i have a data frame with 2 columns of dates.
with str(dataframe) i have ensured myself that they were indeed formatted
as dates.
one column has NA's in it.

the aim is now to make a third column that chooses date1 if it is a date,
and choose date2 if it is a NA.

i am trying
df$date3=ifelse(is.na(df$date1), df$date2, df$date1).

this leads to unexpected behaviour: the resulting column is numeric, and
shows numbers like 16000.

i have no idea what this is and how to solve it?

henk

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