R crashes with french canadian OS X format (was: [R] dates in French format)

Hi, I have made some progress as for the crash. Reinstalling R had  
nothing to do with solving the crashes. Systems settings  
(International panel in System Preferences) are involved.

If I set my international "formats" to French, the examples given  
indicate that "january" is "janv." as short month. (see the screen  
shot attached to this message).

<Image 1.png>


With this setting, R does not crash.

sessionInfo()

R version 2.6.1 (2007-11-26)
i386-apple-darwin8.10.1

locale:
fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8/C/fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] chron_2.3-16

as.Date("2000-01-01")

[1] "2000-01-01"

french.months <- format(seq(as.Date("2000-01-01"), length = 12, by  

= "month"), "%b")

french.months

[1] "jan" "f?v" "mar" "avr" "mai" "jui" "jul" "ao?" "sep" "oct"  
"nov" "d?c"

Things are fine, although I do not understand why the OS claims the  
short month is "janv", but the above extracts "jan". Excel uses  
"jan" and "ao?", just as reported with the above.

If I select canadian french, things do not go well at all. Apple do  
not show a short month mode for canadian french (second image).

<Image 2.png>


Excel now uses some different short abbreviations: "janv", "mars",   
"ao?t" and "sept".

and R does not like it at all:

sessionInfo()

R version 2.6.1 (2007-11-26)
i386-apple-darwin8.10.1

locale:
fr_CA.UTF-8/fr_CA.UTF-8/fr_CA.UTF-8/C/fr_CA.UTF-8/fr_CA.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] chron_2.3-16

as.Date("2000-01-01")

*** caught bus error ***
address 0x8, cause 'non-existent physical address'

Traceback:
1: strptime(x, f)
2: fromchar(x)
3: as.Date.character("2000-01-01")
4: as.Date("2000-01-01")

Possible actions:
1: abort (with core dump, if enabled)
2: normal R exit
3: exit R without saving workspace
4: exit R saving workspace
Selection:


This is a pain as my mac is normally set to use french canadian  
formats. I'll use French for now!

Denis

(I've put the R Mac list in cc because of the crashes I have  
experienced trying some of the suggestions below)

Hi Gabor and Prof Ripley,

Le 31 janv. 08 ? 02:11, Prof Brian Ripley a ?crit :

The output from sessionInfo() the posting guide asked for would  
have been very helpful here.

You are right, sorry about that:

library(chron)
sessionInfo()

R version 2.6.1 (2007-11-26)
i386-apple-darwin8.10.1

locale:
fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8/C/fr_FR.UTF-8/fr_FR.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] chron_2.3-16

I think the problem is likely to be that these are not standard  
French
abbreviations according to my systems.

I was ready to blame Excel for the use of non-standard  
abbreviations, but I would have been wrong: it seems that "janv" is  
a Mac OS X decision from what I can see in my system settings. I am  
not sure what would be a bullet-proof authority on french  
abbreviations. My dictionary was of no help, but wikipedia seems to  
endorse Mac OS X and Windows use of "janv":

<http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mois#Abr.C3.A9viations>

On Linux I get

format(Sys.Date(), "%d-%b-%y")

[1] "31-jan-08"

format(Sys.Date()-50, "%d-%b-%y")

[1] "12-d?c-07"

and on Windows

format(Sys.Date(), "%d-%b-%y")

[1] "31-janv.-08"

format(Sys.Date()-50, "%d-%b-%y")

[1] "12-d?c.-07"

I tried this too:

format(Sys.Date(), "%d-%b-%y")

[1] "31-jan-08"

format(Sys.Date()-50, "%d-%b-%y")

[1] "12-d?c-07"

I am lost here: since the OS uses "janv", why did the above give  
"jan"???

And yes, chron is US-centric and so only allows English names.

Assuming you know exactly what is meant by 'French short format',  
I think the simplest thing to do is to set up a table by

tr <- month.abb
names(tr)[1] <- c("janv")  # complete it

x <- "9-janv-08"
x2 <- strsplit(x, "-")
x3 <- sapply(x2, function(x) {x[2] <- tr[x[2]]; paste(x,  
collapse="-")})
as.Date(x3, format = "%d-%b-%y")

Thank you Prof Ripley, although I'll have to do my homework to  
fully understand what is happening with the function you wrote.

But I wonder why I cannot make this a Date object:

x <- "9-janv-08"
x2 <- strsplit(x, "-")
x3 <- sapply(x2, function(x) {x[2] <- tr[x[2]]; paste(x,  

collapse="-")})

as.Date(x3, format = "%d-%b-%y")

[1] "2008-01-09"

class(x3)

[1] "character"

x4 <- as.Date(x3, format = "%d-%b-%y")

*** caught bus error ***
address 0x8, cause 'non-existent physical address'

Traceback:
1: strptime(x, format)
2: as.Date.character(x3, format = "%d-%b-%y")
3: as.Date(x3, format = "%d-%b-%y")

Possible actions:
1: abort (with core dump, if enabled)
2: normal R exit
3: exit R without saving workspace
4: exit R saving workspace

The problem may be my system as I get this error when trying  
Gabor's suggestions (below).

