How to Split a Date-Time Column into Separate Variables in R (Example)

This tutorial illustrates how to divide a date-time object into two different variables in R programming.

The tutorial will consist of one example for the splitting of date-times. To be more precise, the post looks as follows:

So now the part you have been waiting for – the example.

Example Data

To begin with, let’s construct some example data in R:

data <- data.frame(values = 11:13,           # Create example data frame
                   all = c("2023/05/01 11:34:25",
                           "2022/10/14 09:10:30",
                           "2020/07/08 05:05:05"))
data                                         # Print example data frame

Table 1 visualizes that our example data is made of three data points and two columns. The variable all contains a dates and times.

Example: Add Date & Time Variables to Data Frame Using as.Date, format & as.POSIXct Functions

This example explains how to split our date-time column into two separate columns.

In a first step, we can use the as.Date function to add a date variable to our data frame:

data$date <- as.Date(data$all)               # Add date column

Next, we can apply the format and as.POSIXct functions to add a time variable to our data:

data$time <- format(as.POSIXct(data$all),    # Add time column
                    format = "%H:%M:%S")

Let’s have a look at our updated data frame:

data                                         # Print updated data frame

Table 2 reveals the output of the previous R syntax: Our input data frame plus a date and a time column.

Video, Further Resources & Summary

Do you want to learn more about dates and times in R? Then you could watch the following video of my YouTube channel. In the video, I illustrate the contents of this page in RStudio.

In addition, you might have a look at the related articles on my website. Some tutorials can be found below.

• Convert Dates to Year/Quarter Format
• Add Time to Date Object in R
• Get Week Number of Date in R
• Split Data Frame Variable into Multiple Columns
• Split Data Frame into List of Data Frames Based On ID Column
• Introduction to R

In this R tutorial you have learned how to separate a date-time data object. Don’t hesitate to tell me about it in the comments section, in case you have further questions.