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: Displaying a Number as Years and Months.
Robert has a formula that determines the payback period for certain investments. For instance, with $20,000 investment in energy-savings equipment and an annual energy savings of $3000, the simplistic payback period to recoup the investment is 6.6667 years. Robert wonders how he can make this payback period (6.6667) show as years and months instead of as a decimal number.
This can be done by simply multiplying the portion of the answer at the right of the decimal point by 12, which results in a number of months. Here is one way to get the desired result, assuming that the payback result is in cell A1:
=INT(A1) & " years / " & INT((A1-INT(A1))*12) & " months"
With the value 6.6667 in cell A1, the formula would return "6 years / 8 months".
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6960) 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: Displaying a Number as Years and Months.
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2016-10-26 08:20:29
Carlos
Thank you very much :) Spared me some time from having to come with the solution myself.
2016-09-29 09:04:04
efren
Thank you for your tips, as compared to other sites yours are more concise and clear and easy as well.
2015-12-17 04:02:54
Wouter
Excellent tip to display a period of time in an easily readable format. Thanks!
2013-02-23 12:09:36
Juan
Very interesting tip to convert decimal to meaningful format number
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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: 
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