by The tutorial demonstrates different ways to convert time to decimal in Excel. You will find a variety of formulas to change time to hours, minutes or seconds as well as convert text to time and vice versa.
Because Microsoft Excel uses a numeric system to store times, you can easily turn hours, minutes and seconds into numbers that you can use in other calculations.
In general, there are two ways to convert time to decimal in Excel - by changing the cell format and by using arithmetic calculations or Excel time functions, such as HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND. Further on in this tutorial, you will find the detailed explanation of the first way and formula examples demonstrating the other technique.
How to convert time to decimal number in Excel
Overall, there are three ways to change a time value to a decimal number: arithmetic operation, CONVERT function or a combination of three different Time functions.
The easiest way to convert time to decimal in Excel is to multiply the original time value by the number of hours, seconds or minutes in a day:
- To convert time to a number of hours, multiply the time by 24, which is the number of hours in a day.
- To convert time to minutes, multiply the time by 1440, which is the number of minutes in a day (24*60).
- To convert time to seconds, multiply the time time by 86400, which is the number of seconds in a day (24*60*60 ).
In the following sections, you will learn the other methods of converting times to a decimal number in Excel.
How to convert time to hours in Excel
This section demonstrates 3 different formulas to convert hours from the standard time format (hh:mm:ss) to a decimal number.
Formula 1: Arithmetic calculation
You already know the fastest way to convert a time value to a number of hours in Excel - multiplying by 24, i.e. by the number of hours in one day:
=A2*24
Where A2 is the time value.
To get the number of compete hours, embed the above formula in the INT function that will get rid of the fractional part:
=INT(A2*24)
Formula 2: CONVERT function
Another way to perform the "time > hours" conversion is to use the following Convert formula:
=CONVERT(A2, "day", "hr")
Formula 3: HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND functions
Finally, you can use a bit more complex formula, whose logic, however, is quite obvious. Extract the individual time units by using the HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND functions, then divide minutes by 60 (the number of minutes in an hour) and seconds by 3600 (the number of seconds in an hour), and add up the results:
=HOUR(A2) + MINUTE(A2)/60 + SECOND(A2)/3600
How to convert time to minutes in Excel
The same three methods can be used to convert minutes from the standard time format to a decimal number.
Formula 1: Arithmetic calculation
To convert time to total minutes, you multiply time by 1440, which is the number of minutes in one day (24 hours * 60 minutes = 1440):
=A2*1440
If you want to return the number of compete minutes, utilize the INT function like in the previous example:
=INT(A2*1440)
You can view the results in the screenshot below:
Formula 2: CONVERT function
To do the "time > minutes" conversion with the CONVERT(number, from_unit, to_unit) function, supply "day" as the unit to convert from and "mn" as the unit to convert to:
=CONVERT(A2, "day", "mn")
Formula 3: HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND functions
One more way to get the number of minutes is to multiply hours by 60 and divide seconds by the same number:
=HOUR(A2)*60 + MINUTE(A2) + SECOND(A2)/60
How to convert time to seconds in Excel
Converting time to total seconds in Excel can be done in a similar fashion.
Formula 1: Arithmetic calculation
Multiply the time value by 86400, which is the number of seconds in a day (24 hours * 60 minutes * 60 seconds = 86400):
=A2*86400
Formula 2: CONVERT function
The formula is basically the same as in the above examples with the only difference that you convert the "day" unit to "sec":
=CONVERT(A2, "day", "sec")
Formula 3: HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND functions
Use the HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND functions like in the two previous examples (I believe at this point you don't need any further explanation of the formula's logic :)
=HOUR(A2)*3600 + MINUTE(A2)*60 + SECOND(A2)
Tips:
- If any of the above formulas returns a value formatted as time, simply change the cell's format to Generalto display it as a number.
- To convert time to a decimal number that represents the time in the internal Excel system, apply the General format to the cell. With this approach, 23:59:59 will be converted to 0.99999, 06:00 AM to 0.25, and 12:00 PM to 0.5. If an integer part of the converted number is greater than zero, it means that your cell contains both date and time values.
How to split date and time in Excel
As is often the case, your Excel worksheet may contain dates and times in one cell, while you want to split them into two separate cells.
Remembering that in the internal Excel system the date value is stored as a whole part and the time value as a fractional part of a decimal number, you can extract the date using the INT function, which rounds the cell value down to the nearest integer.
