CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rfunction
Jack
Jack

Reputation: 15

Creating a function to make a new column

Hey all I apologise if this is very simple and mediocre but I can't seem to create a function that turns a time variable (00:00:00) into a numeric AND creates a new column to put the result in.

I can turn the time into a numeric, I just cannot complete the 'new column' part. Any help is appreciated. 

Time <- function(x) {
   begin <- x$avg..wait.time
  x$Num.wait.time <- as.numeric(as.POSIXct(strptime(begin, "%H:%M:%S")))
}

(NOTE: avg..wait.time is the time cell and Num.wait.time is the new variable/column I want to create)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 59

Answers (1)

Kim
Kim

Reputation: 4288

If your purpose is not in writing the function per se, with dplyr you can directly tackle the problem with existing wheels, and not have to write a separate function.

library(dplyr)
df <- data.frame(avg.wait.time = c("01:02:03", "03:02:01"))
df <- df %>% 
  dplyr::mutate(
    avg.wait.numeric = as.numeric(as.POSIXct(strptime(avg.wait.time, "%H:%M:%S")))
  )

If you wish to write a separate function, I would do as follows:

Time <- function(x, 
                 input_var = "avg.wait.time", 
                 output_var = "avg.wait.numeric") {
  x[[output_var]] <- 
    as.numeric(as.POSIXct(strptime(x[[input_var]], "%H:%M:%S")))
  return(x)
}

This allows the input variable name and output variable name to be specified, currently set with some arbitrary default values (you can kick these out, of course).

Upvotes: 1

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