Subtracting Times in Excel with a nuance

[MR22]

I am trying to subtract times in excel and currently they are pulling in from another spreadsheet in which there are no spaces between the time and the AM or PM for example, instead of 3:50 AM it is 3:50AM. So the formula =text(B2-A2,"h:mm") is not working and I think that is because of the space. Is there another way to calculate this? I also would like it to show up as 5.82 hours say instead of giving me a time back.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
MR

[Pete_UK]

If you can't change the source data then you can do this with your formula:

=(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(B2,"AM",""),"PM","") - SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"AM",""),"PM",""))*24

Hope this helps.

Pete

[MR22]

Thank you!!! this is close! super helpful. I'm showing 9:10AM and 3:00PM. it should equal 5.82 hours. after using your formula I'm getting -6.17 which is great because it's an actual number and not showing an error, however, I know it's not the right answer. I must be missing something else.

[Pete_UK]

Ah, no. I need to add 0.5 on if it is PM at the end. Let me try a few things out in a worksheet, and I'll get back to you.

Pete

[Pete_UK]

Okay, you can use this formula instead:

=(LEFT(B2,LEN(B2)-2)+IF(RIGHT(B2,2)="PM",0.5,0) - (LEFT(A2,LEN(A2)-2)+IF(RIGHT(A2,2)="PM",0.5,0)))*24

Hope this helps.

Pete

[MR22]

This is fantastic!!! and complicated!!! haha! Thank you so much!! You are a life saver!

[Pete_UK]

Well, times are stored by Excel as fractions of a 24-hour day, so 12:00 noon will be stored as 0.5, 6:00 am as 0.25, and so on. The LEFT bit of the formula just extracts the numerical part of B2 (or A2), but as I indicated in Post #4 I also need to add in 12 hours (or 0.5) if there is a PM after the time, so that is what the two IF functions do. So, the formula is basically (B2 - A2)*24, where B2 and A2 are suitably adjusted and as you want the result in hours rather than in Excel time formula we need to multiply the result by 24.

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Pete