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#Date and time

TIME

Excel Functions

Create a valid time with hours, minutes, and seconds

Syntax

EXCEL 
=TIME(hour, minute, second)

Arguments

Parameter Description
hour Number of hours.
minute Number of minutes.
second Number of seconds.

Return Value

A decimal number representing time in Excel.

Details

The TIME function creates a valid Excel time using the given values for hour, minute, and second. Like all Excel time, the result is a number that represents a fractional day. The TIME function will only return time values up to one full day, between 0 (zero) to 0.99999999, or 0:00:00 to 23:59:59. To see results formatted as time, apply a time-based number format. The main benefit of the TIME function is the convenience of entering a time with separate values for hours, minutes, and seconds. It is analogous to the DATE function, which creates dates with separate values for year, month, and day. The TIME function returns a valid time as a number, but the way Excel displays the result depends on number formatting. Excel can display that result as time with AM/PM suffix, a 24-hour time like 1

Examples

Basic example
EXCEL 
=TIME(3,0,0) // 3 hours
=TIME(0,3,0) // 3 minutes
=TIME(0,0,3) // 3 seconds
=TIME(8,30,0) // 8.5 hours
Time formatting

The TIME function returns a valid time as a number, but the way Excel displays the result depends on number formatting. Excel can display that result

EXCEL 
h:mm AM/PM
h:mm:ss
0.0
Larger units

The TIME function can interpret units in larger increments. For example, both of the formulas below return 2 hours:

EXCEL 
=TIME(0,120,0) // 2 hours
=TIME(0,0,7200) // 2 hours
Larger units

However, TIME will not handle numeric inputs larger than 32,767. For example, even though there are 86,400 seconds in a day, the following formula (wh

EXCEL 
=TIME(0,0,43200) // returns #NUM!
Time over 24 hours

It's important to understand that TIME only returns results up to 24 hours. When the total time exceeds 24 hours, the TIME function will "reset" to ze

EXCEL 
=TIME(12,0,0) // returns 0.5 (12 hours)
=TIME(18,0,0) // returns 0.75 (18 hours)
=TIME(24,0,0) // returns 0 (0 hours)
=TIME(36,0,0) // returns 0.5 (12 hours)
=TIME(48,0,0) // returns 0 (0 hours)
Time over 24 hours

Notice TIME returns 0 for 24 hours and 48 hours above. In this way, the behavior of the TIME function is similar to a 24-hour clock that resets at mid

EXCEL 
=(hours/24)+(minutes/1440)+(seconds/86400)

See Also

DATE