Convert non-standardized dates toR'sDate class

Converts a character vector (or single character object) from inconsistentlyformatted dates toR'sDate class. Supports numerous separatorsincluding /, -, ., or space. Supports numeric, abbreviation, or long-handmonth notation in multiple languages (English, French, German, Spanish,Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Indonesian). Where day of the month hasnot been supplied, the first day of the month is imputed by default. EitherDMY or YMD is assumed by default. However, the US system of MDY is supportedvia theformat argument.

Usage

fix_date_char(dates,  day.impute=1,  month.impute=7,  format="dmy",  excel=FALSE,  roman.numeral=FALSE)

Arguments

dates

Character vector to be converted toR's date class.

day.impute

Integer between 1 and 31, or NA, or NULL. Day of the monthto be imputed when missing. Defaults to 1. Ifday.impute = NA, thenNA will be imputed for the date and a warning will be raised. Ifday.impute = NULL, the function will fail with an error when day ismissing.

month.impute

Integer between 1 and 12, or NA, or NULL. Month to beimputed when missing. Defaults to 7 (July). Ifmonth.impute = NA,thenNA will be imputed for the entire date and a warning will beraised.Ifmonth.impute = NULL, the function will fail with an error whenmonth is missing.

format

Character string specifying date interpretation preference.Either"dmy" (day-month-year, default) or"mdy"(month-day-year, US format). This setting only affects ambiguous numericdates like "01/02/2023". When month names are present or year appearsfirst, the format is auto-detected regardless of this parameter. Note thatunambiguous dates (e.g., "25/12/2023") are parsed correctly regardless ofthe format setting.

excel

Logical: AssumesFALSE by default. IfTRUE, treatsnumeric-only dates with more than four digits as Excel serial dates with1900-01-01 origin, correcting for known Excel date discrepancies.

roman.numeral

Logical: DefaultstoFALSE. WhenTRUE, attempts to interpret Roman numeralmonth indications within datasets. This feature may not handle all casescorrectly.

Value

A vector of elements belonging toR's built inDate classwith the following formatyyyy-mm-dd.

Details

This function intelligently parses dates by:

• Handling mixed separators within the same dataset

• Recognizing month names in multiple languages

• Converting Roman numeral months (experimental)

• Processing Excel serial date numbers

• Automatically detecting YMD format when year appears first

• Smart imputation of missing date components with user control

For comprehensive examples and advanced usage, seebrowseVignettes("datefixR")or the package README athttps://docs.ropensci.org/datefixR/.

See also

Examples

# Basic usagebad.date<-"02 03 2021"fix_date_char(bad.date)#> [1] "2021-03-02"# Multiple formats with different separatorsmixed_dates<-c("02/05/92",# slash separator, 2-digit year"2020-may-01",# hyphen separator, text month"1996.05.01",# dot separator"02 04 96",# space separator"le 3 mars 2013"# French format)fix_date_char(mixed_dates)#> [1] "1992-05-02" "2020-05-01" "1996-05-01" "1996-04-02" "2013-03-03"# Text months in different languagestext_months<-c("15 January 2020",# English"15 janvier 2020",# French"15 Januar 2020",# German"15 enero 2020",# Spanish"15 de janeiro de 2020"# Portuguese)fix_date_char(text_months)#> [1] "2020-01-15" "2020-01-15" "2020-01-15" "2020-01-15" "2020-01-15"# Roman numeral months (experimental)roman_dates<-c("15.VII.2023","3.XII.1999","1.I.2000")fix_date_char(roman_dates, roman.numeral=TRUE)#> [1] "2023-07-15" "1999-12-03" "2000-01-01"# Excel serial numbersexcel_serials<-c("44197","44927")# Excel datesfix_date_char(excel_serials, excel=TRUE)#> [1] "2021-01-01" "2023-01-01"# Two-digit years (automatic century detection)two_digit_years<-c("15/03/99","15/03/25","15/03/50")fix_date_char(two_digit_years)# 1999, 2025, 1950#> [1] "1999-03-15" "2025-03-15" "1950-03-15"# MDY format (US style)us_dates<-c("12/25/2023","07/04/1776","02/29/2020")fix_date_char(us_dates, format="mdy")#> [1] "2023-12-25" "1776-07-04" "2020-02-29"# Incomplete dates with custom imputationincomplete<-c("2023","March 2022","June 2021")fix_date_char(incomplete, day.impute=15, month.impute=6)#> [1] "2023-06-15" "2022-03-15" "2021-06-15"