[R] Date, date, POSIX question

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Joe" == Joe Byers <joe-byers at utulsa.edu>
>>>>>     on Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:23:46 -0600 writes:

    Joe> Gabor, Thank you very much.  That is a wonderful
    Joe> article and will help very much.  Might I ask which
    Joe> date schema do you prefer?

The only scheme that is part of "standard R" is the "POSIX"
based one which (conceptually) *includes* the "Date" class.
Use the "Date" class [i.e. first use  as.Date() ] unless you
need times in addition to dates, where I'd recommend you
consider 'POSIX' ...

BTW: there is no 'Date' package [at least not in an official
     place] as you claim below.

Martin

    Joe> Thank you Joe


    Joe> Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
    >> See the help desk article in R News 4/1 for a discussion
    >> on how to choose.
    >> 
    >> On 11/5/06, Joe W. Byers <Joe-Byers at utulsa.edu> wrote:
    >>> I have been working with R extensively for several
    >>> months.  I switched from SAS and Matlab to R.  My
    >>> question is
    >>> 
    >>> Can anyone explain the benefits and detractions of the
    >>> 'Date' package verses the 'date' package and verses
    >>> 'POSIX' dates.
    >>> 
    >>> I have noticed several other packages use one or the
    >>> other.  Rmetrics seems to standardize on POSIX.  I can
    >>> only see differences in default formats, and the
    >>> starting counting number be it 1 1 1900 or something
    >>> else.
    >>> 
    >>> I am trying to standardize code that I write for
    >>> research and to provide to my students on one date
    >>> schema.  The documentation is very good on using a
    >>> specific package, but I can not tell the which one
    >>> provides the broadest coverage across R packages or is
    >>> just the better one to use.
    >>> 
    >>> I know all of you have more experience with some of
    >>> these and I am just soliciting your opinions and
    >>> comments.
    >>> 
    >>> Thank you Joe
    >>> 
    >>> ______________________________________________
    >>> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
    >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do
    >>> read the posting guide
    >>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide
    >>> commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
    >>> 
    Joe> ______________________________________________
    Joe> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
    Joe> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do
    Joe> read the posting guide
    Joe> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide
    Joe> commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.