[R] strange problem with strptime and date variable

[David Winsemius]

On Jul 18, 2011, at 11:21 PM, Edwin Sun wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I am manipulating a large database with 70,000 records. "strptime"  
> generates
> a date variable but R treats some of the values as NA. I attach a  
> simple
> example below.

Cannot duplicate but I'm betting on three words:

daylight savings time

-- 
David.
>
> I have spent hours on this problem. Any hint would be greatly  
> appreciated.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Edwin Sun
>
> # =======start of sample code =============
>
>> x <- c("2005-04-02 19:03:00", "2005-04-03 02:00:00", "2005-04-03
>> 14:25:00")
>
>> y <- strptime(x, format="%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
>
>> x; y; str(x); str(y)
> [1] "2005-04-02 19:03:00" "2005-04-03 02:00:00" "2005-04-03 14:25:00"
> [1] "2005-04-02 19:03:00" "2005-04-03 02:00:00" "2005-04-03 14:25:00"
> chr [1:3] "2005-04-02 19:03:00" "2005-04-03 02:00:00" ...
> POSIXlt[1:3], format: "2005-04-02 19:03:00" "2005-04-03 02:00:00" ...
>
>> is.na(y)
> [1] FALSE  TRUE FALSE
>
>> difftime(y[2], y[1], units="mins")
> Time difference of NA mins
>
>> difftime(y[3], y[1], units="mins")
> Time difference of 1102 mins
>
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 2.13.1 (2011-07-08)
> Platform: i386-pc-mingw32/i386 (32-bit)
>
> locale:
> [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252
> [2] LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252
> [3] LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252
> [4] LC_NUMERIC=C
> [5] LC_TIME=English_United States.1252
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] grDevices datasets  splines   graphics  stats     tcltk     utils
> [8] methods   base
>
> other attached packages:
> [1] svSocket_0.9-51 TinnR_1.0.3     R2HTML_2.2      Hmisc_3.8-3
> [5] survival_2.36-9
>
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] cluster_1.14.0  grid_2.13.1     lattice_0.19-30 svMisc_0.9-61
> [5] tools_2.13.1
>
> # My computer is 64 bit / Microsoft Window 7; R 2.13.1 (32 bit)
>
> # ======= end of sample code ====================
>
>
>
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/strange-problem-with-strptime-and-date-variable-tp3677178p3677178.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT