era (Q88972)

Provides a consistent representation of year-based time scales as a numeric vector with an associated 'era'. There are built-in era definitions for many year numbering systems used in contemporary and historic calendars (e.g. Common Era, Islamic 'Hijri' years); year-based time scales used in archaeology, astronomy, geology, and other palaeosciences (e.g. Before Present, SI-prefixed 'annus'); and support for arbitrary user-defined eras. Years can converted from any one era to another using a generalised transformation function. Methods are also provided for robust casting and coercion between years and other numeric types, type-stable arithmetic with years, and pretty-printing in tables.