In answer to your first question, your statement should be: date_vec = as.Date(data_download[1:50,1],"%m/%d/%Y")
Notice the capital "Y"; lower case says the year is only 2 digits, so you were pickup up the '19' from the date. Use 'plot(..., type='l')' for a line plot. Your data is being read in as factors: > str(data_download) 'data.frame': 9972 obs. of 2 variables: $ DATE: Factor w/ 9972 levels "01/01/1973","01/01/1974",..: 84 112 140 167 195 279 307 335 362 390 ... $ EDM1: Factor w/ 673 levels " 0.70"," 0.75",..: 599 597 593 594 591 586 583 571 574 586 ... You need to convert EDM1 to numeric data_download$EDM1 <- as.numeric(as.character(data_download$EDM1)) and then your data will plot as you like. On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 6:58 AM, gug <guygr...@netvigator.com> wrote: > > Hello, > > First of all, I'm new to R and I don't have anyone who already knows the > language to ask for tips, so please excuse my ignorance. > > I'm trying to download data direct from the Federal Reserve statistics > website and graph it, using the following: > > #This downloads the data from the Fed website > download.file("http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/data/Business_day/H15_ED_M1.txt","Eurodollar_deposits1M.dat") > > #This reads that data into a table > data_download=read.table("Eurodollar_deposits1M.dat",skip=8,sep=",",head=T) > > #This is attempting to get R to read the date column, which is in > "mm/dd/yyyy" format > #I have restricted it to the first 50 data points (to keep it simple) > date_vec = as.Date(data_download[1:50,1],"%m/%d/%y") > > #This reads the values again for just the first 50 data points > eurodollar_vec = data_download[1:50,2] > > #This plots the date and data values. > plot(date_vec,eurodollar_vec) > > > A few issues with the output from this: > > 1) The date_vec data ends up looking like this "2019-01-04" - for some > reason all year 2019, irrespective of the actual year (e.g. 1971, 1972). > Any suggestions as to where I am going wrong? > > 2) The chart ends up as a scatter diagram, not surprisingly. I initially > tried to use the ts.plot() function but when I did, I found that it doesn't > use the date column in the data as the x axis. Is there a way of creating a > time series that uses the date column, or alternatively, how would I turn > these two columns (date & value) into a line graph? > > 3) The y-axis output should be from about 4.5 to about 8.5, but the y-axis > shows as being about 430-670. There also seems to be a line of points > across the top which are all of the same value - as though anything above > about 670 gets charted as 670. > > > I'm sorry for this being a "what am I doing wrong" post, but I have looked > through the manuals without success, and I am new enough to R that I don't > have a feel for ways round these sorts of problems. Any suggestions would > be greatly appreciated. Thanks. > -- > View this message in context: > http://www.nabble.com/Getting-started%2C-tp22719735p22719735.html > Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > ______________________________________________ > 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 that 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.