Question

What will be a output of the following function in Calc =Time(18;30;25)

Answer 1

Answer:

Calculating time in Excel can be very frustrating, especially when all you want to do is sum a column of times to get the total, but for some reason you end up with a random number like in the example below.

Calculating Time in Excel Example

Let me explain what’s going on and how to calculate time in Excel.

Since time is a concept rather than a mathematical equation, Excel has come up with systems for handling dates and times whereby they are given a numerical value.

Download the Excel workbook and follow along.

Dates in Excel

Excel gives each date a numeric value starting at 1st January 1900.

1st January 1900 has a numeric value of 1, 2nd January 1900 has a numeric value of 2 and so on...  These are called ‘serial values’, and they enable the use of dates in calculations.

Times in Excel

Times are seen as decimal fractions. 1 being the time for 24:00 or 0:00.  12:00 has a value of 0.50 because it is half of 24 hours, or the whole number 1, and so on.

To see Excel's value for a date or time, simply format the cell as general.

For example the date and time of 1st January 2012 10:00:00 AM has a true value of 40909.4166666667

40909 being the serial value representing the date 1st January 2012, and .4166666667 being the decimal value for the time 10.00AM and 00 seconds.

Explanation: