$R->set( 'data', "2016-03-15 13","2016-03-16 23","2016-03-17 06","2016-03-18 15","2016-03-19 08","2016-03-20 21" ); $R->run( q`datevec <- strptime(data,"%Y-%m-%d %H")` ); $R->run( q`xx <- difftime(datevec[-length(datevec)],datevec[-1],units="hours")` ); @Rres = $R->get('xx'); print Dumper(\@Rres);