Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Dealing with Small Time Values.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 1, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Zuzana has a need to perform calculations with very small time increments, such as thousandths of a second. She wonders how small of times Excel can deal with and how she can format for the display of the small increments.
Because of the way in which Excel stores times internally, it can theoretically deal with a time increment much smaller than a thousandth of a second. I say theoretically because there are a lot of factors that can negatively impact that precision.
As an example, consider that times and dates are stored in Excel such that full days are stored to the left of the decimal point and fractions of days are stored to the right. If you wanted to store a value as small as a hundred billionth of a second, you could conceivably do it. To store such a number in this format you end up with 1 day divided by 24 hours divided by 60 minutes divided by 60 seconds divided by 100,000,000,000. This results in a number that looks like this:
0.000000000000000115740740740741
Notice that there are a bunch of zeros followed by 15 significant digits. This is because Excel can only store a number that includes up to 15 significant digits. If you start doing anything else with this value, you ruin the value. For instance, you could add 3 to the value, signifying the addition of three days. Excel would then render this as the result:
3.000000000000000000000000000000
Notice that the small time increment disappeared. This happened because in the result of the addition, everything after the 3 became "significant," and Excel can only keep track of up to 15 significant digits, which was all zeros in the original number.
A thousandth of a second is a much longer duration than a hundred billionth of a second; it is represented in Excel's internal formatting as this:
0.0000000115740740740741
If you add three days to this value, you end up with this:
3.00000001157407
This is still accurate enough to render thousandths of a second just fine.
Of course, it doesn't do much good to store thousandths of a second internally if you can't display them in Excel. This is where custom formatting comes into play. You can create a custom format (as described in other issues of ExcelTips) that will display thousandths of a second just fine. Here's the format to use:
h:mm:s.000
If you try to use more zeros in the format (to display smaller increments of time), Excel will balk. The smallest increment you can display using custom formats is a thousandth of a second.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9200) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Dealing with Small Time Values.
Program Successfully in Excel! John Walkenbach's name is synonymous with excellence in deciphering complex technical topics. With this comprehensive guide, "Mr. Spreadsheet" shows how to maximize your Excel experience using professional spreadsheet application development tips from his own personal bookshelf. Check out Excel 2013 Power Programming with VBA today!
Excel worksheets can be used to keep track of all sorts of information. You may want to use it, for instance, to track ...
Discover MoreWhen using Excel to calculate elapsed time, there can be all sorts of criteria that affect the formulas you would ...
Discover MoreWant to display an elapsed time as a decimal format? It's pretty easy to do, if you know that a very simple formula is ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2024-07-01 09:13:30
Mark E Watson
Hi - The user might think about using an Excel add-in like xlPrecision. I haven't used it but I've reviewed the website and the supporting information for possible use and was very impressed. Our company ended up not needing the product but I would have pursued using it otherwise (which, since I work for a large corporation with very locked down IS infrastructure, would have been quite a battle).
http://precisioncalc.com/products.html
No financial interest
Mark
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2024 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments