How to change the file last modified date in Java
Published: June 4, 2010 , Updated: March 24, 2011 , Author: mkyong
Here’s an example to show the use of File.setLastModified() to change the file’s last modified date. This method accept the new modified date in milliseconds (long type), some data type conversion are required.
package com.mkyong.file; import java.io.File; import java.text.ParseException; import java.text.SimpleDateFormat; import java.util.Date; public class ChangeFileLastModifiedExample { public static void main(String[] args) { try{ File file = new File("C:\\logfile.log"); //print the original last modified date SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy"); System.out.println("Original Last Modified Date : " + sdf.format(file.lastModified())); //set this date String newLastModified = "01/31/1998"; //need convert the above date to milliseconds in long value Date newDate = sdf.parse(newLastModified); file.setLastModified(newDate.getTime()); //print the latest last modified date System.out.println("Lastest Last Modified Date : " + sdf.format(file.lastModified())); }catch(ParseException e){ e.printStackTrace(); } } }
Result
Original Last Modified Date : 05/31/2010 Lastest Last Modified Date : 01/31/1998






This will not work unless the ‘file’ object already exists on disk or is created within the program using
file.createNewFile()
The setLastModified() method returns a boolean, which will be false if the file does not exist as the operation will fail.