Convert Character String with AM & PM to Date & Time in R (Example)

This tutorial illustrates how to remove AM and PM from a date and time object in the R programming language.

The tutorial will contain this:

Let’s dive right into the example:

Creation of Example Data

The following data is used as a basis for this R tutorial:

my_dt <- c("5/02/2022 11:59:22 PM",    # Create example dates & times
           "7/12/2024 07:15:59 AM",
           "3/10/2022 10:12:03 PM",
           "5/09/2023 08:11:27 PM")
my_dt                                  # Print example dates & times
# [1] "5/02/2022 11:59:22 PM" "7/12/2024 07:15:59 AM" "3/10/2022 10:12:03 PM"
# [4] "5/09/2023 08:11:27 PM"

The previous output of the RStudio console shows that our example data is a vector containing four different dates and times. As you can see, our data contains AM and PM specifications.

Let’s also check the data class of our example vector:

class(my_dt)                           # Check class of data
# [1] "character"

Currently, our data is formatted as a character string.

Example: Drop AM & PM from Dates & Times Using parse_date_time() Function of lubridate Package

This example demonstrates how to transform a character string containing dates and times with AM and PM to a proper date and time object.

We first have to install and load the lubridate package:

install.packages("lubridate")          # Install & load lubridate package
library("lubridate")

In the next step, we can convert our character strings to dates and times without the AM and PM components.

For this, we have to specify %I for the hours, and %p for the AM and PM component:

my_dt_new <- parse_date_time(my_dt,    # Remove AM & PM from dates & times
                             "%d/%m/%y %I:%M:%S %p")
my_dt_new                              # Print updated dates
# [1] "2022-02-05 23:59:22 UTC" "2024-12-07 07:15:59 UTC"
# [3] "2022-10-03 22:12:03 UTC" "2023-09-05 20:11:27 UTC"

As you can see, the format of our date and time elements has been changed: The AM and PM components have been dropped.

Let’s check the class of our updated data:

class(my_dt_new)                       # Check class of data
# [1] "POSIXct" "POSIXt"

We have converted our character string to the POSIXct class. Looks good!

Video, Further Resources & Summary

Do you want to know more about the removal of AM and PM from a date and time object? Then you could watch the following video on my YouTube channel. I show the R syntax of this page in the video:

In addition, you may want to have a look at the other tutorials that I have published on statisticsglobe.com:

• Convert POSIXct Date & Time to UNIX Epoch Timestamp
• Convert Data Frame with Date Column to Time Series Object
• Convert Character String to Variable Name
• Convert Character String to Date Object
• All R Programming Examples

In this R tutorial you have learned how to drop AM and PM from a date and time. Let me know in the comments below, if you have additional comments and/or questions.