as.POSIXct.haven_labelled_defined: Coerce a defined POSIXct vector to a base R POSIXct

In dataset: Create Data Frames for Exchange and Reuse

Coerce a defined POSIXct vector to a base R POSIXct

Description

Coerces a haven_labelled_defined vector whose underlying type is POSIXct into a base R POSIXct time vector.

This method preserves both the timestamp values and the original time zone. By default, semantic metadata is also retained.

Usage

## S3 method for class 'haven_labelled_defined'
as.POSIXct(x, tz = "", strip_attributes = TRUE, ...)

Arguments

x	A vector created with defined() with underlying type POSIXct.
tz	a character string. The time zone specification to be used for the conversion, if one is required. System-specific timezones (see base::timezones(), but "" is the current time zone, and "GMT" is UTC (Universal Time, Coordinated). Invalid values are most commonly treated as UTC, on some platforms with a warning.
strip_attributes	Logical; should semantic metadata attributes (label, unit, definition, namespace) be removed? Defaults to FALSE.
...	Additional arguments passed to base::as.POSIXct().

Details

Use strip_attributes = TRUE when flattening or preparing data for external pipelines, but keep the default when working with defined vectors directly.
Base R's as.POSIXct() also works, as it dispatches to this method via S3. Using this method directly is preferred when metadata preservation matters.

Value

A POSIXct vector with timestamp values preserved.

See Also

as.Date(), as_numeric(), as_character(), as_logical(), defined()

Examples

p <- defined(
  as.POSIXct("2024-01-01 12:00:00", tz = "UTC"),
  label = "Timestamp"
)

# Recommended usage
as.POSIXct(p)

# Explicit attribute stripping
as.POSIXct(p, strip_attributes = TRUE)

dataset documentation built on Nov. 16, 2025, 5:06 p.m.