Convert months mmm to numeric

Question

I have been given a csv with a column called month as a char variable with the first three letters of the month. E.g.:

\"Jan\", \"Feb\",\"Mar\",...\"Dec\"
         


        

Answer 1

A couple of options using:

vec <- c("Jan","Dec","Jan","Apr")

are

> Months <- 1:12
> names(Months) <- month.abb
> unname(Months[vec])
[1]  1 12  1  4

and/or

> match(vec, month.abb)
[1]  1 12  1  4