On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Bob Green wrote: > Brian, > > > Thanks for your reply. The data I have was downloaded from a > government database so it now seems that the problem is how to > convert all the records in the format '1-Apr-08' to the format 2008-04-11.
?as.Date tells you how: as.Date("1-Apr-08", format="%d-%b-%y") > I can ask the person working on the new version of this database > whether they will use this standard, it certainly isn't in common use. > > Your explanation did make the help files, which I typically struggle > with, clearer. > > > Bob > > > At 07:03 PM 11/04/2008, you wrote: >> You need to give the format -- might mean 2008-04-01 or 2001-04-08, >> and R refuses to guess. >> >> Please *do* read the help file (e.g. as.Date) before posting: the >> international standard format is , and Australia has adopted that standard. >> >> On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Bob Green wrote: >> >>> Hello, >>> >>> I was hoping for advice regarding resolving the above error. >> >> Telling R what you intend is the usual way to resolve user errors >> caused by ambiguous input. >> >>> >>> I have a csv file that contains the following variable: >>> >>> $ Order.Made.Date : Factor w/ 299 levels >>> "1-Apr-08","1-Aug-05",..: 278 285 91 286 159 132 108 261 282 147 ... >>> >>> >>> I want to calculate a variable named F.length, which is today's date >>> minus the values contained in the variable: April$Order.Made.Date) >>> I tried altering the date format but continued to receive the same error. >>> >>> > F.length <- difftime ("11/04/2008", April$Order.Made.Date) >>>> Error in fromchar(as.character(x)) : character string is not in >>> a standard unambiguous format >>> >>> > Order.date <- as.Date (April$Order.Made.Date) >>> > Error in fromchar(x) : character string is not in a standard >>> unambiguous format >>>> Order.date <- 'as.POSIXlt' (April$Order.Made.Date) >>> Error in fromchar(as.character(x)) : character string is not in a >>> standard unambiguous format >>> >>> Any suggestions are appreciated, >>> >>> Bob >> >> >> -- >> Brian D. Ripley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ >> University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) >> 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) >> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595 > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > -- Brian D. Ripley, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595 ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.