# Excel Question - adding times **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484 "2005-05-12T00:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/1 "2005-05-12T00:42:43Z")
I’m trying to make a spreadsheet adding the “run times” of a group of songs, but every time I put in a piece of data, like 4:24 (meaning the song is four minutes, 24 seconds long) the cell thinks I’m talking about 4:24 AM. So when I go to add the selected cells, it has no idea _what_ to do with them. Anyone know what I’m doing wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/2 "2005-05-12T00:49:22Z")
Try entering the time as 0:04:24. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/3 "2005-05-12T00:50:42Z")
Crap! Format the cell as Time using the HH:MM:SS format and then enter your times as above. ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/4 "2005-05-12T00:56:53Z")
Bless you. ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/5 "2005-05-12T01:14:59Z")
Hmm… it works very unevenly, though. It worked in the first column (sort of; it added the minutes but not the seconds) but by row D, the formula won’t add at all. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/6 "2005-05-12T01:18:18Z")
All the cells with time in them will have to be formatted as HH:MM:SS. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/7 "2005-05-12T01:47:31Z")
Are you all set? If not, here’s an alternate approach: Use two cells (columns), one for the actual value, and one for the display. The “actual value” cell/column should contain the integer number of seconds. So 4:24 would be entered as 264. The display cell should contain the following formula, assuming the “actual value” cell is A1: =INT(A1/60) & “:” & RIGHT(“0” & MOD(A1,60),2) This won’t give you hours, but it could be tweaked to handle hours if it’s really necessary. (It’ll show 2 hours as 120 minutes.) ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-adding-times/303484/8 "2005-05-12T02:32:21Z")
We had a thread about this in February. Here are even more suggestions: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=303269&highlight=Excel](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=303269&highlight=Excel) Good luck.