# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel General >  >  Calculating time difference over midnight!

## sygazelle

I have read all of the tips and tricks to try to get an answer without bothering anyone and I have come up empty.

Here is my specific question:

How do I calculate the time duration in minutes between two times when the first time is before midnight and the second time is after midnight?  For example, how do I calculate the time difference in minutes between 11:00PM and 1:37AM the next the next day?

Any help is appreciated.

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## neopolitan

I think you must enter the full date & time for each of these and make sure they are formatted as "Time".  Assuming that these two times are in cells A1 & B1, in C1 (formatted as number) enter the formula: "=(B1-A1)*24".  This will give you the hours in decimal form (in this case 2.62 hrs).  If you want it in minutes then the formula is: "=(B1-A1)*24*60" (this = 157 minutes).

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## Ron P

"sygazelle" <sygazelle.1w4lma_1128006307.1878@excelforum-nospam.com> wrote
in message news:sygazelle.1w4lma_1128006307.1878@excelforum-nospam.com...
>
> I have read all of the tips and tricks to try to get an answer without
> bothering anyone and I have come up empty.
>
> Here is my specific question:
>
> How do I calculate the time duration in minutes between two times when
> the first time is before midnight and the second time is after
> midnight?  For example, how do I calculate the time difference in
> minutes between 11:00PM and 1:37AM the next the next day?
>
> Any help is appreciated.

Assuming first time is in A2 and the later time is in B2  put this in C2
=B2-A2+(B2<A2)  and format the cell as   [mm] .

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## David McRitchie

See   http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/datetime.htm

B2:  23:00
C2:    1:37
D2:  =C2-B2+(B2>C2)

Why it works,  time is a fraction of a day,  the comparison  B2>C2
returns  True (1)  or False (0),   if true 1 day (24 hours) is added.
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel    [site changed  Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages:  http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page:        http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"sygazelle" <sygazelle.1w4lma_1128006307.1878@excelforum-nospam.com> wrote in message
news:sygazelle.1w4lma_1128006307.1878@excelforum-nospam.com...
>
> I have read all of the tips and tricks to try to get an answer without
> bothering anyone and I have come up empty.
>
> Here is my specific question:
>
> How do I calculate the time duration in minutes between two times when
> the first time is before midnight and the second time is after
> midnight?  For example, how do I calculate the time difference in
> minutes between 11:00PM and 1:37AM the next the next day?

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## Big Rick

As I dont get to answer many questions, I thought I would give you my way of
doing this.
I simply enter the time as 25:30 for 12.30am or 26:30 for 1.30 am. The cell
can be formatted to read 12.30am or 1.30am etc and the time difference is
calculated correctly.
--
Big Rick


"sygazelle" wrote:

>
> I have read all of the tips and tricks to try to get an answer without
> bothering anyone and I have come up empty.
>
> Here is my specific question:
>
> How do I calculate the time duration in minutes between two times when
> the first time is before midnight and the second time is after
> midnight?  For example, how do I calculate the time difference in
> minutes between 11:00PM and 1:37AM the next the next day?
>
> Any help is appreciated.
>
>
> --
> sygazelle
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> sygazelle's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=27660
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=471757
>
>

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## markmac1960

Brilliant!! Thanks,

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## Rogue5

=B2-A2+(B2<A2) worked for me!

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## MikeDeButts

Even easier to just add the 1 anyway:

=B2-A2+1

as '+1' adds a full day, 24hrs later, it tends to be exactly the same time again (give or take leap seconds, etc), whether or not passing midnight comes into it

BUT, if you need the answer to be a DURATION rather than a TIME OF DAY, this won't work though (but neither would the "=B2-A2+(B2<A2)" method.

If you need a negative duration, you can just set the cell to show 'Number' rather than time, as -hh:mm won't work
or you can use =ABS() to make a negative into a positive, and keep the value shown in hh:mm format (BUT then remember to subtract it rather than add it in any further calculations)

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## DanPort

Here is how I do it to get over the midnight as well as being able to add a meal break.
Attachment 662047

Cell "G" is calculating the hours: =(D2-C2)+(B2-A2)+(D2<A2)
Cell "E" is converting the calculation in "G" to a decimal number: =G2*24
Format cells, A,B,C,D & G to time format: hh:mm. 
Convert cell E to number format with 2 decimal places.

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## GregUK

Having just come across the need to solve this problem (I was calculating durations which sometimes go over midnight), I solved it by putting the following formula in the duration column of my table:

I'm using a 24 hour time format.

=IF($A2 > $B2, ($B2 - $A2) + 24, $B2 - $A2)

What this is doing is as follows:

Check: If the time in A2 is greater than B2:

If true: Perform the difference calculation (B2 minus A2) but add 24 to that result to guarantee a positive number.

If false: Perform the difference calculation (B2 minus A2).

I use dollar signs before the column names to make sure the calculation stays locked to that column if I need to move it etc.

There is 1 flaw with this in that it will only handle periods of up to 24 hours, but for anything beyond that I would just use datetimes anyway.

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## FDibbins

Thanks for the input guys, always appreciated  :Smilie:

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## hrlngrv

If this is still open, =MOD(end_time-start_time,1), but that raises the question whether start_time = end_time should be no elapsed time or exactly 24 hours.

Always best to use DATE and time even if it needs to be formatted only as time.

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## baddog1016

I am using a Excel 365 on a MacBook air and need to be able to calculate elapsed time that goes past midnight. I have tried all of the solutions above and can't get them to work. I think my problem is with formatting. No matter what time or customer format I use, hh:mm being the most logical but 13:30 with no AM or PM when I enter the time 23:00 will get changed to 11:00PM and 25:00 gets converted to 1:00AM. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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## hrlngrv

When you enter *25:00*, you're effectively entering a date as well as a time. Excel stores the numeric value 1.041666667 (1 + 1/24), where the part to the left of the decimal point is days, and the part to the right is time. If so, you should be able to use a simple formula like *=end-start*, which for your example would be 1+1/24 - 11/24 = 2/24 or 02:00:00.

Also, if I give a cell the number format *[hh]:mm*, then I enter 25:00, the formula bar displays 1/1/1900 1:00:00 AM. The formula bar does that because that's my *system* short date+time format. To be clear, what's displayed in a cell in the worksheet may differ from what's displayed in the formula bar, and for dates and times neither matches the numeric value.

Have you *formatted* all cells with number format *[hh]:mm*?

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## AliGW

*Administrative Note:*

Welcome to the forum.  :Smilie: 

We are happy to help, however whilst you feel your request is similar to this thread, experience has shown that things soon get confusing when answers refer to particular cells/ranges/sheets which are unique to your post and not relevant to the original.

Please see Forum Rule #4 about hijacking and start a new thread for your query.

If you are not familiar with how to start a new thread see the FAQ: How to start a new thread

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