[R] strptime with +03:00 zone designator

[Richard O'Keefe]

(1) I hadn't tried to submit a bug report because (a) I wasn't sure
that it was an actual limitation in strptime() and not my ignorance or
stupidity and (b) I didn't actually know how to submit a bug report.
> bug.report(package = "base")
brings up a web page.  Clicking on "File a Bug" takes me to another page,
https://bugs.r-project.org/enter_bug.cgi
which says "
Bugzilla needs a legitimate login and password to continue
" and I don't have a login or a password for this.  The process is
more hassle than I really wanted to go through. Oh well, I'd better do
the thing properly.

(2) The relevant aspect of the ISO 8601 standard has been stable since
1988.  There are two ways to display any time thingy, a basic format
(where NONE of the optional separators are present) and an extended
format (where ALL of the optional separators are present).  There's no
half-and-half form.

On Mon, 6 Nov 2023 at 22:01, Martin Maechler <maechler using stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
>
> >>>>> Richard O'Keefe
> >>>>>     on Mon, 6 Nov 2023 18:37:34 +1300 writes:
>
>     > Thanks to all who replied.  On Mon, 6 Nov 2023 at 18:37,
>     > Richard O'Keefe <raoknz using gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     >> OK, so the consensus is (1) One cannot make strptime
>     >> accept ISO8601-compliant zone designators (2) The
>     >> lubridate package can (3) Or one can hack away with
>     >> regex.  Lubridate it is, then.
>     >>
>     >> But I do regard strptime's inability to process
>     >> ISO8601-compliant zone designators as a bug.
>
> Did you try to submit it to R's bugzilla?
>
> It's the first time I hear of this "Feature" of the ISO
> standard, but then I'm not at all a timezone, and even less an
> ISO standard expert.
>
> Best,
> Martin
>
>
>     >> On Mon, 6 Nov 2023 at 13:18, jim holtman
>     >> <jholtman using gmail.com> wrote:
>     >>
>     >>> try using 'lubridate'
>     >>>
>     >>> > library(lubridate)Attaching package: ‘lubridate’
>     >>>
>     >>> The following objects are masked from ‘package:base’:
>     >>>
>     >>> date, intersect, setdiff, union > x <-
>     >>> "2017-02-28T13:35:00+03:00"> ymd_hms(x)[1] "2017-02-28
>     >>> 10:35:00 UTC"
>     >>>
>     >>> >
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> Thanks
>     >>>
>     >>> Jim Holtman *Data Munger Guru*
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> *What is the problem that you are trying to solve?Tell
>     >>> me what you want to do, not how you want to do it.*
>     >>>
>     >>>
>     >>> On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 3:45 PM Richard O'Keefe
>     >>> <raoknz using gmail.com> wrote:
>     >>>
>     >>>> I have some data that includes timestamps like this:
>     >>>> 2017-02-28T13:35:00+03:00 The documentation for
>     >>>> strptime says that %z expects an offset like 0300.  I
>     >>>> don't see any way in the documentation to get it to
>     >>>> accept +hh:mm with a colon separator, and everything I
>     >>>> tried gave me NA as the answer.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> Section 4.2.5.1 of ISO 8601:2004(E) allows both the
>     >>>> absence of colons in +hh[mm] (basic format) and the
>     >>>> presence of colons in +hh:mm (extended format).  Again
>     >>>> in section 4.2.5.2 where a zone offset is combined with
>     >>>> a time of day: if you have hh:mm:ss you are using
>     >>>> extended format and the offset MUST have a colon; if
>     >>>> you have hhmmss you are using basic format and the
>     >>>> offset MUST NOT have a colon.  And again in section
>     >>>> 4.3.2 (complete representations of date and time of
>     >>>> day).  If you use hyphens and colons in the date and
>     >>>> time part you MUST have a colon in the zone designator.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> So I am dealing with timestamps in strict ISO 8601
>     >>>> complete extended representation, and it is rather
>     >>>> frustrating that strptime doesn't deal with it simply.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> The simplest thing would be for R's own version of
>     >>>> strptime to allow an optional colon between the hour
>     >>>> digits and the minute digits of a zone designator.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> I'm about to clone the data source and edit it to
>     >>>> remove the colons, but is there something obvious I am
>     >>>> missing?
>     >>>>
>     >>>> ______________________________________________
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>     >>>>
>     >>>
>
>     >   [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>     > ______________________________________________
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>     > PLEASE do read the posting guide
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