topic Re: How can I extract the modified date of file in datetime format? in SAS Programming

How can I extract the modified date of file in datetime format?

sklm — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 16:44:30 GMT

I am trying to extract the created date and last modified date of a file and print this to an output table.

I have tried the following method using the FINFO function:

filename fileref "%qtrim(%bquote(&FilePath.))";

data &_OUTPUT;

length Created_Date 8;

drop fid;

infile fileref truncover;

format Created_Date datetime20.;

fid=fopen('fileref');

Created_Date=input(finfo(fid,'Create Time'), anydtdtm20.);

Modified_Date=finfo(fid,'Last Modified');

run;

The modified date is given in a character format as "04 December 2013 10:41:07 o'cl "

But when I try to convert this into a numeric datetime format with an input expression (as with the Created Date), I only get an empty cell.

I tried another method using the following code and it gives the date in a datetime format "04DEC2013:10:41:00", but it does not give me the seconds so it is left as 00.

filename fileref pipe "dir %qtrim(%nrbquote("&FilePath")) /t:w /a:-d";

data &_OUTPUT;

keep LastModified;

format LastModified Datetime20.;

infile fileref firstobs=6;

input mod_date ?? : ddmmyy8. mod_time ?? & time8.;

if mod_date eq . then stop;

LastModified = DHMS(mod_date,HOUR(mod_time),MINUTE(mod_time),SECOND(mod_time));

run;

Does anyone know if there is an easier way of getting the modified date time with seconds, or converting the character format?

Re: How can I extract the modified date of file in datetime format?

snoopy369 — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 17:31:31 GMT

What OS are you using? I get a normal date format returned by Modified Date ("14Feb2013:13:51:19" for a test file for example).

Re: How can I extract the modified date of file in datetime format?

sklm — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 17:03:49 GMT

Thanks for your reply, SAS is using windows server 2008, I have noticed another thread had a similar issue with the finfo function: https://communities.sas.com/thread/38083

I don't know how to get it to extract it in the format I need, so I had to use this conversion to give me the format I need:

format LastModified datetime20.;

fid=fopen('fileref'); /*fid is the file-id*/

Mod_Date=finfo(fid,'Last Modified');

LastModified=INPUT((TRIM(SCAN(Mod_Date ,1," ") || SUBSTRN(SCAN(Mod_Date ,2," "),1,3) || SCAN(Mod_Date ,3," ")) || ":" || SCAN(Mod_Date ,4," ")),datetime20.);

Re: How can I extract the modified date of file in datetime format?

JohnC_Munoz — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 12:37:38 GMT

@sklm, the lastmodified variable ended up blank for me. The code below worked, through:

data last_mod_date;

format LastModified datetime20.;

fid=fopen('fileref'); /*fid is the file-id*/

Mod_Date=finfo(fid,'Last Modified');

LastModified=input(put(mod_date,$20.),datetime20.);

run;