readDates3to1: read.csv with Dates in 3 columns
In Ecfun: Functions for Ecdat

Description Usage Arguments Details Value Author(s) See Also Examples

read.csv, converting 3-column dates into vectors of class 'Date'.

1	readDates3to1(file, YMD=c('Year', 'Month', 'Day'), ...)

`file`	the name of a file from which the data are to be read.
`YMD`	Character vector of length 3 passed to `dateCols`
`...`	optional arguments for `read.csv`

Some files (e.g., from the Correlates of War project) have dates specified in three separate columns with names like "startMonth1", "startDay1", "startYear1", "endMonth1", ..., "endYear2". This function looks for such triples and replaces each found with a single column with a name like, "start1", "end1", ..., "end2".

ALGORITHM

1. dat <- read.csv(file, ...)

2. Dates3to1(dat, YMD)

a data.frame with 3-column dates replace by single-column vectors of class "Date"

Spencer Graves

read.csv Dates3to1 dateCols

##
## 1.  Write a file to be read
##
cow0 <- data.frame(rec=1:3, startMonth=4:6, startDay=7:9, 
    startYear=1971:1973, endMonth1=10:12, endDay1=13:15, 
    endYear1=1974:1976, txt=letters[1:3])
    
write.csv(cow0, "cow0.csv", row.names=FALSE)
##
## 2.  Read it 
##
cow0. <- readDates3to1("cow0.csv")

# check 
cow0x <- data.frame(rec=1:3, txt=letters[1:3], 
    start=as.Date(c('1971-04-07', '1972-05-08', '1973-06-09')), 
    end1=as.Date(c('1974-10-13', '1975-11-14', '1976-12-15')) )


all.equal(cow0., cow0x)