[Rd] as.POSIXct.numeric change default of origin argument

[Gabor Grothendieck]

For example, this works:

  library(zoo)
  as.Date(0)
  ## [1] "1970-01-01"

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 7:10 AM Achim Zeileis <Achim.Zeileis using uibk.ac.at> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 6 Dec 2020, Jan Gorecki wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I would like to propose to change the default value for "origin"
> > argument in as.POSIXct.numeric method, from current missing to new
> > "1970-01-01".
> > My proposal is motivated by the fact that this is the most commonly
> > needed value for "origin" argument and having that as a default seems
> > reasonable.
> > Proposed change seems to be pretty safe because it is now an error.
>
> I would also be in favor of this (and have been for years), mostly to make
> it consistent with the as.numeric() method. Same for "Date".
>
> To support the latter, the "zoo" package provides a separate as.Date()
> generic that enables the as.Date.numeric() with different default.
>
> The main argument of R Core against it is that it is too uncertain whether
> the origin is really 1970-01-01, e.g., when importing from Excel or SAS.
>
> Best wishes,
> Z
>
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-devel using r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> >
>
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