Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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: Numbers in Base 12.
For some professions or hobbies, it may be required to display information in "base 12." For instance, you may need to display the number of dozens of an item, followed by the number of singles of an item. If you had 15 items, for instance, you may want your display to be 1:03.
There are a couple of different ways to approach this problem. The first is to do the math and put together a string that represents the finished numbers. For instance, suppose the original number is in cell B7. In cell C9 you could place the following:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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: 
=INT(B7/12) & ":" & RIGHT("00" & MOD(B7,12),2)
In this instance, if B7 contained the number 345, C9 would contain the string 28:09. If you would rather work with straight numbers, you can use the following formula in cell C9:
=INT(B7/12)*100+MOD(B7,12)
In this case, cell C9 would contain 2809, which could be easily displayed in the final format by setting the custom number format for the cell as 0":"00.
Regardless of which approach you choose, you should know that you won't be able to use the results in any mathematical functions. The information displayed is done so solely for that purpose—display.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9666) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Numbers in Base 12.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
Excel is great at manipulating data, but sometimes it is difficult to figure out the best way to do the manipulation. ...
Discover MoreYou can use some of Excel's worksheet functions across a range or worksheets, but not all of them. One that has problems ...
Discover MoreDefine a named range today and you may want to change the definition at some future point. It's rather easy to do, as ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2014-02-05 09:57:44
Richard
I think Dan and Jim were fooled by your use of the term Base 12. Your solution may be appropriate for a representation of 'dozens' and 'units', since it is quite acceptable to display 'dozens' > 11, whereas in Base-12 arithmetic a further division is necessary toi produce a 'dozen-squared' value.
Perhaps the article should have been titled "Numbers in Dozens".
2014-01-27 15:02:59
Dan Dodge
Clearer would be to say that in Base12 it should be 249 because:
2*(12^2) + 4*(12^1) + 9*(12^0) =
3*(10^2) + 4*(10^1) + 5*(10^0)
I agree - a macro is needed with a symbol (such as A, B) substituted for the Base12 equivalent of Base10 values 10 and 11.
2014-01-27 02:49:21
Jim Watts
You haven't displayed the number in base 12 - it should be 249, because
345 =(((2*12)+4)*12)+9
The best solution is to use a macro to build a string to represent the Base-12 number, bearing in mind that you will need to decide on a format for displaying digits that represent 10 and 11 - usually A and B.
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 © 2018 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments