An instant is a specific moment in time. Any date-time object that refers to a moment of time is recognized as an instant. To test if an object is an instant, use is.instant
.
library(lubridate)
today_start <- dmy_hms("22.07.2016 12:00:00", tz = "IST") # default tz="UTC"
today_start
## [1] "2016-07-22 12:00:00 IST"
is.instant(today_start)
## [1] TRUE
now_dt <- ymd_hms(now(), tz="IST")
now_dt
## [1] "2016-07-22 13:53:09 IST"
is.instant(now_dt)
## [1] TRUE
is.instant("helloworld")
## [1] FALSE
is.instant(60)
## [1] FALSE