Why Is R Generating a Date When Uploading From Excel

Working with dates

Working with dates in R requires more attending than working with other object classes. Below, nosotros offer some tools and example to brand this process less painful. Luckily, dates can be wrangled easily with practice, and with a set up of helpful packages such as lubridate.

Upon import of raw data, R often interprets dates as character objects - this means they cannot be used for general date operations such equally making time series and calculating time intervals. To make matters more than hard, there are many ways a appointment can be formatted and yous must assistance R know which part of a date represents what (month, day, hour, etc.).

Dates in R are their own class of object - the Date grade. Information technology should be noted that at that place is also a class that stores objects with appointment and time. Date time objects are formally referred to as POSIXt, POSIXct, and/or POSIXlt classes (the difference isn't of import). These objects are informally referred to as datetime classes.

  • It is of import to brand R recognize when a column contains dates.
  • Dates are an object class and tin can exist tricky to work with.
  • Here we present several ways to convert date columns to Appointment form.

Grooming

Load packages

This lawmaking chunk shows the loading of packages required for this page. In this handbook we emphasize p_load() from pacman, which installs the parcel if necessary and loads it for utilize. You lot tin as well load installed packages with library() from base of operations R. Come across the page on R nuts for more than data on R packages.

                                  # Checks if package is installed, installs if necessary, and loads package for current session                  pacman                  ::                  p_load                  (                  lubridate,                  # full general parcel for handling and converting dates                                    linelist,                  # has function to "guess" messy dates                  aweek,                  # another option for converting dates to weeks, and weeks to dates                  zoo,                  # additional appointment/time functions                  tidyverse,                  # data management and visualization                                    rio                  )                  # data import/export                              

Import data

We import the dataset of cases from a simulated Ebola epidemic. If you want to download the data to follow along footstep-by-step, meet instruction in the Download handbook and information page. We presume the file is in the working directory so no sub-folders are specified in this file path.

                                  linelist                  <-                  import                  (                  "linelist_cleaned.xlsx"                  )                              

Current date

You tin go the electric current "system" date or organization datetime of your reckoner past doing the following with base R.

                              # get the arrangement date - this is a Engagement course                Sys.Date                (                )                          
            ## [i] "2021-12-fifteen"          
                              # become the system fourth dimension - this is a DATETIME class                Sys.time                (                )                          
            ## [one] "2021-12-15 20:25:52 EST"          

With the lubridate parcel these tin can also exist returned with today() and now(), respectively. appointment() returns the electric current appointment and time with weekday and month names.

Convert to Appointment

After importing a dataset into R, date column values may look like "1989/12/xxx", "05/06/2014", or "13 January 2020". In these cases, R is likely yet treating these values as Character values. R must be told that these values are dates… and what the format of the date is (which part is 24-hour interval, which is Month, which is Yr, etc).

Once told, R converts these values to class Date. In the background, R will store the dates equally numbers (the number of days from its "origin" date 1 Jan 1970). You volition non interface with the date number ofttimes, merely this allows for R to treat dates as continuous variables and to allow special operations such as computing the distance between dates.

By default, values of class Date in R are displayed as YYYY-MM-DD. Later on in this section we will discuss how to change the brandish of date values.

Beneath we present two approaches to converting a column from character values to form Appointment.

TIP: You can bank check the current form of a cavalcade with base R function course(), like class(linelist$date_onset).

base R

as.Date() is the standard, base of operations R office to catechumen an object or column to course Date (note capitalization of "D").

Use of as.Appointment() requires that:

  • You lot specify the existing format of the raw graphic symbol appointment or the origin date if supplying dates as numbers (see section on Excel dates)
  • If used on a graphic symbol column, all date values must have the aforementioned exact format (if this is not the instance, effort guess_dates() from the linelist bundle)

First, check the course of your column with class() from base of operations R. If you are unsure or dislocated about the course of your data (e.g. you lot see "POSIXct", etc.) it can be easiest to first convert the column to grade Grapheme with equally.character(), and so convert information technology to class Date.

2d, within the as.Appointment() function, utilize the format = argument to tell R the current format of the character appointment components - which characters refer to the calendar month, the twenty-four hours, and the year, and how they are separated. If your values are already in one of R's standard appointment formats ("YYYY-MM-DD" or "YYYY/MM/DD") the format = statement is not necessary.

