Adding the time is again a very important utility in excel but if we don’t know the proper way to handle it, it can create problem for us.
Let us try to find out the different ways to find out the sum of time in Excel.
WHENEVER WE TRY TO PERFORM OPERATIONS ON DATE OR TIME, ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT THEY ARE NUMBERS AND TRY TO PERFORM CALCULATIONS ON NUMBERS FIRST.
We can simply add the hours as they are the number for example
5:00 hrs+ 6 hrs=11 hrs.
But some cases create confusion.
Let us discuss the different cases one by one.
STEPS TO ADD THE TIME IN EXCEL
- Enter the given times in different cells. For the example we take the two cell and put different cases in them.
- Enter the following formula in the third cell.
- =Cell 1 containing time+ Cell 2 containing time +…. so on.
- The result will appear in the result cell.[ Where we have put the formula].
EXAMPLE 1: TIME 1=5 HRS TIME 2=4 HRS.
In the above picture we can see that the simple total has been performed and that is fine.
EXAMPLE 2:
TIME 1=11:00 HRS
TIME 2=14:00 HRS
Let us try to sum them up.
Look at the picture above. We tried to sum 11 hrs and 14 hrs but the answer is 1 hr instead of 25 hrs.
So is it wrong??
The answer is No!!!
It is not wrong. If we remind the excel system we know that upto 24 hrs it counts for one day. So as soon as the sum exceeds the 24 hrs it counts it as one day and one hr.
If we convert the cell to the LONG DATE [ which will show both date and time], we would find that 1:00 hr is of the next date.
But yes! we have the solution.
We’ll change the format so that we get the solution as pure hours and not dates.
Revising the same example
Just in place of Summing up the times, we will put it in the TEXT FUNCTION.