shiny - Convert text into R date class in UTF-16 files before and after excel opening? -

i have shiny app requires input cvs (utf-16) file gets downloaded system. depending on whether user uploads file directly download folder on local machine or user opens file in excel, saves on local machine, , uploads shiny, uploads different date field format.

in order give robust solution user problem, tried following customized function:

 .asdate <- function(x) {     if(nchar(x) < 20) {       as.posixct(strptime(x, "%y/%m/%d %h:%m"))     } else {       as.posixct(strptime(x, "%b %d, %y %i:%m:%s %p"))     }   }  

but, when sapply against column, numeric output:

 foo <- data.frame(start.time = c("2012/02/06 15:47",                                     "2012/02/06 15:02",                                    "2012/02/22 10:08"),                     duration   = c(1,2,3),                     stringsasfactors = f)  sapply(foo$start.time, .asdate)  2012/02/06 15:47 2012/02/06 15:02 2012/02/22 10:08           1.3e+09          1.3e+09          1.3e+09  

instead of correct conversion i'm looking for:

 as.posixct(strptime(foo$start.time, "%y/%m/%d %h:%m"))  [1] "2012-02-06 15:47:00 est" "2012-02-06 15:02:00 est" "2012-02-22 10:08:00 est" 

could correcting issue?

sapply returns vector , converting dates numeric class. tried using lapply , returned output looking for:

lapply(foo$start.time, .asdate) 

or can use function created:

yourdates<-.asdate(foo$start.time) 

if keen on using sapply following(which same lapply):

sapply(foo$start.time, .asdate, simplify = f, use.names = f)