To format =, provide a character string (in quotes) that represents the electric current date format using the special "strptime" abbreviations below. For example, if your character dates are currently in the format "DD/MM/YYYY", like "24/04/1968", so you would use format = "%d/%1000/%Y" to convert the values into dates. Putting the format in quotation marks is necessary. And don't forget any slashes or dashes!

                                  # Convert to class date                  linelist                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  mutate                  (date_onset                  =                  every bit.Date                  (                  date_of_onset, format                  =                  "%d/%m/%Y"                  )                  )                              

Most of the strptime abbreviations are listed below. You can see the complete listing past running ?strptime.

%d = Day number of month (5, 17, 28, etc.)
%j = Day number of the twelvemonth (Julian 24-hour interval 001-366)
%a = Abbreviated weekday (Mon, Tue, Wed, etc.)
%A = Full weekday (Mon, Tuesday, etc.) %westward = Weekday number (0-6, Sunday is 0)
%u = Weekday number (ane-7, Monday is 1)
%W = Calendar week number (00-53, Monday is week start)
%U = Week number (01-53, Sunday is week first)
%m = Calendar month number (e.g. 01, 02, 03, 04)
%b = Abbreviated month (Jan, Feb, etc.)
%B = Total calendar month (January, Feb, etc.)
%y = two-digit year (e.m. 89)
%Y = iv-digit year (e.g. 1989)
%h = hours (24-hour clock)
%m = minutes
%s = seconds %z = starting time from GMT
%Z = Fourth dimension zone (grapheme)

TIP: The format = statement of as.Appointment() is non telling R the format you want the dates to be, but rather how to identify the date parts every bit they are before you run the command.

TIP: Be sure that in the format = argument you use the date-part separator (e.one thousand. /, -, or space) that is present in your dates.

Once the values are in class Date, R will by default brandish them in the standard format, which is YYYY-MM-DD.

lubridate

Converting grapheme objects to dates can be fabricated easier by using the lubridate parcel. This is a tidyverse package designed to make working with dates and times more unproblematic and consequent than in base of operations R. For these reasons, lubridate is often considered the gold-standard package for dates and time, and is recommended whenever working with them.

The lubridate package provides several dissimilar helper functions designed to convert character objects to dates in an intuitive, and more lenient style than specifying the format in as.Date(). These functions are specific to the rough date format, just allow for a variety of separators, and synonyms for dates (e.g. 01 vs Jan vs January) - they are named after abbreviations of date formats.

                                  # install/load lubridate                                    pacman                  ::                  p_load                  (                  lubridate                  )                              

The ymd() role flexibly converts date values supplied as yr, and then month, then twenty-four hours.

                                  # read date in year-month-day format                  ymd                  (                  "2020-10-11"                  )                              
              ## [1] "2020-x-11"            
              ## [one] "2020-x-11"            

The mdy() function flexibly converts date values supplied as month, then twenty-four hour period, then year.

                                  # read date in calendar month-day-year format                  mdy                  (                  "10/eleven/2020"                  )                              
              ## [1] "2020-x-xi"            
              ## [ane] "2020-10-11"            

The dmy() function flexibly converts date values supplied equally day, then calendar month, then year.

                                  # read date in day-month-yr format                  dmy                  (                  "11 10 2020"                  )                              
              ## [ane] "2020-ten-11"            
              ## [1] "2020-10-11"            

If using piping, the conversion of a grapheme column to dates with lubridate might look like this:

                                  linelist                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  mutate                  (date_onset                  =                  lubridate                  ::                  dmy                  (                  date_onset                  )                  )                              

Once complete, you can run grade() to verify the class of the column

                                  # Check the class of the column                  class                  (                  linelist                  $                  date_onset                  )                              

Once the values are in class Date, R will by default display them in the standard format, which is YYYY-MM-DD.

Annotation that the to a higher place functions work all-time with 4-digit years. ii-digit years can produce unexpected results, equally lubridate attempts to approximate the century.

To convert a 2-digit twelvemonth into a four-digit twelvemonth (all in the aforementioned century) y'all tin convert to form character and then combine the existing digits with a pre-fix using str_glue() from the stringr packet (see Characters and strings). Then convert to date.

