The vec_fmt_duration() function

Let’s create a difftime-based vector for the next few examples:

difftimes <-
  difftime(
    lubridate::ymd("2017-01-15"),
    lubridate::ymd(c("2015-06-25", "2016-03-07", "2017-01-10"))
  )

Using vec_fmt_duration() with its defaults provides us with a succinct vector of formatted durations.

vec_fmt_duration(difftimes)

[1] "81w 3d" "44w 6d" "5d"    

#> [1] "81w 3d" "44w 6d" "5d"

We can elect to use just only the time units of days to describe the duration values.

vec_fmt_duration(difftimes, output_units = "days")

[1] "570d" "314d" "5d"  

#> [1] "570d" "314d" "5d"

We can also use numeric values in the input vector vec_fmt_duration(). Here’s a numeric vector for use with examples:

num_vals <- c(3.235, 0.23, 0.005, NA)

The necessary thing with numeric values as an input is defining what time unit those values have.

vec_fmt_duration(num_vals, input_units = "days")

[1] "3d 5h 38m 23s" "5h 31m 12s"    "7m 12s"        "NA"           

#> [1] "3d 5h 38m 23s" "5h 31m 12s" "7m 12s" "NA"

We can define a set of output time units that we want to see.

vec_fmt_duration(
  num_vals,
  input_units = "days",
  output_units = c("hours", "minutes")
)

[1] "77h 38m" "5h 31m"  "7m"      "NA"     

#> [1] "77h 38m" "5h 31m" "7m" "NA"

There are many duration ‘styles’ to choose from. We could opt for the "wide" style.

vec_fmt_duration(
  num_vals,
  input_units = "days",
  duration_style = "wide"
)

[1] "3 days 5 hours 38 minutes 23 seconds"
[2] "5 hours 31 minutes 12 seconds"       
[3] "7 minutes 12 seconds"                
[4] "NA"                                  

#> [1] "3 days 5 hours 38 minutes 23 seconds"

We can always perform locale-specific formatting with vec_fmt_duration(). Let’s attempt the same type of duration formatting as before with the "nl" locale.

vec_fmt_duration(
  num_vals,
  input_units = "days",
  duration_style = "wide",
  locale = "nl"
)

[1] "3 dagen 5 uur 38 minuten 23 seconden"
[2] "5 uur 31 minuten 12 seconden"        
[3] "7 minuten 12 seconden"               
[4] "NA"                                  

#> [1] "3 dagen 5 uur 38 minuten 23 seconden"