Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Converting Time Notation to Decimal Notation.

Converting Time Notation to Decimal Notation

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 5, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Excel internally stores date and time values as floating-point numbers. The portion of the number to the left of the decimal point represents days elapsed since either January 1, 1900 or 1904 (depending on how your copy of Excel is configured). The portion of the number to the right of the decimal point represents the portion of a full day represented by the date and time.

Knowing this, you can easily convert a number from its time notation to its decimal equivalent. For instance, if you have an elapsed time value that represents 8:30, you can easily convert it to 8.5 (eight and a half hours) by multiplying the time value by 24.

To give another example, let's say that you have a beginning time in cell A3 and an ending time in cell B3. In cell C3 you place the following formula:

=B3 - A3

The result in cell C3 is the elapsed time, which is the difference between the beginning and ending times. In cell D3 you could then place the following formula:

= C3 * 24

The result in D3 is a decimal representation of the number of hours in cell C3. You can format the cell as you would any other number value so that it displays the number of decimal places desired. If you prefer to limit the number of decimal places in the result, right off the bat, you could instead use the following formula in cell D3:

=ROUNDUP(C3 * 24, 1)

This formula multiples C3 by 24 to convert to a decimal value, but then rounds the result to a single decimal place.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2052) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Converting Time Notation to Decimal Notation.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Make AutoCorrect Pay Attention to Character Case

If you rely on AutoText (as most Word users do), you may have noticed that it doesn't always give the desired results ...

Discover More

Can't Select Style Instances

Using the Styles and Formatting task pane, Word allows you to select all instances of a given style in your document. ...

Discover More

Searching for Adjectives and Adverbs

Searching for different types of words in your documents is a nice thing to contemplate, but it is much harder to do in ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Converting Numeric Values to Times

If you have a bunch of times entered into cells without the colon between the hours and minutes, chances are good that ...

Discover More

Rounding to the Nearest Quarter Hour

When entering times in a worksheet, you may have a need to round whatever you enter to the nearest 15-minute increment. ...

Discover More

Dealing with Large Numbers of Seconds

When adding values to a time to calculate a new time, you may naturally choose to use the TIME function. This can cause ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is three more than 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.