                                  two_digit_years                  <-                  c                  (                  "xv",                  "15",                  "sixteen",                  "17"                  )                  str_glue                  (                  "20{two_digit_years}"                  )                              
              ## 2015 ## 2015 ## 2016 ## 2017            

Combine columns

You tin use the lubridate functions make_date() and make_datetime() to combine multiple numeric columns into i appointment column. For example if you take numeric columns onset_day, onset_month, and onset_year in the information frame linelist:

                                  linelist                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  mutate                  (onset_date                  =                  make_date                  (twelvemonth                  =                  onset_year, month                  =                  onset_month, day                  =                  onset_day                  )                  )                              

Excel dates

In the background, most software shop dates as numbers. R stores dates from an origin of 1st January, 1970. Thus, if y'all run as.numeric(as.Date("1970-01-01)) y'all will become 0.

Microsoft Excel stores dates with an origin of either December 30, 1899 (Windows) or January 1, 1904 (Mac), depending on your operating system. Run into this Microsoft guidance for more information.

Excel dates frequently import into R as these numeric values instead of equally characters. If the dataset you lot imported from Excel shows dates as numbers or characters like "41369"… use every bit.Date() (or lubridate's as_date() role) to convert, but instead of supplying a "format" as higher up, supply the Excel origin date to the argument origin =.

This will not work if the Excel engagement is stored in R every bit a grapheme type, so be certain to ensure the number is class Numeric!

NOTE: You should provide the origin date in R'south default date format ("YYYY-MM-DD").

                              # An example of providing the Excel 'origin engagement' when converting Excel number dates                data_cleaned                <-                data                %>%                mutate                (date_onset                =                as.numeric                (                date_onset                )                )                %>%                # ensure class is numeric                mutate                (date_onset                =                as.Date                (                date_onset, origin                =                "1899-12-30"                )                )                # catechumen to engagement using Excel origin                          

Messy dates

The function guess_dates() from the linelist package attempts to read a "messy" date column containing dates in many different formats and convert the dates to a standard format. You can read more than online about guess_dates(). If guess_dates() is not yet available on CRAN for R 4.0.ii, effort install via pacman::p_load_gh("reconhub/linelist").

For example guess_dates would run across a vector of the post-obit character dates "03 Jan 2018", "07/03/1982", and "08/20/85" and convert them to form Date equally: 2018-01-03, 1982-03-07, and 1985-08-20.

                              linelist                ::                guess_dates                (                c                (                "03 Jan 2018",                "07/03/1982",                "08/20/85"                )                )                          
            ## [1] "2018-01-03" "1982-03-07" "1985-08-20"          

Some optional arguments for guess_dates() that you lot might include are:

  • error_tolerance - The proportion of entries which cannot be identified every bit dates to be tolerated (defaults to 0.ane or x%)
  • last_date - the final valid date (defaults to current date)
  • first_date - the first valid date. Defaults to l years before the last_date.
                                                # An example using guess_dates on the column dater_onset                                linelist                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  # the dataset is called linelist                                                  mutate(                                  date_onset =                  linelist::                  guess_dates(                  # the guess_dates() from bundle "linelist"                                                  date_onset,                                  error_tolerance =                  0.1,                                  first_date =                  "2016-01-01"                                                  )                          

Working with appointment-time course

Equally previously mentioned, R also supports a datetime class - a column that contains engagement and time information. Equally with the Date course, these often need to be converted from character objects to datetime objects.

Convert dates with times

A standard datetime object is formatted with the date showtime, which is followed by a time component - for example 01 January 2020, 16:thirty. As with dates, there are many means this tin can exist formatted, and there are numerous levels of precision (hours, minutes, seconds) that can be supplied.

Luckily, lubridate helper functions also exist to help convert these strings to datetime objects. These functions are extensions of the date helper functions, with _h (but hours supplied), _hm (hours and minutes supplied), or _hms (hours, minutes, and seconds supplied) appended to the stop (e.1000.dmy_hms()). These can be used as shown:

Convert datetime with only hours to datetime object

                                  ymd_h                  (                  "2020-01-01 16hrs"                  )                              
              ## [1] "2020-01-01 16:00:00 UTC"            
              ## [i] "2020-01-01 16:00:00 UTC"            

Convert datetime with hours and minutes to datetime object

                                  dmy_hm                  (                  "01 January 2020 16:xx"                  )                              
              ## [i] "2020-01-01 16:20:00 UTC"            

Catechumen datetime with hours, minutes, and seconds to datetime object

                                  mdy_hms                  (                  "01 Jan 2020, 16:xx:40"                  )                              
              ## [1] "2020-01-20 16:20:40 UTC"            

You lot can supply time zone but it is ignored. See section later on in this folio on time zones.