Supposing your original dates and times are in column A, the following formula will accomplish the separation:
=INT(A2)
To extract the time portion, subtract the date returned by the above formula from the original date and time value:
=A2-B2
Where column A contains the original date & time values and column B contains the dates returned by the INT function.
If you'd rather not have time values linked to the separated dates (for example, you may want to remove the date column in the future), you can use the following MOD formula that refers to the original data only:
=MOD(A2,1)
Tip. If the separated date and time values are not displayed properly, change the format of the new columns to Date and Time, respectively.
This is how you split date and time in Excel. If you want to further separate hours, minutes and seconds into individual columns, then use the HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND functions, as demonstrated in How to get hours, minutes and seconds from a timestamp.
How to spell time in Excel
Sometimes, you may need to convert time into the format that reads something like "# days, # hours, # minutes and # seconds". A good thing is that you already know all the ingredients of the formula:
- Extract days using the INT function;
- Extract time units with HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND functions, and
- Concatenate all parts in a single formula.
Having difficulties with figuring out a proper formula for your worksheet? The following example will make things easy!
Supposing you have the dates of upcoming events in column B beginning in cell B4, and the current date and time returned by the NOW() function in cell B1.
The formula to calculate the time difference is as simple as =B4-$B$1. Of course, nothing prevents you from subtracting the current date and time directly with =B4-NOW().
And now, let's make a countdown timer that would show how many days, hours, minutes and seconds are left until each event.
The formula to enter in cell D4 is as follows:
=INT(C4) & " days, " & HOUR(C4) & " hours, " & MINUTE(C4) & " minutes and " & SECOND(C4) & " seconds"
If you wish to get rid of 0 values, like in cells D6 and D7 in the screenshot above, then include the following IF statements:
=IF(INT(C4)>0, INT(C4)&" days, ","") & IF(HOUR(C4)>0, HOUR(C4) & " hours, ","") & IF(MINUTE(C4)>0, MINUTE(C4) & " minutes and ","") & IF(SECOND(C4)>0, SECOND(C4) & " seconds","")
All zeros are gone!
Note. When either of the above formulas refers to a negative number, the #NUM! error will appear. This may happen when you subtract a bigger time from a smaller one.
An alternative way to write time in words in Excel is to apply the following custom time format to the cell: d "day," h "hours," m "minutes and" s "seconds". No formulas and no calculations are required! For more information, please see Creating a custom time format in Excel.
Convert text to time in Excel
If your time formulas and calculations do not work right, time values formatted as text is often the cause. The fastest way to convert text to time in Excel is using the TIMEVALUE function.
The Excel TIMEVALUE function has just one argument:
Time_text is a text string in any of the time formats that Excel can recognize. For example:
=TIMEVALUE("6:20 PM")
=TIMEVALUE("6-Jan-2015 6:20 PM")
=TIMEVALUE(A2) where A2 contains a text string
As you see, the formulas with cell references and corresponding text strings deliver identical results. Also, please notice the left alignment of time strings (text values) in cells A2 and A6 and right-aligned converted time values in column D.
Convert time to text in Excel
Supposing you have an Excel file full of times formatted to look like "8:30:00 AM" and you want to convert them to the text format. Simply changing the cell's format to TEXT won't work because this would change your time values to underlying numeric representation of the time. For example, 8:30:00 AM will be converted to decimal 0.354166666666667.
So, how do you convert cells to the text format so that your cells still have the time in them? The answer is to use the TEXT function that converts a numeric value to text with the display formatting that you specify, for example:
=TEXT($A2,"h:mm:ss")
The screenshot below demonstrates other possible formats:
How to convert numbers to time format in Excel
If you have a list of numbers such as 1, 2, 3.5 and you want to convert them to a time format, for example 1:00:00, 2:00:00 or 3:30 AM, perform the following steps.
- Divide the numbers by 24 (there are 24 hours in a day). The formula can be as simple as =A2/24.
- Select the cell(s) with the formula result, right-click and select Format Cells from the context menu or press Ctrl+1. Either way, the Format Cells dialog will appear, you select Time on the left pane under Category, and choose the format you want on the right pane under Type. Please see How to format time in Excel for more details.
If your time exceeds 24 hours, 60 minutes, 60 seconds, use these guidelines to correctly show it.
That's all for today. If someone wants to get the first-hand experience with the formulas discussed in this article, you are most welcome to download the sample workbook below.
If you want to learn a few more useful formulas to calculate times in Excel, please check out the related tutorials at the end of this page. I thank you for reading and hope to see you again next week!
