[c#] How to find the most recent file in a directory using .NET, and without looping?

I need to find the most recently modified file in a directory.

I know I can loop through every file in a folder and compare File.GetLastWriteTime, but is there a better way to do this without looping?.

private List<FileInfo> GetLastUpdatedFileInDirectory(DirectoryInfo directoryInfo)
{
    FileInfo[] files = directoryInfo.GetFiles();
    List<FileInfo> lastUpdatedFile = null;
    DateTime lastUpdate = new DateTime(1, 0, 0);
    foreach (FileInfo file in files)
    {
        if (file.LastAccessTime > lastUpdate)
        {
            lastUpdatedFile.Add(file);
            lastUpdate = file.LastAccessTime;
        }
    }

    return lastUpdatedFile;
}

Short and simple:

new DirectoryInfo(path).GetFiles().OrderByDescending(o => o.LastWriteTime).FirstOrDefault();

Here's a version that gets the most recent file from each subdirectory

List<string> reports = new List<string>();    
DirectoryInfo directory = new DirectoryInfo(ReportsRoot);
directory.GetFiles("*.xlsx", SearchOption.AllDirectories).GroupBy(fl => fl.DirectoryName)
.ForEach(g => reports.Add(g.OrderByDescending(fi => fi.LastWriteTime).First().FullName));

I do this is a bunch of my apps and I use a statement like this:

  var inputDirectory = new DirectoryInfo("\\Directory_Path_here");
  var myFile = inputDirectory.GetFiles().OrderByDescending(f => f.LastWriteTime).First();

From here you will have the filename for the most recently saved/added/updated file in the Directory of the "inputDirectory" variable. Now you can access it and do what you want with it.

Hope that helps.

You can react to new file activity with FileSystemWatcher.

If you want to search recursively, you can use this beautiful piece of code:

public static FileInfo GetNewestFile(DirectoryInfo directory) {
   return directory.GetFiles()
       .Union(directory.GetDirectories().Select(d => GetNewestFile(d)))
       .OrderByDescending(f => (f == null ? DateTime.MinValue : f.LastWriteTime))
       .FirstOrDefault();                        
}

Just call it the following way:

FileInfo newestFile = GetNewestFile(new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\directory\"));

and that's it. Returns a FileInfo instance or null if the directory is empty.

Expanding on the first one above, if you want to search for a certain pattern you may use the following code:

string pattern = "*.txt";
var dirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(directory);
var file = (from f in dirInfo.GetFiles(pattern) orderby f.LastWriteTime descending select f).First();

Another approach if you are using Directory.EnumerateFiles and want to read files in latest modified by first.

foreach (string file in Directory.EnumerateFiles(fileDirectory, fileType).OrderByDescending(f => new FileInfo(f).LastWriteTime))

}

A non-LINQ version:

/// <summary>
/// Returns latest writen file from the specified directory.
/// If the directory does not exist or doesn't contain any file, DateTime.MinValue is returned.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="directoryInfo">Path of the directory that needs to be scanned</param>
/// <returns></returns>
private static DateTime GetLatestWriteTimeFromFileInDirectory(DirectoryInfo directoryInfo)
{
    if (directoryInfo == null || !directoryInfo.Exists)
        return DateTime.MinValue;

    FileInfo[] files = directoryInfo.GetFiles();
    DateTime lastWrite = DateTime.MinValue;

    foreach (FileInfo file in files)
    {
        if (file.LastWriteTime > lastWrite)
        {
            lastWrite = file.LastWriteTime;
        }
    }

    return lastWrite;
}

/// <summary>
/// Returns file's latest writen timestamp from the specified directory.
/// If the directory does not exist or doesn't contain any file, null is returned.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="directoryInfo">Path of the directory that needs to be scanned</param>
/// <returns></returns>
private static FileInfo GetLatestWritenFileFileInDirectory(DirectoryInfo directoryInfo)
{
    if (directoryInfo == null || !directoryInfo.Exists)
        return null;

    FileInfo[] files = directoryInfo.GetFiles();
    DateTime lastWrite = DateTime.MinValue;
    FileInfo lastWritenFile = null;

    foreach (FileInfo file in files)
    {
        if (file.LastWriteTime > lastWrite)
        {
            lastWrite = file.LastWriteTime;
            lastWritenFile = file;
        }
    }
    return lastWritenFile;
}

it's a bit late but...

your code will not work, because of list<FileInfo> lastUpdateFile = null; and later lastUpdatedFile.Add(file); so NullReference exception will be thrown. Working version should be:

private List<FileInfo> GetLastUpdatedFileInDirectory(DirectoryInfo directoryInfo)
{
    FileInfo[] files = directoryInfo.GetFiles();
    List<FileInfo> lastUpdatedFile = new List<FileInfo>();
    DateTime lastUpdate = DateTime.MinValue;
    foreach (FileInfo file in files)
    {
        if (file.LastAccessTime > lastUpdate)
        {
            lastUpdatedFile.Add(file);
            lastUpdate = file.LastAccessTime;
        }
    }

    return lastUpdatedFile;
}

Thanks