Error in `cut` function - r

Question

I'm trying to group all dates houses in San Francisco were sold by year. I'm using the following code
geo_big$month <- as.Date(paste0(strftime(geo_big$date, format = "%Y-%m"), "-01"))
geo_big$date_r <- cut(geo_big$month, breaks = as.Date(c("2003-04-01", "2004-01-01", "2005-01-01", "2006-01-01", "2007-01-01", "2008-11-01")), include.lowest = TRUE, labels = as.Date(c("2003-01 - 2004-12", "2004-01 - 2004-12", "2005-01 - 2005-12", "2006-01 - 2006-12", "2007-01 - 2007-12", "2008-01 - 2008-11")))
And getting this message:
Error in charToDate(x) :
character string is not in a standard unambiguous format
Anyone know what's going on?

Answer 1

The error given should indicate to you that the issue is not cut but as.Date. (It's complaining to you about not being able to determine the format of the date)
More specifically, it is what you have givn as labels. No need to wrap those in as.Date
The labels should be character and c(.) and the quotation marks are sufficient for that.
Just as a bit of hand, the code above can be cleaned up in a few areas.
Also, the lubridate package might be very useful to you.
# instead of:
geo_big$month <- as.Date(paste0(strftime(geo_big$date, format = "%Y-%m"), "-01"))
# you can use `floor_date`:
library(lubridate)
geo_big$month <- floor_date(geo_big$date, "month") # from the `lubridate` pkg
# instead of:
... a giant cut statement...
# use variables for ease of reading and debugging
# bks <- as.Date(c("2003-04-01", "2004-01-01", "2005-01-01", "2006-01-01", "2007-01-01", "2008-11-01"))
# or:
bks <- c(dmin, seq.Date(ceiling_date(dmin, "year"), floor_date(dmax, "year"), by="year"), dmax) # still using library(lubridate)
# basing your labels on your breaks helps guard against human error & typos
lbls <- head(floor_date(bks, "year"), -1) # dropping the last one, and adding dmax
lbls <- paste( substr(lbls, 1, 7), substr(c(lbls[-1] - 1, dmax), 1, 7), sep=" - ")
# a cleaner, more readable `cut` statement
cut(geo_big$month, breaks=bks, include.lowest=TRUE, labels=lbls)