How to Sort a Data Frame by Dates in R (Example Code)

This article shows how to sort a data frame based on a date column in the R programming language.

Creation of Example Data

my_df <- data.frame(date = c("2024/12/03",    # Creating some data
                             "2021/07/01",
                             "2022/01/11",
                             "2017/05/03",
                             "2021/11/17"),
                    col1 = 11:15,
                    col2 = LETTERS[1:5])
my_df                                         # Showing example data in RStudio console
#         date col1 col2
# 1 2024/12/03   11    A
# 2 2021/07/01   12    B
# 3 2022/01/11   13    C
# 4 2017/05/03   14    D
# 5 2021/11/17   15    E

Example: Apply as.Date() Function to Sort data.frame by Date Variable

my_df$date <- as.Date(my_df$date,             # Modify date variable class
                      format = "%Y/%m/%d")
my_df <- my_df[order(my_df$date), ]           # Sorting data frame by date
my_df                                         # Showing ordered data frame in console
#         date col1 col2
# 4 2017-05-03   14    D
# 2 2021-07-01   12    B
# 5 2021-11-17   15    E
# 3 2022-01-11   13    C
# 1 2024-12-03   11    A

Further Resources

You may find some additional R programming language tutorials on topics such as variables, factors, and dates in the following list:

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