Get the latest file addition in a directory

Question

How to get the latest file name, or the file path that is added into a directory?

filectime is for when metadata like chmod values are changed. filemtime is for actual content change. — Ole Sørensen
– Ole Sørensen, Commented Jul 30, 2013 at 16:50
To clear up any confusion: The c in filectime() does not stand for creation and the C in getCTime() does not stand for creation — mickmackusa
– mickmackusa ♦, Commented May 31, 2023 at 7:22

nooitaf · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-30 04:10:59Z

59

$path = "/path/to/my/dir"; $latest_ctime = 0; $latest_filename = ''; $d = dir($path); while (false !== ($entry = $d->read())) { $filepath = "{$path}/{$entry}"; // could do also other checks than just checking whether the entry is a file if (is_file($filepath) && filectime($filepath) > $latest_ctime) { $latest_ctime = filectime($filepath); $latest_filename = $entry; } } // now $latest_filename contains the filename of the file that changed last

edited Oct 30, 2012 at 4:10

nooitaf

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answered Sep 29, 2009 at 7:34

kkyy

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4 Comments

kojiro Over a year ago

ctime is not creation time

Muhaimin Over a year ago

any new method for fastest searching or scan?

Dennis Heiden Over a year ago

@Muhaimin Abdul Try scandir() ~ PHP 5

Brad Kent Over a year ago

As others have mentioned in other answers... should probably be using filemtime instead of filectime. a) it's more widely supported across platforms. b) It returns what you're probably wanting: the time that the file was last modified

Bot · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-28 19:14:16Z

$dir = dirname(__FILE__).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR; $lastMod = 0; $lastModFile = ''; foreach (scandir($dir) as $entry) { if (is_file($dir.$entry) && filectime($dir.$entry) > $lastMod) { $lastMod = filectime($dir.$entry); $lastModFile = $entry; } }

You Old Fool · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-08 17:09:48Z

Here's how you can do it using DirectoryIterator:

foreach(new DirectoryIterator('/path/to/read') as $item) { if ($item->isFile() && (empty($file) || $item->getMTime() > $file->getMTime())) { $file = clone $item; } }

The resulting contents of $file is an instance of the DirectoryIterator class and as such you have access to all of it's methods. To simply get the full path of the result you can do:

echo $file->getPathname();

frank · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-09 14:02:37Z

$dir = "/path/to/Your/dir"; $pattern = '\.(zip|ZIP|pdf|PDF)$'; // check only file with these ext. $newstamp = 0; $newname = ""; if ($handle = opendir($dir)) { while (false !== ($fname = readdir($handle))) { // Eliminate current directory, parent directory if (ereg('^\.{1,2}$',$fname)) continue; // Eliminate other pages not in pattern if (! ereg($pattern,$fname)) continue; $timedat = filemtime("$dir/$fname"); if ($timedat > $newstamp) { $newstamp = $timedat; $newname = $fname; } } } closedir ($handle); // $newstamp is the time for the latest file // $newname is the name of the latest file // print last mod.file - format date as you like print $newname . " - " . date( "Y/m/d", $newstamp);

Odin Thunder · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-21 09:48:58Z

My solution with PHP 5:

$dir = "/path/to/Your/dir"; $arraydir =scandir($dir, 1); echo "arraydir 0: " . $arraydir[0] . "<br/>"; // 1. new file echo "arraydir 1: " . $arraydir[1] . "<br/>"; // 2. new file echo "arraydir elements: " . count($arraydir) . "<br/>";

(search words DE: neuste und zweitneuste Datei eines Ordners anzeigen mit PHP )

This sorts by name, will work only if you have alphabetically sortable timestamps in the filename, like exported_data_20170721.csv

Vladislav Rastrusny · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-29 07:13:50Z

0

Enumerate all directory files, get the filemtime() of each and you are done.

answered Sep 29, 2009 at 7:13

Vladislav Rastrusny

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3 Comments

Gumbo Over a year ago

I think you rather need filectime.

secretlm Over a year ago

@Gumbo: why use filectime instead of filemtime. I see filemtime() work better on a multitude of platforms while filectime() does not seem to work properly on all Windows servers.

FluorescentGreen5 Over a year ago

@secretlm filectime probably doesn't work because its only the creation time of the file, not the modification time

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