Read file info via Transact SQL....

Hi there.
Any ideas how I could go about getting a file's "Created" date/time into a
datetime variable using T-SQL? I'm thinking along the lines of using the
results of a call to xp_cmdshell but as to what command I should call...
well...
Any help would be appreciated!Sure you can use any DOS command via xp_cmdshell. Here is a rough example
of reading datetimes.
CREATE TABLE #dirlist (FName VARCHAR(1000))
-- Insert the results of the dir cmd into a table so we can scan it
INSERT INTO #dirlist (FName)
exec master..xp_cmdshell 'dir /OD C:\Backups\*.trn'
-- Remove the garbage
DELETE #dirlist WHERE
SUBSTRING(FName,1,2) < '00' OR
SUBSTRING(FName,1,2) > '99' OR
FName IS NULL
SELECT SUBSTRING(FName,40,40) AS FName
FROM #dirlist
WHERE CAST(SUBSTRING(FName,1,20) AS DATETIME) < @.DelDate
AND SUBSTRING(FName,40,40) LIKE '%.TRN'
Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP
"len" <len@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:74125E9D-6E97-46FE-855C-CA2913135FE3@.microsoft.com...
> Hi there.
> Any ideas how I could go about getting a file's "Created" date/time into a
> datetime variable using T-SQL? I'm thinking along the lines of using the
> results of a call to xp_cmdshell but as to what command I should call...
> well...
> Any help would be appreciated!|||Rather than placing this functionality in a stored procedure, consider a DTS
package and VBScript task.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...
flow_0793.asp
http://www.sqldts.com/?246
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...efc4b9f49c7.asp
"len" <len@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:74125E9D-6E97-46FE-855C-CA2913135FE3@.microsoft.com...
> Hi there.
> Any ideas how I could go about getting a file's "Created" date/time into a
> datetime variable using T-SQL? I'm thinking along the lines of using the
> results of a call to xp_cmdshell but as to what command I should call...
> well...
> Any help would be appreciated!sql