I have the following vector of double values, `x`, where each element represents a POSIX date-time

```
x <- c(1417621083, 1417621204, 1417621384, 1417621564, 1417621623)

```

I am using the *RJSONIO* package, and would like to continue to do so.

As an exercise, I'd like to convert these values into JSON text and then read them back into R again, but am having trouble getting the date-time representations into a nice simplified list result. In JSON, the dates need to be in a special format so the values in `x` are converted to the following:

```
dates <- c("/new Date(1417621083)", "/Date(1417621204)", "/Date(1417621384)", 
           "/Date(1417621564)", "/Date(1417621623)")

```

When I run `dates` with a second arbitrary vector through the *RJSONIO* parser, everything seems to go smoothly.

```
library(RJSONIO)
make <- toJSON(list(date = dates, value = LETTERS))

```

Then when I parse the new JSON text using the `stringFun` option with the R-json C routine for dates, the result is a two-element list, the first element being a list and the second an atomic vector. 

```
(read <- fromJSON(make, stringFun = "R_json_dateStringOp"))
# $date
# $date[[1]]
# [1] "2014-12-03 07:38:03 PST"
# 
# $date[[2]]
# [1] "2014-12-03 07:40:04 PST"
# 
# $date[[3]]
# [1] "2014-12-03 07:43:04 PST"
# 
# $date[[4]]
# [1] "2014-12-03 07:46:04 PST"
# 
# $date[[5]]
# [1] "2014-12-03 07:47:03 PST"
# 
# 
# $value
# [1] "A" "B" "C" "D" "E" "F" "G" "H" "I" "J" "K" "L" "M"
# [14] "N" "O" "P" "Q" "R" "S" "T" "U" "V" "W" "X" "Y" "Z"

```

But I was expecting a list of two vectors, and I would rather have it in the form of

```
# $date
# [1] "2014-12-03 07:38:03 PST" "2014-12-03 07:40:04 PST"
# [3] "2014-12-03 07:43:04 PST" "2014-12-03 07:46:04 PST"
# [5] "2014-12-03 07:47:03 PST"
# 
# $value
# [1] "A" "B" "C" "D" "E" "F" "G" "H" "I" "J" "K" "L" "M" "N" "O" "P" "Q"
# [18] "R" "S" "T" "U" "V" "W" "X" "Y" "Z"

```

I tried several ways to simplify the result from within the call to `fromJSON()`, and none of them have worked. Here are a couple of my attempts:

**Using a handler :** This simplifies the result but fails to reformat the dates

```
h1 <- basicJSONHandler(simplify = TRUE)
fromJSON(make, handler = h1, stringFun = "R_json_dateStringOp")
# $date
# [1] "/new Date(1417621083)" "/Date(1417621204)"    
# [3] "/Date(1417621384)"     "/Date(1417621564)"    
# [5] "/Date(1417621623)"    
# 
# $value
# [1] "A" "B" "C" "D" "E" "F" "G" "H" "I" "J" "K" "L" "M"
# [14] "N" "O" "P" "Q" "R" "S" "T" "U" "V" "W" "X" "Y" "Z"

```

**Trying the** `simplify` **argument :** I tried several different varieties of this and none worked.

```
fromJSON(make, simplify = StrictCharacter)
# $date
# [1] "/new Date(1417621083)" "/Date(1417621204)"    
# [3] "/Date(1417621384)"     "/Date(1417621564)"    
# [5] "/Date(1417621623)"    
#
# $value
#  [1] "A" "B" "C" "D" "E" "F" "G" "H" "I" "J" "K" "L" "M"
# [14] "N" "O" "P" "Q" "R" "S" "T" "U" "V" "W" "X" "Y" "Z"

```

Is there a way to simplify the result for the dates in the call to `fromJSON()`?