`anytime` was written for this: > anytime::anytime("2020-09-17_00:00:00") [1] "2020-09-17 CDT" > class(anytime::anytime("2020-09-17_00:00:00")) [1] "POSIXct" "POSIXt" > Dirk -- dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd using debian.org