"stat" is "date +format" for files:

$ stat -c %s ~/me.jpg  # size
520073
$ stat -c %U ~/me.jpg  # owner
cbe

No more parsing of "ls" output or similar hacks.

It also shows detailed information about files.

$ stat ~/me.jpg
  File: „/home/cbe/me.jpg“
  Size: 520073          Blocks: 1024       IO Block: 4096   reguläre Datei
Device: fe03h/65027d    Inode: 12427268    Links: 1
Access: (0600/-rw-------)  Uid: ( 2062/     cbe)   Gid: ( 2062/     cbe)
Access: 2010-06-06 12:58:07.000000000 +0200
Modify: 2010-04-09 22:38:46.000000000 +0200
Change: 2010-04-26 14:18:00.000000000 +0200

It supports similar features for stat'ing filesystems.