If i have a File
object how can i get the lastModified()
date of this file in this GMT format: Mon, 23 Jun 2011 17:40:23 GMT
.
For example, when i call the java method lastModified()
on a file and use a DateFormat object to getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.Long, DateFormat.Long)
and also set the TimeZone
to GMT, the file date displays in different format:
File fileE = new File("/Some/Path");
Date fileDate = new Date (fileE.lastModified());
DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.Long, DateFormat.Long);
dateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
System.out.println("file date " + dateFormat.format(fileDate));
This prints in this format:
January 26, 2012 7:11:46 PM GMT
I feel like i am close to getting it in the format above and i am only missing the day. Do i have to use instead the SimpleDateFormat
object?
Use the SimpleDateFormat
with the pattern as follows:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd MMM yyyy hh:mm:ss z");
Update:
Date d1 = new Date(file1.lastModified());
Date d2 = new Date(file2.lastModified());
You can compare them as follows:
d1.compareTo(d2);
d1.before(d2);
d1.after(d2);
Why do you want to compare them at seconds granularity?
If you want to get the difference in seconds:
int diffInSeconds = (int) (d1.getTime() - d2.getTime()) / 1000;
Yes, the DateFormat static instances will be locale specific. If you want a specific format, you should use SimpleDateFormat with the appropriate format pattern.
If you want to compare 2 file modified times to the second granularity, then just divide them both by 1000, e.g.:
long t1InSeconds = f1.lastModified() / 1000L;
long t2InSeconds = f2.lastModified() / 1000L;
// which one is sooner
if(t1InSeconds < t2InSeconds) {
// f1 is older ...
}