How to Extract Time from Datetime in R ?

In this article, we are going to extract time from Datetime in R programming language using lubridate() function and format() function.

Note: datetime is in the format of time and date (YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS) i.e. Year:month:day Hours:Minute:Seconds

Where,

• Year:month:day comes under date
• Hours:Minute:Seconds comes under time

Method 1: Using format() function

We are going to extract only time and for that create a variable and assign a timestamp to it. Then, extract time from the timestamp. We can do this by using as.POSIXct() function. To get a particular time hour format we can use format() function

Syntax:

format(as.POSIXct(data), format = "%H:%M")

Parameter:

• as.POSIXct() is used to extract time from the time stamp
• format is used to get the time format. Ex : hours:Minutes and seconds
  • format = "%H:%M:%S" (To get hours: minutes :seconds)
  • format = "%H:%M" (To get hours: minutes )
  • format = "%H" (To get hours)
• data is the time stamp

Example 1:

# create variable with one time stamp 
data ="2021/05/25 12:34:25"
                           
# get time from date using format in the 
# form of hours
print(paste(
  "Hours : ", format(as.POSIXct(data), format = "%H")))

# get time from date using format in the 
# form of minutes
print(paste(
  "Minutes : ", format(as.POSIXct(data), format = "%M")))

# get time from date using format in the 
# form of seconds
print(paste(
  "Seconds : ", format(as.POSIXct(data), format = "%S")))

# get time from date using format in the 
# form of minutes
print(paste(
  "Hours and Minutes : ", format(as.POSIXct(data), format = "%H:%M")))

# get time from date using format in the 
# form of seconds
print(paste(
  "Time : ", format(as.POSIXct(data), format = "%H:%M:%S")))

Output:

Example 2:

# create vector that stores five time stamps
data =c("2021/05/25 12:34:25","2022/05/25 11:39:25",
        "2011/05/25 08:31:25","2013/04/13 1:34:25",
        "2018/05/25 12:34:25")
                           
# get time from date using format in the
# form of seconds
print(paste("Time : ", format(
  as.POSIXct(data), format = "%H:%M:%S")))

Output:

Method 2 : Using lubridate() function

lubridate() package is used to return the time from the datetime individually. It will return hour, minute, and second separately.

• To get hour from the datetime we will use hour command

Syntax:

hour(datetime)

Returns the time in hours

• To get minutes from the datetime we will use minute command

Syntax:

minute(datetime)

Returns the time in minutes

• To get seconds from the datetime we will use second command

Syntax:

second(datetime)

Returns the time in seconds

Example 1:

# load the package
library('lubridate')

# datetime variable
data ="2021/05/25 12:34:25"

# extract hour
hour(data)

# extract minute
minute(data)

# extract the second
second(data)

Output: