How to get a creation date from a SPListItem that is a folder in c#?

Question

I am making a visual webpart in SP 2010, and I download the SPListItems from a document library. I need to get the creation date of all the documents and folder items. I can do it successfuly for items that are documents and not folders using:

DateTime now = System.DateTime.Today;

TimeSpan diff = now - item.File.TimeCreated;

But if I try to do this for a item that is a folder, I get an exception about a null object. I think the "File" variable is null value.

Does anyone know how to get the creation date of a folder?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Use following code to get the creation date of folder:

item.Folder.Item["Created"]

Answer 2

Yes, in your case, most likely the File property of the list item is null, because the list item refers to a folder and not a file.

I don't see anything similar to TimeCreated in the SPFolder properties, so you could get the creation date of a folder by getting the creation date of it's list item, for instance:

DateTime created = null;
if (item.File != null)
{
    created = item.File.TimeCreated;
}
else
{
    created = (DateTime)item["Created"];
}

Answer 3

I'm assuming you have item initiated as SPListItem.Item[some index]. For a folder you need to change that to SPListItem.Folder.Item["Created"]. Give this code a shot.

DateTime created = item.File.TimeCreated;

if (created == null)
{
    created = item.Folder.Item.File.TimeCreated;
}

//rest of your logic