WIN32_FIND_DATAA structure (minwinbase.h)

Article
01/10/2024

Contains information about the file that is found by the FindFirstFile, FindFirstFileEx, or FindNextFile function.

Syntax

typedef struct _WIN32_FIND_DATAA {
  DWORD    dwFileAttributes;
  FILETIME ftCreationTime;
  FILETIME ftLastAccessTime;
  FILETIME ftLastWriteTime;
  DWORD    nFileSizeHigh;
  DWORD    nFileSizeLow;
  DWORD    dwReserved0;
  DWORD    dwReserved1;
  CHAR     cFileName[MAX_PATH];
  CHAR     cAlternateFileName[14];
  DWORD    dwFileType; // Obsolete. Do not use.
  DWORD    dwCreatorType; // Obsolete. Do not use
  WORD     wFinderFlags; // Obsolete. Do not use
} WIN32_FIND_DATAA, *PWIN32_FIND_DATAA, *LPWIN32_FIND_DATAA;

Members

dwFileAttributes

The file attributes of a file.

For possible values and their descriptions, see File Attribute Constants.

The FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SPARSE_FILE attribute on the file is set if any of the streams of the file have ever been sparse.

ftCreationTime

A FILETIME structure that specifies when a file or directory was created.

If the underlying file system does not support creation time, this member is zero.

ftLastAccessTime

A FILETIME structure.

For a file, the structure specifies when the file was last read from, written to, or for executable files, run.

For a directory, the structure specifies when the directory is created. If the underlying file system does not support last access time, this member is zero.

On the FAT file system, the specified date for both files and directories is correct, but the time of day is always set to midnight.

ftLastWriteTime

A FILETIME structure.

For a file, the structure specifies when the file was last written to, truncated, or overwritten, for example, when WriteFile or SetEndOfFile are used. The date and time are not updated when file attributes or security descriptors are changed.

For a directory, the structure specifies when the directory is created. If the underlying file system does not support last write time, this member is zero.

nFileSizeHigh

The high-order DWORD value of the file size, in bytes.

This value is zero unless the file size is greater than MAXDWORD.

The size of the file is equal to (nFileSizeHigh * (MAXDWORD+1)) + nFileSizeLow.

nFileSizeLow

The low-order DWORD value of the file size, in bytes.

dwReserved0

If the dwFileAttributes member includes the FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT attribute, this member specifies the reparse point tag.

Otherwise, this value is undefined and should not be used.

For more information see Reparse Point Tags.

IO_REPARSE_TAG_CSV (0x80000009)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_DEDUP (0x80000013)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_DFS (0x8000000A)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_DFSR (0x80000012)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_HSM (0xC0000004)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_HSM2 (0x80000006)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_MOUNT_POINT (0xA0000003)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_NFS (0x80000014)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_SIS (0x80000007)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_SYMLINK (0xA000000C)

IO_REPARSE_TAG_WIM (0x80000008)

dwReserved1

Reserved for future use.

cFileName[MAX_PATH]

The name of the file.

cAlternateFileName[14]

An alternative name for the file.

This name is in the classic 8.3 file name format.

Remarks

If a file has a long file name, the complete name appears in the cFileName member, and the 8.3 format truncated version of the name appears in the cAlternateFileName member. Otherwise, cAlternateFileName is empty. If the FindFirstFileEx function was called with a value of FindExInfoBasic in the fInfoLevelId parameter, the cAlternateFileName member will always contain a NULL string value. This remains true for all subsequent calls to the FindNextFile function. As an alternative method of retrieving the 8.3 format version of a file name, you can use the GetShortPathName function. For more information about file names, see File Names, Paths, and Namespaces.

Not all file systems can record creation and last access times, and not all file systems record them in the same manner. For example, on the FAT file system, create time has a resolution of 10 milliseconds, write time has a resolution of 2 seconds, and access time has a resolution of 1 day. The NTFS file system delays updates to the last access time for a file by up to 1 hour after the last access. For more information, see File Times.

Note

The minwinbase.h header defines WIN32_FIND_DATA as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Header	minwinbase.h (include Windows.h)

Share via