What Is the Best Way to Filter by Date in R?

What Is the Best Way to Filter by Date in R?, Using the dplyr package in R, you can filter a data frame by dates using the following methods.

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Method 1: After Date Filter Rows

df %>% filter(date_column > '2022-01-01')

Method 2: Filter Rows Before Date

df %>% filter(date_column < '2022-01-01')

Method 3: Filter Rows Between Two Dates

df %>% filter(between(date_column, as.Date('2022-01-20'), as.Date('2022-02-20')))

With the following data frame in R, the following examples explain how to utilize each method in practice.

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Let’s create a data frame

df <- data.frame(day=seq(as.Date('2022-01-01'), by = 'week', length.out=10),
                 sales=c(40, 35, 39, 44, 48, 51, 23, 29, 60, 65))

Now we can view the data frame

df

          day sales
1  2022-01-01   240
2  2022-01-08   335
3  2022-01-15   359
4  2022-01-22   544
5  2022-01-29   548
6  2022-02-05   251
7  2022-02-12   223
8  2022-02-19   529
9  2022-02-26   660
10 2022-03-05   165

Example 1: Filter Rows After Date

To filter for rows in the data frame with a date after 1/25/2022, use the following code.

library(dplyr)

filter for rows with dates after 1/25/2022

df %>% filter(day > '2022-01-25')

        day sales
1 2022-01-29   548
2 2022-02-05   251
3 2022-02-12   223
4 2022-02-19   529
5 2022-02-26   660
6 2022-03-05   165

Each row in the generated data frame has a date that is later than 1/25/2022.

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Example 2: Filter Rows Before Date

To filter for rows in the data frame with a date before 1/25/2022, we can use the following code.

library(dplyr)

Let’s filter for rows with dates before 1/25/2022

df %>% filter(day < '2022-01-25')

        day sales
1 2022-01-01   240
2 2022-01-08   335
3 2022-01-15   359
4 2022-01-22   544

Each entry in the generated data frame has a date that is prior to 1/25/2022.

Example 3: Filter Rows Between Two Dates

To filter for rows in the data frame with a date between 1/20/2022 and 2/20/2022, use the following code.

library(dplyr)

filter for rows with dates between 1/20/2022 and 2/20/2022

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df %>% filter(between(daty, as.Date('2022-01-20'), as.Date('2022-02-20')))

         day sales
1 2022-01-22   544
2 2022-01-29   548
3 2022-02-05   251
4 2022-02-12   223
5 2022-02-19   529

The dates in the rows of the generated data frame range from 1/20/2022 to 2/20/2022.

If none of the ways above work, you may need to use them as.Date() function to convert the dates you’re working with to a recognized date format.