NEWS

---

messydates 0.5.4 (2025-06-02)

Coercion

• Improved how as_messydates() handles text with dates in American format, e.g. October 10, 2010 (fixes #86)

messydates 0.5.3 (2025-03-20)

Components

• Improved year() to be faster and work on durations
• Improved precision()
  • precision() is now a S3 generic, dispatching to precision.mdate()
  • precision.mdate() now returns the inverse of the previous measure, meaning maximising precision makes more sense

messydates 0.5.2 (2025-03-07)

Package

• Moved mreport() to {manydata}
• Consolidated and renamed scripts internally

Coerce to

• Fixed pkgdown#2855 by fixing how as_messydate methods interpret infinite dates
• Fixed time zone defaults in as.POSIXct.mdate() and as.POSIXlt.mdate()
• Fixed set bug in validate_messydate()

Coerce from

• Renamed as.numeric() to as.double() to fix S3 dispatching
• Separated extrema functions into min.mdate() and max.mdate() for summaries and vmin.mdate() and vmax.mdate() for vector coercion
• Separated tendency functions into mean.mdate(), median.mdate(), and modal.mdate() for summaries and vmean.mdate(), vmedian.mdate(), and vmodal.mdate() for vector coercion
• Vector coercion previously in random.mdate() now in vrandom.mdate()
• Improved how coercion/resolution functions handle BCE dates

Manipulation

• Fixed how precision() calculates precision

messydates 0.5.1

Package

• Fixed redirected url in README
• Fixed pkgdown help links

messydates 0.5.0

Package

• Dropped the vignettes as they were 'outdated'
• Dropped a number of tests to provide rapid testing framework
• Dropped {tibble} dependency by just using {dplyr}
• Updated Github workflows
• Updated testthat to version 3, tests now run in parallel
• Updated pkgdown to bootstrap 5
• Updated DESCRIPTION with config packages

Functions

• Moved from {stringr} to {stringi} for speed
• Added as.numeric.mdate() and as_messydate.numeric() for coercing between messydates and numbers (closes #85)
• Added seq.mdate() for creating sequences from one or two messydates
  • This includes correct sequences for leap years and historical dates including before the common era
• Added is_bce() for testing whether dates are from before the common era
• Added stri_squish() helper for trimming white space everywhere
• Improved c.mdate() so that it will strip class from an mdate object, as expected
• Improved is_uncertain() and is_approximate() so that they also recognise % annotations
• Improved min.mdate(), max.mdate(), and modal.mdate() to avoid using expand() and consequently run much faster
• Improved min.mdate(), max.mdate(), modal.mdate(), mean.mdate(), median.mdate(), and random.mdate() by adding recursive argument for resolving vectors down to a scalar
• Fixed bug in messyduration.mdate() where the minimum of an underspecified later date was used
• Fixed bug in as_messydate() where zero padding for early dates was not added correctly

messydates 0.4.1 (2024-04-19)

Package

• The package now depends on R versions bigger or equal to 4.0 since functions for subsetting and comparing 'mdate' objects rely on functions introduced in that version

Functions

• Closed #83 by fixing how logical comparisons works for negative and year only dates

messydates 0.4.0

Functions

• Closed #46 by adding the mdates_duration class that introduces methods to annotate a duration or period with representations of its uncertainty
• Closed #72 by fixing issues with double unspecified components not being contracted correctly
• Closed #73 by fixing bugs with the conversion of dates where month is spelled
• Closed #74 and #82 by adding other logical comparison operators for 'mdate' objects (e.g. <, >, <=, >=) (thanks @WerthPADOH)
• Closed #76 by adding proportional operators that calculate the proportion of messy dates meeting logical tests (e.g. %l% %le%, %g%, %ge%, %><%, %>=<%)
• Closed #77 by adding basic vector methods for subsetting and data frames (thanks @WerthPADOH)
• Added alias function mdate() for as_messydate()
• Renamed set family of functions to work as operators (i.e. %intersect% and %union%)
• Replaced is_element() by is_subset() for clarity and consistency
• Closed #80 by updating make_messydates() function to also construct ranges of dates

messydates 0.3.5 (2023-01-20)

Functions

• Updated how contract() function checks if 'mdate' object has been expanded

messydates 0.3.4

Package

• Updated 'battles' internal data
  • Corrected issues with zero padding for certain date ranges
  • Added 'US_party' and 'N_actors' additional variables for replication purposes

Functions

• Closed #68 by updating as_messydate() function
  • Fixed bugs with zero padding for ranges of dates
  • Fixed bugs with the re-ordering of months and day components for incorrectly specified dates
• Closed #69 by updating contract() function to 'expand' dates before 'contracting' them
• Updated expand() function to handle, and properly convert, date objects that are not 'mdate'

messydates 0.3.3 (2022-12-20)

Package

• Moved cheatsheet.pdf to 'inst' folder instead of the 'man' folder

messydates 0.3.2

Package

• Closed #64 by updating failing tests to test for other aspects instead of the printing of negative dates across OS
• Closed #65 by updating cheatsheet for new package changes

Functions

• Closed #62 by adding "resequence" as an argument to as_messydates() for explicit date format conversion, if necessary
• Closed #63 by fixing issues with unnecessary white spaces added in date conversion

messydates 0.3.1 (2022-07-21)

Package

• Updated README by removing unattractive package startup messages
• Updated battles data by adding 'parties' variable

Functions

• Closed #54 by adding new mreport() function to properly report on data containing 'mdate' variables
• Updated expand() function
  • Fixed bug with the expansion of approximate dates
  • Removed unnecessary function message

messydates 0.3.0 (2022-06-02)

