R: Ordering and transforming irregular time strings -

i have similar problem following question on transforming irregular time strings. have time series of character class order.

rather commas, milliseconds in separated ʻ.ʻ. however, when try apply gsub step, data replaced semi-colons.

head(time, n=5)

[1] "05:48:59.306" "05:48:56.246" "05:48:53.214" "05:48:52.662" "05:48:50.203"

time.new <- gsub(".", ":", time)

head(time.new, n=10)

[1] "::::::::::::" "::::::::::::" "::::::::::::" "::::::::::::" "::::::::::::"

if through step, in theory calculate decimal minutes column , order based on decimal minutes. missing gsub part? :p

any appreciated.

you should use 2 \ before . in gsub().

gsub("\\.", ":", time)

Sharma