Practice workbook for download
Converting time in Excel - examples (.xlsx file)
457 comments
THANKS AND REGARDS FOR SUPPORT
Would it be converting 2:53 to Hours then multiplying by 30 degrees?
2:53*24=2.8833 then 2.8833*30=86.50 Degrees
Need help converting hh:m to Degrees on a circle. For example 2:53 to degrees.
25days * 10:30 hour = ? In hh:mm format ?
Whts the formula like this calculation
27days * 10:30hours = ans in hours
How to formula for this type of sums ?
Thanks for the tutorial and for answering questions. I'm trying to convert a cell that is 'x days, y hours, z minutes, and t seconds' into minutes. I've tried a few of the recommended solutions however none have worked. What might I be missing or have wrong (i.e critical spacing I'm adding/missing or a specific format I need to have in the answer cell)? Also note, sometimes days, hours, , minutes, and/or seconds might have a 0 value. Often when I type them in the first referenced cell is highlighted like normal but every referenced cell following is not highlighted. Thanks in advance for your help. Here are the suggested formulas I've tried:
=INT(LEFT(C8 ;FIND("days"; C8) - 1)) * 24 * 60 + INT(MID(C8 ; FIND(" "; C8) + 1; FIND("hours"; RIGHT(C8 ; LEN(C8) - FIND(" "; C8))) - 1)) * 60 + INT(MID(C8 ;FIND(" "; C8;FIND("hours"; C8))+1;FIND("minutes"; C8)-FIND(" "; C8 ;FIND("hours"; C8)) - 1))
And I've tried this one:
=IF(ISERROR(FIND("day", A1)), 0, INT(TRIM(LEFT(A1, FIND("day", A1) -1))) * 24 * 60) + IF(ISERROR(FIND("hour", A1)), 0, INT(MID(A1,IF(FIND("hour",A1)-6<0,1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND("hour",A1)-6)),FIND("hour",A1)-IF(FIND("hour",A1)-6<0,1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND("hour",A1)-6)))) * 60) + IF(ISERROR(FIND("min", A1)), 0, INT(MID(A1, FIND(" ", A1, FIND("min", A1)-6), FIND("min", A1)-FIND(" ", A1, FIND("min", A1)-5))))
Thank you, Svetlana! For weeks, I have been looking all over for help that covers all my need for time/date conversion. Your answers work perfectly with my data!
How to convert number 102 to HH:MM
Hello,
Is there a format type or other way to quickly type hours to cell?
For example I want to add time 21:00 by typing only "21".
I have tried multiple different formats and if I type "21" it turns out 0:00.
Any idea about the format I should use?
Ville,
Format cell as Custom, adding in "Type:" 00":"00
So for eg. 7:15 you type 715
Hope this helps,
Davor
HELLO DEAR,
CAN I CONVERT NUMBER FORMET FOR EXAMPLE 1.75 IN TO TIME FORMET FOR EXAMPLE 1.45 HOURS IN MS EXCEL.
9015223435
I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONVERT NUMBER FORMAT (FOR EXAMPLE 1.75 IN TO TIME FORMAT WHICH IS 1.45 HOURS) IN MS EXCEL.
> FIRSTLY, CONSIDER 1.75(WHICH IS IN GENERAL FORMAT) IN CELL A1. USE THE FORMULA IN CELL A2 AS =A1/24(THIS IS LIKE YOU ARE CONVERTING IT INTO HOURS). YOU WILL GET THE VALUE 0.072916667(WHICH IS GENERAL FORMAT).
FINALLY, SELECT THE CELL A2 AND CONVERT INTO TIME FORMAT('HOME' TAB > GENERAL TO 'TIME'), YOU WILL GET THE VALUE 01:45:00.
Navish, is there a way to do it the other way? If I have a time (let's say 8:30), how do I convert it to 8.5 in number format in excel?
Thank you!
I would like to know the same thing
Hi,
This question has been asked many times in the comments.
To convert time to decimal, multiply by 24
=A1*24
Figured it out. Have four columns: A start time column, an end time column, a difference in time (hh:mm) column, and a decimal time column (hours). Format the first three as time and the last as general. For the start time and end time columns, make sure it is in military time and you have the date entered in the cell as well (it should only show the time when not clicked on). In the time difference column, do a function (use =) and subtract your end time from your start time. This should appear in "hh:mm" format. In the final column, use this equation: =CONVERT( cell ,"day", "hr"). Replace the 'cell' part with your desired time difference cell. It should look like "=CONVERT([@[Hours (time)]],"day", "hr")" in the formula bar when you are done, with a box highlighting your desired time difference cell. This should convert your time in hh:mm to hours as a decimal. I used this to add my difference in hours into a total numeric value.
