How do I compare timestamps of files in a batch script?

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You can find the newer of two files with one line of batch script. Just list the files in date order, oldest first, which means the last file listed must be the newer file. So if you save the file name each time, the last name put in your variable will be the newest file.

For, example:

SET FILE1=foo.txt
SET FILE2=bar.txt
FOR /F %%i IN ('DIR /B /O:D %FILE1% %FILE2%') DO SET NEWEST=%%i
ECHO %NEWEST% is (probably) newer.

This unfortunately doesn’t cope with the date stamps being the same. So we just need to check if the files have the same date and time stamp first:

SET FILE1=foo.txt
SET FILE2=bar.txt

FOR %%i IN (%FILE1%) DO SET DATE1=%%~ti
FOR %%i IN (%FILE2%) DO SET DATE2=%%~ti
IF "%DATE1%"=="%DATE2%" ECHO Files have same age && GOTO END

FOR /F %%i IN ('DIR /B /O:D %FILE1% %FILE2%') DO SET NEWEST=%%i
ECHO Newer file is %NEWEST%

:END

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