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.
This exercise is part of the course
Working with Dates and Times in R
Exercise instructions
dates
is in your workspace again.
- Examine the head of
dates
. What components are present? What separators are used? - Parse
dates
withfast_strptime()
by specifying the appropriate format string. - Compare the timing of
fast_strptime()
tofasttime
andymd_hms()
.
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# Head of dates
head(___)
# Parse dates with fast_strptime
fast_strptime(dates,
format = ___) %>% str()
# Comparse speed to ymd_hms() and fasttime
microbenchmark(
ymd_hms = ymd_hms(dates),
fasttime = fastPOSIXct(dates),
fast_strptime = ___(dates,
format = ___),
times = 20)