For example, lets say I volunteer from 1 pm to 2:30 pm every saturday for a month (4 weeks). that is 13:00 and 14:30 in my first and second columns (respectively) for the first four rows. In all of my third columns (time difference) for the first four rows, it should read "1:30". In my final column, it would read "1.5". I can then add my final column together to get a total of 6.
You may be able to get it into three columns if you do a compound function to combine the third (time difference) and fourth (decimal time in hours).
Dear
Our worker overtime in number(6.83) we want change in hour pls solve with example
6.83 multiplied by 24 then custom format and select hh:mm
My fault should be divided by 24 then custom format and select hh:mm
This is a small sample of my data that I need to convert to [h]:mm.
I can remove the words days, hrs and mins, although it's sort of a manual process by replacing them with nothing.
I will be adding it all up and providing some statistical info on the changes, as there are two columns with similar data. One for before and another for after. Sometimes the second column has no value, contains the word "Removed" or is Zero "0 mins".
1 days 7 hrs 49 mins
6 hrs 10 mins
14 hrs 25 mins
8 hrs 50 mins
18 hrs 4 mins
17 hrs 58 mins
1 hrs 21 mins
4 days 2 hrs 34 mins
2 days 20 mins
I need help. I found something similar, but not quite the same. Also it's been written in a function. I know I have to call a function, but am not totally sure how this would be done.
Thanks for any assistance or if someone can write a macro or VBA code for me?
Much appreciated.
I have time format in 1 days 3 hours 24 minutes.
I need to change this to actual hours and minutes.
Any help much appreciated.
Thanks
Hi,
Is there a way to convert from 1 to 6 digits in a column to time HH:MM:SS
110759 11:07:59
110739 11:07:39
110723 11:07:23
41727 04:17:27
41714 04:17:14
124 00:01:24
106 00:01:06
48 00:00:48
24 00:00:24
I use the Text to column, fixed width function but , when they are not the same number of digits in a row they do not split properly.
Tried the Custom format by adding 0 in front of the digits and it shows 6 digits in each cell but when I try to use the Text to column it ignores the format.
Any ideas?
this is exactly what i'm searching for help on too. would love to see if anyone knows of a way to do this.
Try with Delimited & space
I am trying to calculate lap splits for track athletes. I would like to calculate this in minutes, seconds and hundredths of a second. If I have elapsed time entered into a spreadsheet. Is there a formula that would calculate lap splits?
Hello,
I am creating a sheet to calculate how much time it will take to perform a series of daily tasks. I have a set number of items that require 7 minutes of work per item. For instance, on Monday, there are 24 items that take 7 minutes each, for a total of 168 minutes. I need a formula that shows how many hours and minutes it will take. I can do the math myself and know that it takes 2 hours and 48 minutes (2 hours=120 minutes, plus 48 minutes). How do I get this to work in Excel?
Hi,
Please help. I want to convert the following duration to a decimal Date/Time value:
Input: 0 13:15:20
Input format: d hh:nn:ss
D=days
h=hours
n=minutes
s=seconds
Output required: eg: 0.5523
A decimal value of the duration.
Thank you for any help.
25mins,1 hr 8 mins convert to time
how can i convert an excel data of this format 25 mins to time data
Hi Svetlana,
I have a question,
How can I get the difference between "1/29/2019 9:48:13 AM" and "1/27/2019 12:06:36 PM" in "HH:MM:SS" format, what formula I should use for such cases ?
Thanks is Advance
Vivek Wadhawan
Same question here. How do you convert DD:HH:MM:SS into HH:MM:SS ?
Hi Guys,
Sorry, I have overlooked this question somehow. To display the difference between the two dates in hours, minutes and seconds, use this format: [h]:mm:ss
The hour unit code enclosed in square brackets is used to display more than 24 hours. For more information, please see How to show over 24 hours, 60 minutes and 60 seconds in Excel.
I have DD:HH:MM:SS and need to convert to decimal value. You're saying I have to first change to [h]:mm:ss or hh:mm:ss (somehow) and then convert? I don't see any direct way to go from dd:hh:mm:ss to decimal value in any of the formulas. hh:mm:ss to decimal is very straightforward, but adding days to it doesn't seem to work.
number in seconds: 1.201
function: TIME(0;0;1.201)
result: 0:20:01
number in seconds: 430
function: TIME(0;0;430)
result: 0:07:10