[R] HMisc describe -- error with dates

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:47:17 -0500
tmurph6 at po-box.mcgill.ca wrote:

> Thank you Gabor and Frank for you replies last week. Unfortunately I
> still don't get it (I'm kind of new at this). Just to recap: I'm
> starting with a Julian date and want results presented as 11NOV2003, for
> example (or some other date format with no time component). 
> 
> The HMisc describe function accepts variables that I have now formatted
> like this   
> 
> >date.ddmmmyy(aidsdate)
> 
> whereas it does not like variables formatted like this
> 
> >dates(aidsdate,format="day.mon.year", origin=c(month = 1, day = 1, year
> >=
> 1960))
> 
> which is what I was using with an earlier version of Hmisc.
> 
> I wasn't able to figure out how to use posix.
> 
> The problem now is that, unlike before, the dates are not sorted (at
> least not chronologically--maybe like character variables) and I liked
> seeing the 5 lowest and highest dates in the describe output. 
> 
> Sorry for pestering, but it is a testimony to how much I like Hmisc :)
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Tanya
> 
> 
> 

Tanya,

I want to fix this in general.  It's on my todo list for next week. 
-Frank


> Quoting Frank E Harrell Jr <feh3k at spamcop.net>:
> 
> > On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 20:40:50 -0500 (EST)
> > "Gabor Grothendieck" <ggrothendieck at myway.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > dates is part of chron.  There may be something wrong in 
> > > Hmisc's detection of chron objects.
> > > 
> > > > chron(1)
> > > [1] 01/02/70
> > > 
> > > > isChron(chron(1))
> > > FALSE
> > > 
> > > ---
> > >  
> > > Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 20:06:38 -0500 
> > > From: <tmurph6 at po-box.mcgill.ca>
> > > To: Frank E Harrell Jr <feh3k at spamcop.net> 
> > > Cc: <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch> 
> > > Subject: Re: [R] HMisc describe -- error with dates 
> > > 
> > >  
> > >  
> > > I am using the chron package. I have no preference for which
> > > function I use. I just want the most reliable format for HMisc
> > > functions and general plotting. I like the ddmonyyy formats (e.g.
> > > 11NOV2003). What would you recommend?
> > 
> > I like POSIX but chron should be workable.  The fix for isChron in
> > Hmisc is:
> > 
> > function(x) {
> >   cl <- class(x)
> >   dc <- if(.R.) c('POSIXt','POSIXct','dates','times','chron') else
> >                 c('timeDate','date','dates','times','chron')
> >   length(cl) && any(cl %in% dc)
> > }
> > 
> > But describe also runs this command:
> > 
> >   if(isdatetime) notime <- all(format(x.unique,"%H%M%S")=='000000')
> > 
> > and such calls to format for chron objects (which actually calls
> > format.dates if x.unique is a dates object) do not work.  So a few
> > more modifications will need to be made in describe to work with chron
> > objects, when time allows.
> > 
> > Frank
> > 
> > > 
> > > Thank you!
> > > 
> > > Quoting Frank E Harrell Jr <feh3k at spamcop.net>:
> > > 
> > > > On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 18:28:24 -0500
> > > > tmurph6 at po-box.mcgill.ca wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > Hello,
> > > > > 
> > > > > I am trying to use HMisc describe on a data frame. I have
> > > > > specified certain variables as dates using, for example:
> > > > > 
> > > > > df1$aidsdate <- dates(aidsdate,format="day.mon.year",
> > > > > origin=c(month = 1, day = 1, year = 1960))
> > > > > 
> > > > > When I use describe on the dataframe I get this error:
> > > > > 
> > > > > Error in Ops.dates(weights, x) : * not defined for chron objects
> > > > > 
> > > > > Has anyone had this problem? I had used the same method with an
> > > > > older version of R and HMisc and it worked. 
> > > > > 
> > > > > Should be be formatting date variables differently?
> > > > > 
> > > > > Thank you!
> > > > > 
> > > > > Sincerely,
> > > > > Tanya Murphy
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > In recent versions, describe for R recognizes date/times by one of
> > > > the following classes: 'POSIXt','POSIXct','chron'. If you really
> > > > need to use another date format I could be talked into extending
> > > > the code for that if you can remind me where dates( ) is found.
> > > > -Frank
> > > > 
> > > > ---
> > > > Frank E Harrell Jr Professor and Chair School of Medicine
> > > > Department of Biostatistics Vanderbilt University
> > > >
> > > 
> > > ______________________________________________
> > > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> > > https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > 
> > 
> > ---
> > Frank E Harrell Jr    Professor and Chair            School of
> > Medicine
> >                       Department of Biostatistics    Vanderbilt
> >                       University
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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---
Frank E Harrell Jr    Professor and Chair            School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics    Vanderbilt University