Loris Bennett <loris.benn...@fu-berlin.de> writes: > Thanks for the link, John. However, there is a hyphen missing. It > should be: > > > http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-read-errors-and-warnings-in-r.html > > Appropriately, with the correct URL we find the too often forgotten > pearl of wisdom: > > "Chances are, you just typed something wrong there." > > I think I need this on my coffee cup. > > Cheers, > > Loris
Continuing the topic for my future self and others equally poorly versed in The Art and Dark Science of Interpreting R Error Messages, if I have the following in the file "my_data" 1094165 2016-07-24T09:40:02 13-23:03:28 1 COMPLETED 1112076 2016-08-01T14:45:49 6-13:26:15 1 COMPLETED and do > d <- read.table("my_data") > colnames(d) <- c("jobid","start","elapsed","alloccpus","state") > df <- transform(d,start = > as.POSIXct(start,format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"),elapsed = > as.difftime(elapsed,format="%d-%H:%M:%S")) I get the following: Error in as.difftime(elapsed, format = "%d-%H:%M:%S") : 'tim' is not character or numeric Remembering that if something is not what you think it is, it is probably a factor, I find that > d <- read.table(data_file,stringsAsFactors=FALSE) causes the error to go away. So what's all this 'tim' business? A quick squint at the source code of datetime.R reveals the following line: if (!is.numeric(tim)) stop("'tim' is not character or numeric") So the error message tells me something about the arbitrary name of the variable 'tim', which could also have been 'tom', 'dick', or 'harriet', but nothing about the value. So follow Rolf Turner's fortune(350) advice, then look at the source code, and then realise that you weren't being totally dopey in not understanding the error message. Loris -- Dr. Loris Bennett (Mr.) ZEDAT, Freie Universität Berlin Email loris.benn...@fu-berlin.de ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.