stat a file

pelos has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am trying to get the time of the file or the size or any of the attributes of the file. after reading several examples and replicating the code I get a blank line =( been new to perl I am assuming that might be something I am doing, I am using active perl in windows 7

use File::stat;
$mtime = (stat("C:/PC_Files/Dropbox/Beta/test.txt"));
print $mtime[5];
[download]

doesn't matter what 0-13 stat I ask. but if I print the variable I get no [] I get

File::stat=ARRAY(0x3585c0)
[download]

thanks for the tips.

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Re: stat a file by moritz (Cardinal) on May 04, 2013 at 05:50 UTC
You can either store the result of stat in an array: `my @stat = stat $filename; say $stat[5];` [download] or you can use the File::stat module, in which case you get an object back: `use File::stat; my $stat_obj = stat $filename; print $stat_obj->mtime;` [download] But you have to decide for one way or another -- mixing them is what led to your confusion in the first place. Perl 6 - the future is here, just unevenly distributed	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: stat a file by pelos (Initiate) on May 04, 2013 at 06:22 UTC
thanks I will give it a try. do you recommend to stick to one particular method? or doesn't really matter?	[reply]
Re^3: stat a file by afoken (Chancellor) on May 04, 2013 at 09:30 UTC
stat has slightly less overhead, but File::stat is slightly more readable. `File::stat` is part of the Perl core since 5.004 (released 1997-05-15), so it's quite safe to assume that File::stat is available even on older Perl installations. `File::stat` has some minor problems, mainly with the implicit `$_` and the special handle `_`, see "Bugs" in File::stat. Also, the filetest operators `-t`, `-T`, and `-B` are not implemented in `File::stat`. This is documented in "Errors". Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply] [d/l] [select]