

for %a in (MyFile.txt) do set FileDate=%~ta