try this: > dates <- c("January 12, 1988", "March 4, 2006", "1958") > gsub(".*, *(.*)", "\\1", dates) # notice the it is comma blank asterisk in > the string [1] "1988" "2006" "1958"
On Dec 16, 2007 7:34 AM, Anupa Fabian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have some data whose date column consists of two types of date entries: > (a) year-only entries (eg "1983") and > (b) full date info (eg September 12, 1962). > > Here's what the non-standard date info looks like: > > mode(non.standard.dates) > [1] "numeric" > > head(non.standard.dates) > [1] July 15, 1925 February 13, 1923 July 10, 1988 February 24, 1931 > [5] 1952 January 9, 1957 > 1638 Levels: 1732 1735 1736 1740 1745 1748 1749 1750 1752 1754 1757 1760 ... > September 9, 1898 > > I just want to extract out the year information (viz in the example above: > 1925, 1923, 1988, 1931, 1952 and 1957) and create a "year" column. Have tried > using the R date libraries without success, but they seem more designed for > working with dates which are standardized the same way.... I'd really > appreciate suggestions from more experienced R folks. Thank you. > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org 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. > -- Jim Holtman Cincinnati, OH +1 513 646 9390 What is the problem you are trying to solve? ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org 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.