difftime {base} | R Documentation

## Time Intervals / Differences

### Description

Time intervals creation, printing, and some arithmetic. The `print()` method calls these “time differences”.

### Usage

    time1 - time2

    difftime(time1, time2, tz,
             units = c("auto", "secs", "mins", "hours",
                       "days", "weeks"))

    as.difftime(tim, format = "%X", units = "auto")

    ## S3 method for class 'difftime'
    format(x, ...)
    ## S3 method for class 'difftime'
    units(x)
    ## S3 replacement method for class 'difftime'
    units(x) <- value
    ## S3 method for class 'difftime'
    as.double(x, units = "auto", ...)

    ## Group methods, notably for round(), signif(), floor(),
    ## ceiling(), trunc(), abs(); called directly, *not* as Math():
    ## S3 method for class 'difftime'
    Math(x, ...)

### Arguments

`time1, time2` | date-time or date objects.
`tz` | an optional time zone specification to be used for the conversion, mainly for `"POSIXlt"` objects.
`units` | character string. Units in which the results are desired. Can be abbreviated.
`value` | character string. Like `units`, except that abbreviations are not allowed.
`tim` | character string or numeric value specifying a time interval.
`format` | character specifying the format of `tim`: see `strptime`. The default is a locale-specific time format.
`x` | an object inheriting from class `"difftime"`.
`...` | arguments to be passed to or from other methods.

### Details

Function `difftime` calculates a difference of two date/time objects and returns an object of class `"difftime"` with an attribute indicating the units. The `Math` group method provides `round`, `signif`, `floor`, `ceiling`, `trunc`, `abs`, and `sign` methods for objects of this class, and there are methods for the group-generic (see `Ops`) logical and arithmetic operations.

If `units = "auto"`, a suitable set of units is chosen, the largest possible (excluding `"weeks"`) in which all the absolute differences are greater than one.

Subtraction of date-time objects gives an object of this class, by calling `difftime` with `units = "auto"`. Alternatively, `as.difftime()` works on character-coded or numeric time intervals; in the latter case, units must be specified, and `format` has no effect.

Limited arithmetic is available on `"difftime"` objects: they can be added or subtracted, and multiplied or divided by a numeric vector. In addition, adding or subtracting a numeric vector by a `"difftime"` object implicitly converts the numeric vector to a `"difftime"` object with the same units as the `"difftime"` object. There are methods for `mean` and `sum` (via the `Summary` group generic), and `diff` via `diff.default` building on the `"difftime"` method for arithmetic, notably `-`.

The units of a `"difftime"` object can be extracted by the `units` function, which also has a replacement form. If the units are changed, the numerical value is scaled accordingly. The replacement version keeps attributes such as names and dimensions.

Note that `units = "days"` means a period of 24 hours, hence takes no account of Daylight Savings Time. Differences in objects of class `"Date"` are computed as if in the UTC time zone.

The `as.double` method returns the numeric value expressed in the specified units. Using `units = "auto"` means the units of the object.

The `format` method simply formats the numeric value and appends the units as a text string.

### Note

Units such as `"months"` are not possible as they are not of constant length. To create intervals of months, quarters or years use `seq.Date` or `seq.POSIXt`.

### See Also

`DateTimeClasses`.

### Examples

    (z <- Sys.time() - 3600)
    Sys.time() - z                # just over 3600 seconds.

    ## time interval between release days of R 1.2.2 and 1.2.3.
    ISOdate(2001, 4, 26) - ISOdate(2001, 2, 26)

    as.difftime(c("0:3:20", "11:23:15"))
    as.difftime(c("3:20", "23:15", "2:"), format = "%H:%M") # 3rd gives NA
    (z <- as.difftime(c(0,30,60), units = "mins"))
    as.numeric(z, units = "secs")
    as.numeric(z, units = "hours")
    format(z)

[Package base version 3.6.0 Index]