                                  mdy_hms                  (                  "01 January 2020, 16:20:twoscore PST"                  )                              
              ## [1] "2020-01-xx 16:xx:40 UTC"            

When working with a data frame, time and date columns can exist combined to create a datetime column using str_glue() from stringr package and an appropriate lubridate role. See the page on Characters and strings for details on stringr.

In this example, the linelist data frame has a column in format "hours:minutes". To convert this to a datetime we follow a few steps:

  1. Create a "clean" time of admission column with missing values filled-in with the cavalcade median. We do this considering lubridate won't operate on missing values. Combine information technology with the column date_hospitalisation, then utilize the function ymd_hm() to convert.
                                                      # packages                                    pacman::                    p_load(tidyverse, lubridate, stringr)                                                        # time_admission is a column in hours:minutes                                    linelist                    <-                    linelist                    %>%                                                                                            # when fourth dimension of admission is non given, assign the median admission time                                                        mutate(                                      time_admission_clean =                    ifelse(                                      is.na(time_admission),                    # if fourth dimension is missing                                                        median(time_admission),                    # assign the median                                                        time_admission                    # if not missing continue equally is                                                        )                    %>%                                                                                            # use str_glue() to combine appointment and time columns to create one graphic symbol column                                                        # and then use ymd_hm() to convert it to datetime                                                        mutate(                                      date_time_of_admission =                    str_glue("{date_hospitalisation} {time_admission_clean}")                    %>%                                                        ymd_hm()                                      )                              

Convert times alone

If your information contain only a character time (hours and minutes), you tin convert and manipulate them every bit times using strptime() from base of operations R. For instance, to go the difference between two of these times:

                                  # raw character times                  time1                  <-                  "13:45"                  time2                  <-                  "15:20"                  # Times converted to a datetime class                  time1_clean                  <-                  strptime                  (                  time1, format                  =                  "%H:%M"                  )                  time2_clean                  <-                  strptime                  (                  time2, format                  =                  "%H:%M"                  )                  # Difference is of class "difftime" past default, here converted to numeric hours                                    every bit.numeric                  (                  time2_clean                  -                  time1_clean                  )                  # difference in hours                              
              ## [1] ane.583333            

Note however that without a date value provided, it assumes the appointment is today. To combine a string date and a string time together see how to use stringr in the section just above. Read more about strptime() here.

To catechumen single-digit numbers to double-digits (eastward.thou. to "pad" hours or minutes with leading zeros to accomplish 2 digits), see this "Pad length" section of the Characters and strings page.

Working with dates

lubridate can also be used for a variety of other functions, such as extracting aspects of a date/datetime, performing date arithmetic, or computing date intervals

Here nosotros define a date to use for the examples:

                              # create object of class Date                example_date                <-                ymd                (                "2020-03-01"                )                          

Date math

You lot can add certain numbers of days or weeks using their respective function from lubridate.

                                  # add three days to this engagement                  example_date                  +                  days                  (                  3                  )                              
              ## [1] "2020-03-04"            
                                  # add 7 weeks and subtract two days from this date                  example_date                  +                  weeks                  (                  7                  )                  -                  days                  (                  two                  )                              
              ## [1] "2020-04-17"            

Date intervals

The difference between dates tin be calculated by:

  1. Ensure both dates are of class date
  2. Utilise subtraction to return the "difftime" difference between the two dates
  3. If necessary, convert the upshot to numeric course to perform subsequent mathematical calculations

Below the interval between two dates is calculated and displayed. Yous tin discover intervals by using the subtraction "minus" symbol on values that are grade Date. Note, however that the class of the returned value is "difftime" equally displayed below, and must exist converted to numeric.

