Convert string to date and merge data sets R <p>I have a column of data in the form of a string, and I need to change it to date because it is a time series.</p> <pre><code>200612010018 --&gt; 2006-12-01 00:18 </code></pre> <p>I've tried unsucessfully,</p> <pre><code>strptime(200612010018,format ='%Y%M%D %H:%MM') </code></pre> <p>After doing this I need to append one data set to another one. Will I have any problems using rbind() if the column contains dates?</p> <p>Thanks</p>