Convert Date to Numeric Time Object in R (Example)
In this tutorial, I’ll explain how to transform a date to a time object in R programming. Furthermore, I’ll show how to extract the hours, minutes, and seconds of this date object.
Table of contents:
- Creation of Example Data
- Example: Convert Date to Time in R & Extract Time Only
- Video, Further Resources & Summary
Let’s dive right into the examples!
Creation of Example Data
Let’s first create some data that we can use in the following example:
x <- strptime("10:45:15", format = "%H:%M:%S") # Create date object x # Print date object # "2019-08-13 10:45:15 CEST"
Our example data is a simple date object (i.e. the 13th of August 2019, 10:45:15 am).
Now, let’s convert this date object to a numeric object representing the hours, minutes, and seconds of our date…
Example: Convert Date to Time in R & Extract Time Only
For this task, we need to install and load the lubridate R add-on package:
install.packages("lubridate") # Install lubridate package library("lubridate") # Load lubridate package
The lubridate package contains functions to extract the hours…
hour(x) # Basic application of hour function # 10
…minutes…
minute(x) # Basic application of minute function # 45
…or seconds of a date object:
second(x) # Basic application of second function # 15
In case we want to convert our date object to a numeric time value, we can use the following code for a conversion to hours…
x_hours <- hour(x) + minute(x) / 60 + second(x) / 3600 # Convert date object to hours x_hours # Print hours to RStudio console # 10.75417
…the following R code for a transformation to minutes…
x_minutes <- hour(x) * 60 + minute(x) + second(x) / 60 # Convert date object to minutes x_minutes # Print minutes to RStudio console # 645.25
…and the following R syntax for a conversion to seconds:
x_seconds <- hour(x) * 3600 + minute(x) * 60 + second(x) # Convert date object to seconds x_seconds # Print seconds to RStudio console # 38715
Easy going!
Video, Further Resources & Summary
Would you like to know more about the conversion of dates to time in R? Then I can recommend to watch the following video of my YouTube channel. I explain the R programming codes of this article in the video:
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Furthermore, you could read the related tutorials which I have published on my homepage:
- Extract Hours, Minutes & Seconds from Date & Time Object
- How to Create a Range of Dates in R
- Convert Date to Day of Week in R
- The R Programming Language
In this tutorial, I explained how to change the format of a date object in order to extract the time in R programming. In case you have additional questions, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments section. Furthermore, please subscribe to my email newsletter to get updates on new tutorials.
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