[R] How to convert Datetime numbers from Excel to POSIXt objects

Rolf Fankhauser
Sat, 15 Dec 2007 07:22:11 -0000

Ok, I see, the difference comes from summer and winter time. Thanks for
the hint!
Stupid not to bear that in mind!!

Peter Dalgaard wrote:

>Rolf Fankhauser wrote:
>
>
>>Hi all,
>>
>>I need to compare time series data files of different time formats. I
>>had no problems with text format using strptime.
>>But how can I convert datetime numbers from Excel (days since 30.12.1899
>>00:00:00) into POSIXt objects?
>>For example 29770.375 should be converted to  "03.07.1981
09:00:00"
>>
>>I tried the following code and encountered strange results:
>>
>>t1-t0 gives 29770.33 (should be 29770.375 in my opinion)
>>t1-t2 and t1-t3 are ok
>>t1-t4 gives 183.3333 (should be 183.375)
>>Are these rounding errors?
>>
>>1/(.375 - .333333)
>>
>>
>[1] 23.99981
>
>So your expectation is off by 1/24th of a day.
>
>Can you think of something that might affect time differences by that
>amount, depending on which times of the year you are comparing?
>
>
>
>>The R-code:
>>
>>t1 <- strptime("3.7.1981 09:00:00","%d.%m.%Y
%H:%M:%S")
>>t0 <- strptime("30.12.1899 00:00:00","%d.%m.%Y
%H:%M:%S")
>>t2 <- strptime("3.7.1981 00:00:00","%d.%m.%Y
%H:%M:%S")
>>t3 <- strptime("1.7.1981 00:00:00","%d.%m.%Y
%H:%M:%S")
>>t4 <- strptime("1.1.1981 00:00:00","%d.%m.%Y
%H:%M:%S")
>>t1 - t0
>>t1 - t2
>>difftime(t1,t2,units="days")
>>t1 - t3
>>t1 - t4
>>
>>Thanks for any help or clarifications
>>
>>Rolf
>>
>>______________________________________________
>>R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>>
>>
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