[Rd] RFC: make as.difftime more consistent or convenient

[dietm@r@schi@dler m@ili@g off m@@rol@@d-web@com]

Hello!

you, Emil Bode <emil.bode using dans.knaw.nl>, wrote on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 1:55 PM:
> Some of the changes you're proposing could be made (with effort), but note that you're not
> restricted to providing strings with a format.
> What you're trying to do can be accomplished with as.difftime(12, units='weeks'), see also
> ?as.difftime
>
> Or if you're stuck with the strings: as.difftime(as.numeric(substring('12 w', 1, 2)),
> units='weeks')
> That also seems clearer, because in your script, the last part of your string simply gets
> ignored: as.difftime("12 h", "%H") reads your string for something that satisfies %H (which
> 12 does), then stops:
> as.difftime("12 hours and 17 minutes", "%H") gives 12 hours. If you wanted to check, you
> could have used as.difftime("12 h", "%H h")

Thank you for your comments! But, what you wrote is known. What do you want to express with regard to my questions?

I wrote:
> … there is no appropriate format ...,
> although "weeks" is a legitimate unit of 'difftime':
>
>     > as.difftime("12 w", "%...")
>
>     1. What do you think about making the behavior of 'as.difftime' more consistent by
> accepting also formats for "days" and "weeks"?
>
>     2. Even more convenient it could be if 'as.difftime' accepted strings containing
> magnitude and unit; how about:
>
>     > as.difftime("12 weeks")
>     Time difference of 12 weeks

I'm asking for comments in order to get feedback whether it would be well-received if I proposed or provided the former or the latter change on Bugzilla.
--
Best regards,
Dietmar Schindler
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