How to parse milliseconds?

Question

How do I use strptime or any other functions to parse time stamps with milliseconds in R?

time[1]
# [1] "2010-01-15 13:55:23.975"
strptime(time[1], format="%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f")
# [1] NA
strptime(time[1], format="%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
# [1] "2010-01-15 13:55:23"`

Solution

Courtesy of the ?strptime help file (with the example changed to your value):

 z <- strptime("2010-01-15 13:55:23.975", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%OS")
 z # prints without fractional seconds
 op <- options(digits.secs=3)
 z
 options(op) #reset options

Comments

[signalseeker]

Thanks, I missed that in the strptime doc. I was looking for a format character and gave up when I did not see one.

[jkff]

If I could put a memorial in your honor, I would!

[Pierre D]

so would I! The "%OS" bit is awesome.

[firebush]

Is this only in python3 or something? In my python2.7.8: >>> time.strptime(t, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%OS") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/opt/pythons/2.7.8/lib/python2.7/_strptime.py", line 467, in _strptime_time return _strptime(data_string, format)[0] File "/opt/pythons/2.7.8/lib/python2.7/_strptime.py", line 317, in _strptime (bad_directive, format)) ValueError: 'O' is a bad directive in format '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%OS'

[IRTFM]

@firebush: It's in R. It might require "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%OS3" on some platforms. The implementation of the "OS" format is labeled as OS-specific on the help pages.