Convert Four Digit Year Values to Class Date in R (2 Examples)
In this R tutorial you’ll learn how to convert a vector of years to a Date object.
The tutorial contains these contents:
Let’s get started…
Introducing Example Data
Let’s first create some example data:
my_dates <- seq(2020, 2025) # Create vector of years my_dates # Print vector of years # [1] 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
As you can see based on the previous output of the RStudio console, our example data is a vector containing six numeric elements that correspond to a sequence of years from 2020 to 2025.
Example 1: Transform Year to Date Class Using ISOdate() & as.Date() Functions
The following R programming syntax demonstrates how to convert a four digit year object to a date object with the class Date.
For this, we first have to apply the ISOdate function to add months, days, and times to our data object:
my_dates1 <- ISOdate(my_dates, 1, 1) # Convert years to date & time my_dates1 # Print date & time vector # [1] "2020-01-01 12:00:00 GMT" "2021-01-01 12:00:00 GMT" # [3] "2022-01-01 12:00:00 GMT" "2023-01-01 12:00:00 GMT" # [5] "2024-01-01 12:00:00 GMT" "2025-01-01 12:00:00 GMT"
Let’s check the class of our new data object:
class(my_dates1) # Check class # [1] "POSIXct" "POSIXt"
At this point, our vector has the POSIXct class.
Next, we can convert our POSIXct object to a Date object using the as.Date function:
my_dates2 <- as.Date(my_dates1) # Convert date & time to Date class my_dates2 # Print Date class vector # [1] "2020-01-01" "2021-01-01" "2022-01-01" "2023-01-01" "2024-01-01" # [6] "2025-01-01"
As you can see, the times have been removed from our updated data object.
Let’s check the data type of this new object:
class(my_dates2) # Check class # [1] "Date"
Our final data object called my_dates2 has the Date class. Looks good!
Example 2: Transform Year to Date Class Using ymd() Function of lubridate Package
In Example 1, I have explained how to use the functions of Base R to transform four digit years to dates.
The following R code, in contrast, illustrates how to use the lubridate package for this task.
We first have to install and load the lubridate package:
install.packages("lubridate") # Install & load lubridate package library("lubridate")"
Next, we can apply the ymd function of the lubridate package to change the format of our example vector from a four digit year to the Date class:
my_dates3 <- ymd(my_dates, truncated = 2L) # Convert year to Date class my_dates3 # Print Date class vector # [1] "2020-01-01" "2021-01-01" "2022-01-01" "2023-01-01" "2024-01-01" # [6] "2025-01-01
Let’s also check the class:
class(my_dates3) # Check class # [1] "Date"
As you can see, the output is exactly the same as in Example 1. Whether you prefer to use the basic installation or the lubridate package is a matter of taste.
Video & Further Resources
Have a look at the following video which I have published on my YouTube channel. In the video, I’m explaining the R codes of this article in the R programming language.
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Furthermore, you might want to have a look at some of the related articles on https://www.statisticsglobe.com/. I have published several tutorials already.
- Convert Factor to Date in R
- Convert Date to Numeric Time Object
- Convert Data Frame with Date Column to Time Series Object
- Convert UNIX Timestamp to Date Object
- R Programming Overview
This tutorial has shown how to transform a vector of years to a Date object in the R programming language. If you have additional questions, tell me about it in the comments below.
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