# retrieve the file information from a selected folder
# sort the files by last modified date/time and display in order newest file first
# tested with Python24    vegaseat    21jan2006
 
import os, glob, time
 
# use a folder you have ...
root = 'D:\\Zz1\\Cartoons\\' # one specific folder
#root = 'D:\\Zz1\\*'          # all the subfolders too
 
print '-'*60  # just vanity
 
date_file_list = []
for folder in glob.glob(root):
    print "folder =", folder
    # select the type of file, for instance *.jpg or all files *.*
    for file in glob.glob(folder + '/*.*'):
        # retrieves the stats for the current file as a tuple
        # (mode, ino, dev, nlink, uid, gid, size, atime, mtime, ctime)
        # the tuple element mtime at index 8 is the last-modified-date
        stats = os.stat(file)
        # create tuple (year yyyy, month(1-12), day(1-31), hour(0-23), minute(0-59), second(0-59),
        # weekday(0-6, 0 is monday), Julian day(1-366), daylight flag(-1,0 or 1)) from seconds since epoch
        # note:  this tuple can be sorted properly by date and time
        lastmod_date = time.localtime(stats[8])
        #print image_file, lastmod_date   # test
        # create list of tuples ready for sorting by date
        date_file_tuple = lastmod_date, file
        date_file_list.append(date_file_tuple)
 
#print date_file_list  # test
 
date_file_list.sort()
date_file_list.reverse()  # newest mod date now first
 
print "%-40s %s" % ("filename:", "last modified:")
for file in date_file_list:
    # extract just the filename
    folder, file_name = os.path.split(file[1])
    # convert date tuple to MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS format
    file_date = time.strftime("%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S", file[0])
    print "%-40s %s" % (file_name, file_date)