
 I just do not want the dates format change randomly (seems to me) each time I read it from excel2007 file into R. 
When I export the excel2007 fiel into csv file and use read.csv function then the dates all come out good (as mm/dd/yyyy in csv file).
I guess I have to first import into csv file before reading into R. Just avoid reading from Excel2007 files directly. 
Thanks,
Hongying
 
 
 
> Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:24:50 +0100
> Subject: Re: [R] reading dates in Excel into R
> From: frainj@gmail.com
> To: Peter.Alspach@plantandfood.co.nz
> CC: colorleaf@hotmail.com; r-help@r-project.org
> 
> To read the data into R
> 1) I format my dates as YYYY-MM-DD in Excel (or OpenOffice Calc),
> 2) (change =na() to NA)
> 3) Check that required number of significant decimal places are displayed,
> 4) export as csv and
> 5) Use readSeries() function from Rmetrics timeSeries package to read
> the data into R.
> 
> For what it is worth I have found this approach flexible .
> 
> Best Regards
> 
> John
> 
> On 29 July 2010 22:18, Peter Alspach <Peter.Alspach@plantandfood.co.nz> wrote:
> > Tena koe
> >
> > What do you want to control?  You can govern the format used in R using the appropriate R functions.  I doubt it would be useful to have dates read from Excel depend on the format set for displaying those dates in Excel.
> >
> > HTH ....
> >,,,
> 
> > Peter Alspach
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: r-help-bounces@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces@r-
> >> project.org] On Behalf Of Hongying Li
> >> Sent: Friday, 30 July 2010 5:33 a.m.
> >> To: r-help@r-project.org
> >> Subject: [R] reading dates in Excel into R
> >>
> >>
> >> I am reading dates in Excel2007 into R.
> >>
> >> Here are the functions I used:
> >>
> >> library(RODBC)
> >> channel<-odbcConnectExcel2007("myfile.xlsx")
> >> tmp<-sqlFetch(channel,"1",as.is=T)
> >>
> >>
> >> The dates in myfile.xlsx are all in this format: mm/dd/yyyy. But when I
> >> read it to R, some columns look like "yyyy-mm-dd 00:00:00", some
> >> columns look like "yyyy-mm-dd", and some columns are numbers. I do not
> >> know how I can control this.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Any help? Thanks!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _________________________________________________________________
> >> Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from
> >> your inbox.
> >>
> >> N:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_2
> >>       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
> >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list
> >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
> >> guide.html
> >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help@r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> John C Frain
> Economics Department
> Trinity College Dublin
> Dublin 2
> Ireland
> www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/frainj/home.html
> mailto:frainj@tcd.ie
> mailto:frainj@gmail.com
 		 	   		  
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