                                  # find the interval between this date and Feb 20 2020                                    output                  <-                  example_date                  -                  ymd                  (                  "2020-02-20"                  )                  output                  # print                              
              ## Time divergence of 10 days            
              ## [1] "difftime"            

To practise subsequent operations on a "difftime", convert information technology to numeric with as.numeric().

This can all be brought together to work with data - for example:

                                  pacman                  ::                  p_load                  (                  lubridate,                  tidyverse                  )                  # load packages                  linelist                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  # convert date of onset from character to date objects by specifying dmy format                  mutate                  (date_onset                  =                  dmy                  (                  date_onset                  ),          date_hospitalisation                  =                  dmy                  (                  date_hospitalisation                  )                  )                  %>%                  # filter out all cases without onset in march                  filter                  (                  calendar month                  (                  date_onset                  )                  ==                  3                  )                  %>%                  # discover the divergence in days between onset and hospitalisation                  mutate                  (days_onset_to_hosp                  =                  date_hospitalisation                  -                  date_of_onset                  )                              

In a data frame context, if either of the above dates is missing, the performance volition fail for that row. This will effect in an NA instead of a numeric value. When using this cavalcade for calculations, exist certain to set the na.rm = argument to True. For example:

                                  # calculate the median number of days to hospitalisation for all cases where data are available                  median                  (                  linelist_delay                  $                  days_onset_to_hosp, na.rm                  =                  T                  )                              

Appointment display

Once dates are the correct class, yous often want them to brandish differently, for example to display as "Monday 05 January" instead of "2018-01-05". Yous may too want to adjust the brandish in order to and so group rows by the date elements displayed - for case to group by month-year.

format()

Adjust date display with the base R function format(). This part accepts a character string (in quotes) specifying the desired output format in the "%" strptime abbreviations (the same syntax as used in as.Appointment()). Below are most of the common abbreviations.

Note: using format() will catechumen the values to class Graphic symbol, so this is by and large used towards the end of an analysis or for brandish purposes only! Y'all tin see the complete list by running ?strptime.

%d = Day number of calendar month (5, 17, 28, etc.)
%j = Twenty-four hours number of the year (Julian day 001-366)
%a = Abbreviated weekday (Mon, Tue, Wed, etc.)
%A = Full weekday (Mon, Tuesday, etc.)
%westward = Weekday number (0-6, Sun is 0)
%u = Weekday number (ane-7, Monday is 1)
%West = Week number (00-53, Monday is week start)
%U = Week number (01-53, Sunday is week offset)
%one thousand = Month number (e.g. 01, 02, 03, 04)
%b = Abbreviated calendar month (Jan, Feb, etc.)
%B = Full month (January, Feb, etc.)
%y = ii-digit year (e.chiliad. 89)
%Y = 4-digit year (due east.thou. 1989)
%h = hours (24-hr clock)
%m = minutes
%s = seconds
%z = beginning from GMT
%Z = Time zone (character)

An example of formatting today'due south date:

                                  # today'due south appointment, with formatting                  format                  (                  Sys.Date                  (                  ), format                  =                  "%d %B %Y"                  )                              
              ## [1] "15 December 2021"            
                                  # easy way to get full engagement and time (default formatting)                  engagement                  (                  )                              
              ## [1] "Midweek December 15 20:25:53 2021"            
                                  # formatted combined appointment, time, and time zone using str_glue() function                  str_glue                  (                  "{format(Sys.Date(), format = '%A, %B %d %Y, %z  %Z, ')}{format(Sys.fourth dimension(), format = '%H:%M:%S')}"                  )                              
              ## Wednesday, December 15 2021, +0000  UTC, 20:25:53            
              ## [1] "2021 Calendar week 50"            

Note that if using str_glue(), be enlightened of that within the expected double quotes " you should but use single quotes (equally to a higher place).

Calendar month-Twelvemonth

To catechumen a Appointment column to Calendar month-year format, we suggest yous utilize the function as.yearmon() from the zoo package. This converts the date to class "yearmon" and retains the proper ordering. In contrast, using format(column, "%Y %B") will catechumen to class Character and will order the values alphabetically (incorrectly).

Below, a new cavalcade yearmonth is created from the column date_onset, using the as.yearmon() part. The default (right) ordering of the resulting values are shown in the table.

