[R] No "number of days" format for 'difftime'?

[John Kane]

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-read-errors and-warnings-in-r.html
If something goes wrong with your code, R tells you. We have to admit it: These error messages can range from mildly confusing to completely incomprehensible if you’re not used to them.


fortune(350) regarding the on-line help is also inspiring

You need to get the hang of reading the online help. The information required is actually therein ?dotchart --- it's just tersely and obscurely expressed. A certain degree of optimism is required. You need to ***believe*** that the information is there; then ask yourself "What could they possibly mean by what they have written that would tell me what I need to know?".
   -- Rolf Turner (on reading the help pages)
      R-help (June 2013)


John Kane
Kingston ON Canada


> -----Original Message-----
> From: loris.bennett at fu-berlin.de
> Sent: Mon, 8 Aug 2016 12:07:43 +0200
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [R] No "number of days" format for 'difftime'?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I was probably misled by the, to my mind, esoteric error message into
> thinking the error was more subtle.  Something like "unmatched quotes"
> might have helped me recognise that I was just being dopey.
> 
> Thanks to John and Rui.
> 
> Loris
> 
> <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt> writes:
> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> You're missing a double quotes. Right after format=
>> 
>> Hope this helps,
>> 
>> Rui Barradas
>> 
>> 
>> Citando Loris Bennett <loris.bennett at fu-berlin.de>:
>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> When I try
>>> 
>>> d <- as.difftime("6-08:18:33",format=%d-%H:%M:%S")
>>> 
>>> I get:
>>> 
>>> Error: unexpected SPECIAL in "as.difftime("6-08:18:33",format=%d-%"
>>> 
>>> Am I correct in thinking that it is not possible to do something like
>>> this, because there is no character string for the format which
>>> corresponds to "number of days"?
>>> 
>>> I could misuse "%j" for "day of the year as a decimal number", but
>>> ultimately the "difftime" object is still a data, rather than a length
>>> of time and I should be looking at a package like 'lubridate' instead.
>>> Is that the case?
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> Loris
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Dr. Loris Bennett (Mr.)
>>> ZEDAT, Freie Universität Berlin         Email
>>> loris.bennett at fu-berlin.de
>>> 
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.htmland provide commented,
>>> minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> 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.
> 
> --
> Dr. Loris Bennett (Mr.)
> ZEDAT, Freie Universität Berlin         Email loris.bennett at fu-berlin.de
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> 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.

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