Converting datetime from character to POSIXct object

Question

I have an instrument that exports data in an unruly time format. I need to combine the date and time vectors into a new datetime vector in the following POSIXct format: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S. Out of curiosity, I attempted to do this in three different ways, using as.POSIXct(), strftime(), and strptime(). When using my example data below, only the as.POSIXct() and strftime() functions work, but I am curious as to why strptime() is producing NAs? Also, I cannot convert the strftime() output into a POSIXct object using as.POSIXct()...

When trying these same functions on my real data (of which I've only provided you with the first for rows), I am running into an entirely different problem. Only the strftime() function is working. For some reason the as.POSIXct() function is also producing NAs, which is the only command I actually need for converting my datetime into a POSIXct object...

It seems like there are subtle differences between these functions, and I want to know how to use them more effectively. Thanks!

Reproducible Example:

## Creating dataframe:
date <- c("2017-04-14", "2017-04-14","2017-04-14","2017-04-14")
time <- c("14:24:24.992000","14:24:25.491000","14:24:26.005000","14:24:26.511000")
value <- c("4.106e-06","4.106e-06","4.106e-06","4.106e-06")
data <- data.frame(date, time)
data <- data.frame(data, value) ## I'm sure there is a better way to combine three vectors...
head(data)

## Creating 3 different datetime vectors:

## This works in my example code, but not with my real data... 
data$datetime1 <- as.POSIXct(paste(data$date, data$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S",tz="UTC")
class(data$datetime1)

## This is producing NAs, and I'm not sure why:
data$datetime2 <- strptime(paste(data$date, data$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S", tz = "UTC") 
class(data$datetime2)

## This is working just fine
data$datetime3 <- strftime(paste(data$date, data$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S", tz = "UTC")
class(data$datetime3)
head(data)

## Since I cannot get the as.POSIXct() function to work with my real data, I tried this workaround. Unfortunately I am running into trouble...
data$datetime4 <- as.POSIXct(x$datetime3, format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S", tz = "UTC")

Link to real data: here

Example using real_data.txt:

## Reading in the file:
fpath <- "~/real_data.txt"
x <- read.csv(fpath, skip = 1, header = FALSE, sep = "", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
names(x) <- c("date","time","bscat","scat_coef","pressure_mbar","temp_K","CH1","CH2") ## This is data from a Radiance Research Integrating Nephelometer Model M903 for anyone who is interested!

## If anyone could get this to work that would be awesome!
x$datetime1 <- as.POSIXct(paste(x$date, x$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S", tz = "UTC") 

## This still doesn't work...
x$datetime2 <- strptime(paste(x$date, x$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S", tz = "UTC") 

 ## This works: 
x$datetime3 <- strftime(paste(x$date, x$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S", tz = "UTC")

## But I cannot convert from strftime character to POSIXct object, so it doesn't help me at all... 
x$datetime4 <- as.POSIXct(x$datetime3, format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S", tz = "UTC")    

head(x)

Solution:

I was not providing the as.POSIXct() function with the correct format string. Once I changed %Y-%m-%d %H:%M%:%S to %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S, the data$datetime2, data$datetime4, x$datetime1 and x$datetime2 were working properly! Big thanks to PhilC for debugging!

Solution 1

For your real data issue replace the %m% with %m:

## Reading in the file:
fpath <- "c:/r/data/real_data.txt"
x <- read.csv(fpath, skip = 1, header = FALSE, sep = "", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
names(x) <- c("date","time","bscat","scat_coef","pressure_mbar","temp_K","CH1","CH2") ## This is data from a Radiance Research Integrating Nephelometer Model M903 for anyone who is interested!

## issue was the %m% - fixed
x$datetime1 <- as.POSIXct(paste(x$date, x$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", tz = "UTC") 

## Here too - fixed
x$datetime2 <- strptime(paste(x$date, x$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", tz = "UTC") 
head(x)

Solution 2

There was a format string error causing the NAs; try this:

## This is no longer producing NAs:
data$datetime2 <- strptime(paste(data$date, data$time), format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S",tz="UTC") 
class(data$datetime2)