Package

• Closed #51 by changing object class name to mdate
  • Note that this is a breaking change
• Closed #41 by creating {skimr} template for mdate class

Functions

• Updated coercion to messy dates
  • Closed #26 by adding "resequence" argument to as_messydate() allowing users to choose component order of ambiguous dates
  • Closed #45 by improving how as_messydate() re-orders 6 digit date components if necessary
  • Closed #48 by adding zero padding incomplete date ranges and sets of dates
  • Updated as_messydate() to also extract dates from text strings
• Added is_precise() function that provides a logical test for precise dates
• Updated messy dates expansion
  • Updated expand() to allow for the expansion of incomplete date ranges and sets of dates
  • Closed #49 by updating resolve functions to only expand dates if they are not precise

messydates 0.2.1 (2022-02-23)

Package

• Added a vignette for working with the {messydates} package

Functions

• Closed #9 by adding arithmetic operations for working with messydt objects
  • Added S3 methods for "+" and "-" operators
  • Added add() and subtract() helper functions for arithmetic operations
• Updated expand() function
  • Closed #31 by updating how approximate dates are expanded to account for leap years
  • Closed #34 by updating expand() to manage negative dates
  • Added expand_negative_dates() helper function for expanding ranges of negative dates
• Updated functions that coerce from messydt objects to Date to manage negative dates
  • Added negative_dates() helper function to coerce negative messydt dates
• Closed #39 by updating how resolve mean methods work for negative dates
• Closed #40 by updating contract function to manage the contraction of negative dates
  • Added compact_negative_dates() helper function to compact negative date ranges
  • Added is.sequence() as a helper function to check if dates are a range
• Updated resequence script to export interleave() function

messydates 0.2.0 (2021-11-12)

Package

• Added PANARCHIC project details to README file
• Added cheatsheet
• Added a new CSS style to website and updated functions displayed
• Addressed workflow actions issues
  • Updated pushrelease.yml workflow actions file to stop installing {messydates} from Github
  • Updated README file to stop installing {messydates} from Github
• Fixed Codecov test coverage URL on README file for CRAN submission

Functions

• Expanded on messydates checks for class validity
• Fixed bugs for make_messydate()
• Added annotation functions and standardized annotation so that it is consistent with ISO2019E standards.
  • on_or_before()
  • on_or_after()
  • as_approximate()
  • as_uncertain() (includes discrimination between month uncertainty and day and month uncertainty)
• Updated as_messydate() by adding zero padding for month, day or year
• Updated resequence() to work consistently with messydate objects
• Updated expand() function to expand imprecise, unspecified, approximate, uncertain, and negative dates according to approximate ranges and added tests
• Updated precision() to return the lengths of expanded dates
• Updated median() in resolve family of functions to work with changes to expand()
• Added tests for functions
  • Added tests for expand()
  • Added tests for contract()
  • Added tests for precision()
  • Added tests for coerce_from_messydate()

messydates 0.1.1 (2021-07-19)

Package

• Updated README with some more explanation about what the package does/offers
• Fixed URL to the package website

messydates 0.1.0

Package

• Updated call to messydt class in DESCRIPTION file

Functions

• Updated documentation for as_messydate() functions
• Updated documentation for expand() function
• Updated documentation for resolve family of functions
• Updated documentation for coerce from family of functions
• Updated documentation for coerce to family of functions

messydates 0.0.1

Package

• Setup {messydates} package
  • Added DESCRIPTION file
  • Added R folder
  • Added LICENSE file
  • Added NAMESPACE file
  • Added NEWS file
  • Added README files
  • Added .github folder and files
  • Added tests folder and files
• Setup pkgdown website
• Added package logo

Functions

• Added a new messydt class which follows the latest ISO 8601 (2019) standards
  • Added validation checks for messydt class
  • Added print methods for messydt class
• Added as_messydate() function to coerce from date objects to messydate
  • as_messydate() standardises date order, separators and ambiguity
  • Added date class coercion
  • Added POSIXct class coercion
  • Added POSIXlt class coercion
  • Added character class coercion
• Added functions to coerce from messydate objects to other date classes
  • Added as.Date.messydt() for coercing to date class
  • Added as.POSIXct.messydt() for coercing to POSIXct class
  • Added as.POSIXlt.messydt() for coercing to POSIXlt class
• Added expand() function for expanding ranged and uncertain dates
• Added functions to resolve expanded dates
  • Added min.messydt() to get minimum value from expanded range
  • Added max.messydt() to get maximum value from expanded range
  • Added median.messydt() to get median value from expanded range
  • Added mean.messydt() to get mean value from expanded range
  • Added modal.messydt() to get mode value from expanded range
• Added contract() function for contracting expanded dates
• Added extract functions to get particular date components
  • Added year() to extract year from date
  • Added month() to extract month from date
  • Added day() to extract day from date
• Added make_messydate() function to get messy dates from multiple columns
• Added set functions for operations in sets of messy dates
  • Added md_intersect() to find intersection of sets of messy dates
  • Added md_union() to find union of sets of messy dates
  • Added md_multiset() to join two sets of messy dates
• Added logical function for various logical tests for messy date objects
  • Added is_messydate() to test for messydt class
  • Added is_intersecting() to test if dates intersect
  • Added is_element() to test for multiple elements in dates
  • Added is_similar() to test for similarities in dates
• Added tests for new functions
  • Added tests for messydt class and às_messydate() function
  • Added tests for coerce from messy dates functions
  • Added tests for coerce to messy dates functions
  • Added tests for contract() function
  • Added tests for expand() function
  • Added tests for extract functions
  • Added tests for make_messydate() function
  • Added tests for resolve functions
  • Added tests for set functions