CFtime-function: Create a CFTime object

In CFtime: Using CF-Compliant Calendars with Climate Projection Data

Create a CFTime object

Description

This function creates an instance of the CFTime class. The arguments to the call are typically read from a CF-compliant data file with climatological observations or climate projections. Specification of arguments can also be made manually in a variety of combinations.

Usage

CFtime(definition, calendar = "standard", offsets, from, to, by, length.out)

Arguments

definition	A character string describing the time coordinate.
calendar	A character string describing the calendar to use with the time dimension definition string. Default value is "standard".
offsets	Numeric or character vector, optional. When numeric, a vector of offsets from the origin in the time series. When a character vector, timestamps in ISO8601 or UDUNITS format.
from, to	Optional. Character timestamps in ISO8601 or UDUNITS format. When from is given, a sequence of timestamps is generated with from as the starting timestamp. Either argument to or length.out must be provided as well. Ignored when argument offsets is not NULL.
by	Optional. A single character string representing a time interval, composed of a number and a time unit separated by a space, such as in "6 hours". When argument from is supplied, argument by will be the separation between successive timestamps. Note that the time unit in the string does not have to be the same as the unit in the definition argument but it must be an allowable unit of time. Time interval units of "months" and "years" are strongly discouraged unless the same time unit is used in the definition argument - in all other cases there is a loss of precision due to the ambiguity in the time units.
length.out	Optional. An numeric value that indicates the lengths of the time series to generate, rounded up if fractional. Ignored when argument to is provided.

Details

A time series can also be constructed like a sequence. In this case argument offsets should be NULL or missing and arguments from and by provided, with either of arguments to or length.out indicating the end of the time series. Arguments should be named to avoid ambiguity.

Value

An instance of the CFTime class.

Examples

# Using numeric offset values - this is how a netCDF file works
CFtime("days since 1850-01-01", "julian", 0:364)

# A time object with a single defined timestamp
CFtime("hours since 2023-01-01", "360_day", "2023-01-30T23:00")

# A time series from a sequence with an end point
CFtime("days since 2023-01-01", from = "2020-01-01", to = "2023-12-31", by = "12 days")

# A time series from a sequence with a specified length
CFtime("days since 2023-01-01", from = "2020-01-01T03:00:00", by = "6 hr", length.out = 31 * 4)

CFtime documentation built on Nov. 12, 2025, 5:06 p.m.