shit2sec.R

# convert "5 min" "3 h" "4 d" etc to seconds

shit2sec <-
    function(shit)
{
    # remove leading space
    shit <- sub("^\\s+", "", shit)

    # remove ending space
    shit <- sub("\\s+$", "", shit)

    # split at white space
    spl <- strsplit(shit, "\\s+")

    # check that they're all length 2
    nfields <- sapply(spl, length)
    stopifnot(all(nfields==2))

    # grab time and unit
    time <- as.numeric(vapply(spl, "[", "", 1))
    unit <- vapply(spl, "[", "", 2)

    # first char of unit
    unit <- substr(unit, 1, 1)

    multiplier <- c("s"=1, "m"=60, "h"=60*60, "d"=60*60*24)

    if(!all(unit %in% names(multiplier))) {
        u_unit <- unique(unit)
        unknown <- u_unit[!(u_unit %in% names(multiplier))]
        stop("Unknown units: ", paste(unknown, collapse=" "))
    }

    # convert to seconds
    result <- time * multiplier[unit]
    names(result) <- names(shit)
    result
}


# example
n <- 100
units <- sample(c("s", "sec", "hr", "hour", "mn", "min", "day", "days"), n, replace=TRUE)
times <- round(runif(n, 0, 5), 1)

input <- paste(times, units, sep=" ")

secs <- shit2sec(input)