Add times - Excel - Microsoft Office Online

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Add times

Applies to: Microsoft Office Excel 2003

Let's say you want to sum the total time a set of tasks will take so that you can calculate a contract rate, or you want to sum the number of minutes in different legs of a race to get the total time. There are several ways to add times.

What do you want to do?

For times entered in the standard time format (hours : minutes : seconds)

For times entered as a number in a single time unit

For times entered in the standard time format (hours : minutes : seconds)

For this method to work, hours can never exceed 24, minutes can never exceed 60, and seconds can never exceed 60.

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

Show How to copy an example

Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
Select the example in the Help topic.
Note Do not select the row or column headers.

Selecting an example from Help
Press CTRL+C.
In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.

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A
Hours worked
1:35
8:30
3:00
4:15
8:00
Formula	Description (Result)
=SUM(A2:A5)	Total hours worked when the total is less than a day (17:20)
=SUM(A2:A6)*24	Total hours worked when the total is greater than a day (25.33333).

Notes

To view the second formula as a number, select the cell and click Cells on the Format menu. Click the Number tab, and then click General in the Category box.
If the time you are adding contain seconds, format the cell with time format that displays seconds. Select the cell and click Cells on the Format menu. Click the Number tab, and then click Time in the Category box.

Function details

SUM

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For times entered as a number in a single time unit

To do this task, use the TIME function to manipulate a part of a time — such as the hour or minute — within a formula.

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

Show How to copy an example

Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
Select the example in the Help topic.
Note Do not select the row or column headers.

Selecting an example from Help
Press CTRL+C.
In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.

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A	B	C
Time	Description	Amount
10:35:00 AM	Hours	2
10:35:00 AM	Minutes	10
10:35:00 AM	Seconds	30
Formula	Description (Result)
=A2+TIME(C2,0,0)	Add 2 hours to the time above (12:35:00 PM)
=A3+TIME(0,C3,0)	Add 10 minutes to the time above (10:45:00 AM)
=A4+TIME(0,0,C4)	Add 30 seconds to the time above (10:35:30 AM)

Functions details

TIME

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