C# -Why does System.IO.File.GetLastAccessTime return an expected value when the file is not found?

Question

Please, explain your thoughts.

1.  DateTime dt = System.IO.File.GetLastAccessTime(\"C:\\\\There_is_no_such_file.txt\");
2.  DateTime dt = System.IO.File.Get         


        

Answer 1

If you ask the question "When was the last time, the file "There_is_no_such_file.txt" was accessed?", you could either answer "There is no such file" or "never".

Obviously, the team that designed the IO library opted for the second answer, with never being represented as DateTime.MinValue.