[R] Error in fromchar(as.character(x)) : character string is not in a standard unambiguous format

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Bob Green wrote:

> Brian,
>
>
> Thanks for your reply. The data I have was downloaded from a
> government database so it now seems that the problem is how to
> convert all the records in the format '1-Apr-08' to the format 2008-04-11.

?as.Date tells you how:  as.Date("1-Apr-08", format="%d-%b-%y")

> I can ask the person working on the new version of this database
> whether they will use this standard, it certainly isn't in common use.
>
> Your explanation did make the help files, which I typically struggle
> with, clearer.
>
>
> Bob
>
>
> At 07:03 PM 11/04/2008, you wrote:
>> You need to give the format -- might mean 2008-04-01 or 2001-04-08,
>> and R refuses to guess.
>>
>> Please *do* read the help file (e.g. as.Date) before posting: the
>> international standard format is , and Australia has adopted that standard.
>>
>> On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Bob Green wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I was hoping for advice regarding resolving the above error.
>>
>> Telling R what you intend is the usual way to resolve user errors
>> caused by ambiguous input.
>>
>>>
>>> I have a csv file that contains the following variable:
>>>
>>>  $ Order.Made.Date       : Factor w/ 299 levels
>>> "1-Apr-08","1-Aug-05",..: 278 285 91 286 159 132 108 261 282 147 ...
>>>
>>>
>>> I want to calculate a variable named F.length, which is today's date
>>> minus  the values contained in  the variable: April$Order.Made.Date)
>>> I tried altering the date format but continued to receive the same error.
>>>
>>> > F.length <- difftime ("11/04/2008", April$Order.Made.Date)
>>>> Error in fromchar(as.character(x)) :   character string is not in
>>> a standard unambiguous format
>>>
>>> > Order.date <- as.Date (April$Order.Made.Date)
>>> > Error in fromchar(x) :   character string is not in a standard
>>> unambiguous format
>>>> Order.date <- 'as.POSIXlt' (April$Order.Made.Date)
>>> Error in fromchar(as.character(x)) :   character string is not in a
>>> standard unambiguous format
>>>
>>> Any suggestions are appreciated,
>>>
>>> Bob
>>
>>
>> --
>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at 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.
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595