Getting the last modified time of the file by php filemtime function

Get a file modification timestamp

filemtime() returns a Unix timestamp for a file. Check that the file exists first, then format the timestamp for display. This is a file-system timestamp, not automatically a page publication date.

$file = __FILE__;
$modified = filemtime($file);
if ($modified !== false) {
    echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $modified);
}

This example shows the recommended starting pattern. Continue below for variations, explanation and the original practical examples.

$file = $_SERVER["SCRIPT_NAME"];
    $break = Explode('/', $file);
    $pfile = $break[count($break) - 1]; 
//echo $pfile;
echo "This file was last modified on: " .date("d/m/Y",filemtime($pfile));

We can get the last updated date of any file by using filemtime() function in PHP. This function returns date in UNIX Timestamp format and we can convert it to our requirement by using date function.

This function filemtime() uses the server file system so it works for local systems only, we can't use this function to get the modified time of any remote file system.

Here is the code to get the last modified date of any file. We are checking for a existing file ( test.php)

echo date("m/d/Y",filemtime('test.php'));

The above code will display the modified date in month/day/year format.
Note that we have used date function to convert the Unix Timestamp time returned by filemtime() function.

Example: Checking if a File is Updated Recently

$file = 'example.txt';
if (file_exists($file) && time() - filemtime($file) < 86400) {
    echo "File was updated in the last 24 hours.";
} else {
    echo "File was not updated recently.";
}

Example: Comparing Two Files' Modification Times

$file1 = 'file1.txt';
$file2 = 'file2.txt';
if (filemtime($file1) > filemtime($file2)) {
    echo "$file1 is newer than $file2.";
} else {
    echo "$file2 is newer than $file1.";
}

List of file name with modification date & time of a directory

$dir = 'E:\\dirname\\sub_dir'; 

if (is_dir($dir)) {
    echo "<table border='1'>
            <tr><th>File Name</th><th>Last Modified Time</th></tr>";
    
    $files = scandir($dir);
    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if ($file != '.' && $file != '..' && is_file("$dir/$file")) {
            //echo "<tr><td>$file</td><td>" . date("F d Y H:i:s", filemtime("$dir/$file")) . "</td></tr>";
	echo "<tr><td>$file</td><td>" . gmdate("F d Y H:i:s", filemtime("$dir/$file")) . "</td></tr>"; // UTC time

        }
    }    
    echo "</table>";
} else {
    echo "Directory does not exist.";}

To display the above list in the order of file modification date and time we can use usort().

$dir = 'E:\\dirname\\sub_dir'; 
if (is_dir($dir)) {
    $files = scandir($dir);
    $fileData = [];

    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if ($file != '.' && $file != '..' && is_file("$dir/$file")) {
            $fileData[] = ['file' => $file, 'mtime' => filemtime("$dir/$file")];
        }
    }

    // Sort by modification time (most recent first)
    usort($fileData, function($a, $b) {
        return $b['mtime'] - $a['mtime'];
    });

    echo "<table border='1'>
            <tr><th>File Name</th><th>Last Modified Time</th></tr>";

    foreach ($fileData as $file) {
        echo "<tr><td>{$file['file']}</td><td>" . date("F d Y H:i:s", $file['mtime']) . "</td></tr>";
    }

    echo "</table>";
} else {
    echo "Directory does not exist.";
}

You may see a difference in time due to time zone difference between your server's local time and your current time zone. You can adjust the timezone using:

date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York'); // Set your correct timezone

Place this at the beginning of your script to ensure the displayed times reflect your desired timezone. You can replace 'America/New_York' with your local timezone.

These examples offer practical use cases for `filemtime()` in managing and comparing file modification times.
File Deleting File Checking if file exists before deleting
PHP

Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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moko	14-07-2015
thank you, i'm looking this

filemtime():Getting the last updated time of the file

Get a file modification timestamp

Example: Checking if a File is Updated Recently

Example: Comparing Two Files' Modification Times

List of file name with modification date & time of a directory

Subhendu Mohapatra