Displaying Elapsed Time in Decimal Format

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 19, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

Bud has a cell that contains elapsed time. If the cell contains an elapsed time of 8:20:00, he would like it to show as a decimal equivalent, such as (in this case) 8.3. He wonders if this can be done through formatting.

The short answer is no, this cannot be done through formatting alone. It can, however, be handled through a formula combined with formatting. For instance, let's say the elapsed time is in cell B7. In another cell you could use the following:

=B7*24

That's it; now you just need to format the result of the formula as a numeric value, including as many decimal places as desired.

This approach works because of the way that Excel stores dates and times internally. The portion of the internal value that is to the right of the decimal point is the portion of a full day, so multiplying by 24 gives you the number of hours in decimal format.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12101) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Printing Comments

After adding comments to a document you may want to print them later. Word provides a variety of ways you can print the ...

Discover More

Using the SUBTOTAL Function

Need to sum up different ranges of cells? One of the tools you can use is the handy SUBTOTAL function, described in this tip.

Discover More

Editing a Document with Many Pages

Working with large or long documents in Word can present some interesting challenges. The most common challenge is that ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! This guide will provide you with all the information you need to automate any task in Excel and save time and effort. Learn how to extend Excel's functionality with VBA to create solutions not possible with the standard features. Includes latest information for Excel 2024 and Microsoft 365. Check out Mastering Excel VBA Programming today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Counting Times within a Range

Excel allows you to easily store dates and times in your worksheets. If you have a range of cells that contain times and ...

Discover More

Entering Negative Times

Do you need to enter negative times into a worksheet? Excel doesn't really provide a way to do that but understanding why ...

Discover More

Working with Elapsed Time

Work with times in a worksheet and you will eventually want to start working with elapsed times. Here's an explanation of ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 - 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

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.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.