What is HOUR function in Excel?
HOUR function is one of Date and Time functions in Microsoft Excel that returns the hour of a time value. The hour is given as an integer, ranging from 0 (12:00 A.M.) to 23 (11:00 P.M.).
Syntax of HOUR function
HOUR(serial_number)
The HOUR function syntax has the following arguments:
- Serial_number: The time that contains the hour you want to find. Times may be entered as text strings within quotation marks (for example, “6:45 PM”), as decimal numbers (for example, 0.78125, which represents 6:45 PM), or as results of other formulas or functions (for example, TIMEVALUE(“6:45 PM”)).
HOUR formula explanation
Time values are a portion of a date value and represented by a decimal number (for example, 12:00 PM is represented as 0.5 because it is half of a day).
Example of HOUR function
Steps to follow:
1. Open a new Excel worksheet.
2. Copy data in the following table below and paste it in cell A1
Note: For formulas to show results, select them, press F2 key on your keyboard and then press Enter.
You can adjust the column widths to see all the data, if need be.
| Time | ||
| 0.75 | ||
| 7/18/2011 7:45 | ||
| 4/21/2012 | ||
| Formula | Description | Result |
| =HOUR(A2) | Returns 75% of 24 hours | 18 |
| =HOUR(A3) | Returns the hour portion of the date/time value. | 7 |
| =HOUR(A4) | A date with no time portion specified is considered 12:00 AM, or 0 hours. |