In hadley/strptimer: An Easy Interface to Time Formatting

Import the package. We will also make heavy usage of chaining: see magrittr's documentation.

library(strptimer)
library(magrittr)

Base Components

Let's see what kind of componenets we can use in our time format.

time_bases()

Each of these base time components can be used in a time format:

time_format(year, month, day)

Modifications

Each base component can be modified in special ways. Let's say we are curious about the time options for modifying month:

"month" %>% base_options

The default value will have all always have all no options select. Each option has a corresponding function, which can assign that option. Each such function takes only one argument, except for digits (see example below).

time_format(month %>% short %>% name)

For the most part, time options should be self explanatory. For more information, codes can be looked up in the ?strptime documentation. Note that many time formats are possible to build but do not have corresponding codes.

time_format(month %>% short %>% roman)

Example

Let's build a complicated date format just for fun:

time_format(year %>% short %>% religious,
            "/",
            month %>% name %>% short,
            "/",
            day %>% roman,

            tab,

            hour %>% twelve %>% roman,
            ":",
            minute %>% roman,
            ":",
            second %>% digits(3),
            " ",
            am_pm,
            " ",
            timezone %>% name)