Question

I have two dates let´s say 14.01.2013 and 26.03.2014.

I would like to get the difference between those two dates in terms of weeks(?), months(in the example 14), quarters(4) and years(1).

Do you know the best way to get this?

Answer 1

what about this:

# get difference between dates `"01.12.2013"` and `"31.12.2013"`

# weeks
difftime(strptime("26.03.2014", format = "%d.%m.%Y"),
strptime("14.01.2013", format = "%d.%m.%Y"),units="weeks")
Time difference of 62.28571 weeks

# months
(as.yearmon(strptime("26.03.2014", format = "%d.%m.%Y"))-
as.yearmon(strptime("14.01.2013", format = "%d.%m.%Y")))*12
[1] 14

# quarters
(as.yearqtr(strptime("26.03.2014", format = "%d.%m.%Y"))-
as.yearqtr(strptime("14.01.2013", format = "%d.%m.%Y")))*4
[1] 4

# years
year(strptime("26.03.2014", format = "%d.%m.%Y"))-
year(strptime("14.01.2013", format = "%d.%m.%Y"))
[1] 1

as.yearmon() and as.yearqtr() are in package zoo. year() is in package lubridate.
What do you think?