                                  # create new column                                    test_zoo                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  mutate                  (yearmonth                  =                  zoo                  ::                  as.yearmon                  (                  date_onset                  )                  )                  # print table                  tabular array                  (                  test_zoo                  $                  yearmon                  )                              
              ##  ## Apr 2014 May 2014 Jun 2014 Jul 2014 Aug 2014 Sep 2014 Oct 2014 November 2014 December 2014 Jan 2015 Feb 2015 Mar 2015 Apr 2015  ##        seven       64      100      226      528     1070     1112      763      562      431      306      277      186            

In contrast, you can run across how only using format() does achieve the desired display format, but not the right ordering.

                                  # create new column                  test_format                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  mutate                  (yearmonth                  =                  format                  (                  date_onset,                  "%b %Y"                  )                  )                  # print tabular array                  tabular array                  (                  test_format                  $                  yearmon                  )                              
              ##  ## Apr 2014 Apr 2015 Aug 2014 Dec 2014 Feb 2015 Jan 2015 Jul 2014 Jun 2014 Mar 2015 May 2014 Nov 2014 October 2014 Sep 2014  ##        seven      186      528      562      306      431      226      100      277       64      763     1112     1070            

Annotation: if y'all are working within a ggplot() and want to adjust how dates are displayed only, information technology may be sufficient to provide a strptime format to the date_labels = statement in scale_x_date() - you can use "%b %Y" or "%Y %b". Encounter the ggplot tips page.

zoo also offers the function as.yearqtr(), and you tin apply scale_x_yearmon() when using ggplot().

Epidemiological weeks

lubridate

See the page on Group data for more all-encompassing examples of group data by date. Beneath nosotros briefly depict group data by weeks.

We by and large recommend using the floor_date() office from lubridate, with the argument unit = "week". This rounds the date down to the "start" of the week, as divers by the statement week_start =. The default calendar week offset is one (for Mondays) just y'all can specify any twenty-four hours of the week as the start (e.g. 7 for Sundays). floor_date() is versitile and tin can be used to round down to other time units by setting unit = to "2nd", "minute", "hour", "solar day", "month", or "yr".

The returned value is the start engagement of the week, in Engagement class. Date class is useful when plotting the data, as it volition be easily recognized and ordered correctly by ggplot().

If you are only interested in adjusting dates to display by week in a plot, see the section in this page on Engagement display. For case when plotting an epicurve you can format the date display past providing the desired strptime "%" nomenclature. For instance, use "%Y-%W" or "%Y-%U" to return the year and calendar week number (given Mon or Sunday calendar week kickoff, respectively).

Weekly counts

See the page on Grouping data for a thorough explanation of grouping data with count(), group_by(), and summarise(). A brief case is below.

  1. Create a new 'week' column with mutate(), using floor_date() with unit = "week"
  2. Get counts of rows (cases) per week with count(); filter out whatsoever cases with missing date
  3. Finish with complete() from tidyr to ensure that all weeks appear in the data - fifty-fifty those with no rows/cases. Past default the count values for any "new" rows are NA, only you tin can brand them 0 with the fill = argument, which expects a named listing (below, n is the name of the counts column).
                                  # Make aggregated dataset of weekly example counts                  weekly_counts                  <-                  linelist                  %>%                  drop_na                  (                  date_onset                  )                  %>%                  # remove cases missing onset appointment                  mutate                  (weekly_cases                  =                  floor_date                  (                  # brand new column, calendar week of onset                  date_onset,     unit of measurement                  =                  "week"                  )                  )                  %>%                  count                  (                  weekly_cases                  )                  %>%                  # group data by week and count rows per group (creates cavalcade 'north')                  tidyr                  ::                  consummate                  (                  # ensure all weeks are nowadays, even those with no cases reported                  weekly_cases                  =                  seq.Engagement                  (                  # re-ascertain the "weekly_cases" column every bit a complete sequence,                  from                  =                  min                  (                  weekly_cases                  ),                  # from the minimum date                  to                  =                  max                  (                  weekly_cases                  ),                  # to the maxiumum date                  by                  =                  "calendar week"                  ),                  # by weeks                  fill                  =                  listing                  (n                  =                  0                  )                  )                  # fill-in NAs in the n counts column with 0                              

Here are the kickoff rows of the resulting data frame:

Epiweek alternatives

Note that lubridate also has functions week(), epiweek(), and isoweek(), each of which has slightly dissimilar first dates and other nuances. More often than not speaking though, floor_date() should be all that you need. Read the details for these functions by entering ?week into the console or reading the documentation here.

You might consider using the parcel aweek to set epidemiological weeks. You lot can read more about information technology on the RECON website. It has the functions date2week() and week2date() in which you can set the week start day with week_start = "Monday". This package is easiest if you want "week"-style outputs (e.g. "2020-W12"). Another reward of aweek is that when date2week() is practical to a date column, the returned cavalcade (week format) is automatically of class Gene and includes levels for all weeks in the time span (this avoids the extra step of consummate() described to a higher place). Yet, aweek does not have the functionality to circular dates to other fourth dimension units such every bit months, years, etc.

Some other culling for time series which likewise works well to prove a a "week" format ("2020 W12") is yearweek() from the package tsibble, every bit demonstrated in the folio on Time series and outbreak detection.

Converting dates/time zones

When information is nowadays in dissimilar fourth dimension time zones, it tin often be important to standardise this information in a unified fourth dimension zone. This can present a farther challenge, as the time zone component of data must exist coded manually in most cases.

In R, each datetime object has a timezone component. By default, all datetime objects will carry the local time zone for the computer being used - this is generally specific to a location rather than a named timezone, every bit time zones will frequently change in locations due to daylight savings time. Information technology is not possible to accurately compensate for fourth dimension zones without a time component of a engagement, as the upshot a date cavalcade represents cannot be attributed to a specific time, and therefore time shifts measured in hours cannot be reasonably deemed for.

To bargain with time zones, there are a number of helper functions in lubridate that can be used to alter the time zone of a datetime object from the local time zone to a different time zone. Time zones are set by attributing a valid tz database time zone to the datetime object. A list of these tin can be found here - if the location yous are using data from is not on this list, nearby large cities in the fourth dimension zone are available and serve the same purpose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones

                              # assign the current time to a column                time_now                <-                Sys.fourth dimension                (                )                time_now                          
            ## [ane] "2021-12-15 20:25:53 EST"          
                              # utilise with_tz() to assign a new timezone to the cavalcade, while Irresolute the clock fourth dimension                time_london_real                <-                with_tz                (                time_now,                "Europe/London"                )                # use force_tz() to assign a new timezone to the column, while KEEPING the clock time                time_london_local                <-                force_tz                (                time_now,                "Europe/London"                )                # notation that as long equally the estimator that was used to run this code is Non prepare to London time,                # in that location will be a deviation in the times                                # (the number of hours difference from the computers time zone to london)                time_london_real                -                time_london_local                          
            ## Fourth dimension departure of 5 hours          

This may seem largely abstract, and is often not needed if the user isn't working across time zones.

Lagging and leading calculations

lead() and lag() are functions from the dplyr bundle which aid find previous (lagged) or subsequent (leading) values in a vector - typically a numeric or engagement vector. This is useful when doing calculations of change/difference betwixt fourth dimension units.

Permit's say you want to calculate the difference in cases betwixt a current week and the previous 1. The data are initially provided in weekly counts equally shown below.

When using lag() or lead() the lodge of rows in the dataframe is very important! - pay attention to whether your dates/numbers are ascending or descending

Showtime, create a new column containing the value of the previous (lagged) week.

  • Control the number of units back/frontwards with due north = (must exist a non-negative integer)
  • Utilise default = to ascertain the value placed in not-existing rows (e.k. the first row for which in that location is no lagged value). By default this is NA.
  • Use order_by = TRUE if your the rows are not ordered by your reference cavalcade
                              counts                <-                counts                %>%                mutate                (cases_prev_wk                =                lag                (                cases_wk, due north                =                1                )                )                          

Next, create a new column which is the deviation betwixt the two cases columns:

                              counts                <-                counts                %>%                mutate                (cases_prev_wk                =                lag                (                cases_wk, due north                =                1                ),          case_diff                =                cases_wk                -                cases_prev_wk                )                          

You lot can read more nearly lead() and lag() in the documentation here or past entering ?lag in your console.

lemkeperl1964.blogspot.com

Source: https://epirhandbook.com/en/working-with-dates.html

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