Fast parsing with lubridate::fast_strptime

lubridate provides its own fast datetime parser: fast_strptime(). Instead of taking an order argument like parse_date_time() it takes a format argument and the format must comply with the strptime() style.

As you saw in the video that means any character that represents a datetime component must be prefixed with a % and any non-whitespace characters must be explicitly included.

Try parsing dates with fast_strptime() and then compare its speed to the other methods you've seen.

dates is in your workspace again.

Examine the head of dates. What components are present? What separators are used?
Parse dates with fast_strptime() by specifying the appropriate format string.
Compare the timing of fast_strptime() to fasttime and ymd_hms().

Exercise

Fast parsing with lubridate::fast_strptime

Instructions