Understanding PHP filectime() Function: Syntax, Usage, and Examples

The filectime() function in PHP retrieves the creation time of a specified file.

Syntax of filectime()

filectime(string $filename): int|false

Here $filename is the path to the file. The function returns an integer timestamp representing the file's creation time, or false on error.

The returned timestamp counts seconds since the Unix epoch (1970‑01‑01 00:00:00 UTC). It can be formatted into a readable date using the date() function.

Example of filectime()

How to use filectime() to obtain a file's creation time:

$filename = 'path/to/file.txt';
$ctime = filectime($filename);
if ($ctime === false) {
    echo "Unable to get file creation time";
} else {
    echo "File creation time: " . date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $ctime);
}

The script first sets the file path, calls filectime(), stores the result in $ctime, checks for false, and if successful formats the timestamp with date().

Notes

filectime()

returns the creation time, not the last modification or access time. For those, use filemtime() and fileatime() respectively.

Summary

The filectime() function obtains a file's creation timestamp, which can be converted to a readable date with date(); it returns false if the creation time cannot be retrieved.