[Rd] The presence/absence of `zone` in POSIXlt depending on time zone as a cause of possible inconsistences?

[IAGO GINÉ VÁZQUEZ]

Dear all,

I have just detected what seems a minor inconsistence with data types. If one unlists a POSIXlt time with GMT zone gets a numeric vector, since the POSIXlt list has no `zone` element, while if one unlists a POSIXlt time with a non GMT zone (also non specifying tz if the Sys.timezone is not GMT) gets a character vector due to including the `zone` element.

> x <- as.POSIXlt(Sys.time(), "GMT")
> (y <- unlist(x))
      sec       min      hour      mday       mon      year      wday      yday     isdst
 54.99715  26.00000  16.00000  23.00000   9.00000 120.00000   5.00000 296.00000   0.00000
> str(y)
 Named num [1:9] 55 26 16 23 9 ...
 - attr(*, "names")= chr [1:9] "sec" "min" "hour" "mday" ...

> x <- as.POSIXlt(Sys.time(), "CET")
> (y <- unlist(x))
               sec                min               hour               mday                mon               year               wday               yday
"19.5111262798309"               "27"               "18"               "23"                "9"              "120"                "5"              "296"
             isdst               zone             gmtoff
               "1"             "CEST"             "7200"
> str(y)
 Named chr [1:11] "19.5111262798309" "27" "18" "23" "9" "120" "5" "296" "1" "CEST" "7200"
 - attr(*, "names")= chr [1:11] "sec" "min" "hour" "mday" ...

Is it expected? Why do not include always `zone` as an element of POSIXlt? Should POSIXlt objects be unlisted in a different way?
Thank you!
Best regards,

Iago

PS: I was using R 4.0.3. I don't know if this behaviour already changed in R-devel. Excuse me in that case.


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