FILETIME structure (minwinbase.h)
Contains a 64-bit value representing the number of 100-nanosecond intervals since January 1, 1601 (UTC).
Syntax
typedef struct _FILETIME {
DWORD dwLowDateTime;
DWORD dwHighDateTime;
} FILETIME, *PFILETIME, *LPFILETIME;
Members
dwLowDateTime
The low-order part of the file time.
dwHighDateTime
The high-order part of the file time.
Remarks
To convert a FILETIME structure into a time that is easy to display to a user, use the FileTimeToSystemTime function.
It is not recommended that you add and subtract values from the FILETIME structure to obtain relative times. Instead, you should copy the low- and high-order parts of the file time to a ULARGE_INTEGER structure, perform 64-bit arithmetic on the QuadPart member, and copy the LowPart and HighPart members into the FILETIME structure.
Do not cast a pointer to a FILETIME structure to either a ULARGE_INTEGER* or __int64* value because it can cause alignment faults on 64-bit Windows.
Not all file systems can record creation and last access time and not all file systems record them in the same manner. For example, on NT FAT, 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 (really, the access date). On NTFS, access time has a resolution of 1 hour. Therefore, the GetFileTime function may not return the same file time information set using the SetFileTime function. Furthermore, FAT records times on disk in local time. However, NTFS records times on disk in UTC. For more information, see File Times.
A function using the FILETIME structure can allow for values outside of zero or positive values typically specified by the dwLowDateTime and dwHighDateTime members. For example, the SetFileTime function uses 0xFFFFFFFF to specify that a file's previous access time should be preserved. For more information, see the topic for the function you are calling.
Examples
For an example, see Changing a File Time to the Current Time or Retrieving the Last-Write Time.
Requirements
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum supported client | Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps | UWP apps] |
| Minimum supported server | Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps | UWP apps] |
| Header | minwinbase.h (include Windows.h) |