Le 31 janv. 08 ? 00:21, Gabor Grothendieck a ?crit :

Suppose we have:

dd <- c("7-d?c-07", "11-d?c-07", "14-d?c-07", "18-d?c-07", "21- 
d?c-07",
"24-d?c-07", "26-d?c-07", "28-d?c-07", "31-d?c-07", "2-janv-08",
"4-janv-08", "7-janv-08", "9-janv-08", "11-janv-08", "14-janv-08",
"16-janv-08", "18-janv-08")

Try this (where we are assuming the just released chron 2.3-17):

library(chron)
Sys.setlocale("LC_ALL", "French")
as.chron(as.Date(dd, "%d-%b-%y"))

# or with chron 2.3-16 last line is replaced with:
chron(unclass(as.Date(dd, "%d-%b-%y")))

library(chron)
dd <- c("7-d?c-07", "11-d?c-07", "14-d?c-07", "18-d?c-07", "21- 

d?c-07",
+ "24-d?c-07", "26-d?c-07", "28-d?c-07", "31-d?c-07", "2-janv-08",
+ "4-janv-08", "7-janv-08", "9-janv-08", "11-janv-08", "14-janv-08",
+ "16-janv-08", "18-janv-08")

Sys.setlocale("LC_ALL", "French")

[1] ""
Warning message:
In Sys.setlocale("LC_ALL", "French") :
la requ?te OS pour sp?cifier la localisation ? "French" n'a pas pu  
?tre honor?e

chron(unclass(as.Date(dd, "%d-%b-%y")))

*** caught bus error ***
address 0x8, cause 'non-existent physical address'

Traceback:
1: strptime(x, format)
2: as.Date.character(dd, "%d-%b-%y")
3: as.Date(dd, "%d-%b-%y")
4: inherits(dates., "dates")
5: chron(unclass(as.Date(dd, "%d-%b-%y")))

Possible actions:
1: abort (with core dump, if enabled)
2: normal R exit
3: exit R without saving workspace
4: exit R saving workspace

If those don't work (the above didn't work on my Vista system but  
this
is system dependent and
might work on yours)  then try this alternative

library(chron)
library(gsubfn)
Sys.setlocale('LC_ALL','French')

[1] "LC_COLLATE=French_France.1252;LC_CTYPE=French_France. 
1252;LC_MONETARY=French_France. 
1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=French_France.1252"

french.months <- format(seq(as.Date("2000-01-01"), length = 12,  
by = "month"), "%b")
f <- function (d, m, y) chron(paste(pmatch(m, french.months), d,  
y, sep = "/"))
strapply(dd, "(.*)-(.*)-(.*)", f, backref = -3, simplify = c)

[1] 12/07/07 12/11/07 12/14/07 12/18/07 12/21/07 12/24/07 12/26/07  
12/28/07
[9] 12/31/07 01/02/08 01/04/08 01/07/08 01/09/08 01/11/08 01/14/08  
01/16/08
[17] 01/18/08

Again, this Sys.setlocale call does not work for me and the use of  
as.Date crashes my copy of R:

library(chron)
library(gsubfn)

Le chargement a n?cessit? le package : proto

french.months <- format(seq(as.Date("2000-01-01"), length = 12,  

by = "month"), "%b")

*** caught bus error ***
address 0x8, cause 'non-existent physical address'

Traceback:
1: strptime(x, f)
2: fromchar(x)
3: as.Date.character("2000-01-01")
4: as.Date("2000-01-01")
5: seq(as.Date("2000-01-01"), length = 12, by = "month")
6: format(seq(as.Date("2000-01-01"), length = 12, by =  
"month"),     "%b")

Possible actions:
1: abort (with core dump, if enabled)
2: normal R exit
3: exit R without saving workspace
4: exit R saving workspace

However, if I replace that call by this, the rest of Gabor's  
solution works.

library(chron)
library(gsubfn)

Le chargement a n?cessit? le package : proto

french.months <- c("janv", "f?v", "mars", "avr", "mai", "juin",  

"juil", "ao?t", "sept", "oct", "nov", "d?c")

dd <- c("7-d?c-07", "11-d?c-07", "14-d?c-07", "18-d?c-07", "21- 

d?c-07",
+ "24-d?c-07", "26-d?c-07", "28-d?c-07", "31-d?c-07", "2-janv-08",
+ "4-janv-08", "7-janv-08", "9-janv-08", "11-janv-08", "14-janv-08",
+ "16-janv-08", "18-janv-08")

f <- function (d, m, y) chron(paste(pmatch(m, french.months), d,  

y, sep = "/"))

strapply(dd, "(.*)-(.*)-(.*)", f, backref = -3, simplify = c)

[1] 12/07/07 12/11/07 12/14/07 12/18/07 12/21/07 12/24/07 12/26/07  
12/28/07
[9] 12/31/07 01/02/08 01/04/08 01/07/08 01/09/08 01/11/08 01/14/08  
01/16/08
[17] 01/18/08

So thanks again. I will try to reinstall R on my computer and see  
if I still get these errors.


Denis

On Jan 30, 2008 11:29 PM, Denis Chabot <chabotd at globetrotter.net>  
wrote:

Hello R users,

I have to import a file with one column containing dates written in
French short format, such as:

7-d?c-07
11-d?c-07
14-d?c-07
18-d?c-07
21-d?c-07
24-d?c-07
26-d?c-07
28-d?c-07
31-d?c-07
2-janv-08
4-janv-08
7-janv-08
9-janv-08
11-janv-08
14-janv-08
16-janv-08
18-janv-08

There are other columns for other (numeric) variables in the data
file. In my read.csv2 statement, I indicate that the date column  
must
be imported "as.is" to keep it as character.

I would like to transform this into a date object in R. So far I've
used chron for my dates and times needs, but I am willing to  
change if
another object/package will ease the task of importing these dates.

My reading of the chron help led me to believe that the formats it
understands are only month names in English.

Are there other "formats" I can use with chron, or must I somehow  
edit
this character variables to replace French month names by English  
ones
(or numbers from 1 to 12)?

Thanks in advance,

Denis
p.s. I read this in digest mode, so I'll get your replies faster if
you cc to my email