What is TIME function in Excel?
TIME function is one of Date and Time functions in Microsoft Excel that returns the decimal number for a particular time. If the cell format was General before the function was entered, the result is formatted as a date.
Syntax of TIME function
TIME(hour, minute, second)
The TIME function syntax has the following arguments:
- Hour: A number from 0 (zero) to 32767 representing the hour. Any value greater than 23 will be divided by 24 and the remainder will be treated as the hour value. For example, TIME(27,0,0) = TIME(3,0,0) = .125 or 3:00 AM.
- Minute: A number from 0 to 32767 representing the minute. Any value greater than 59 will be converted to hours and minutes. For example, TIME(0,750,0) = TIME(12,30,0) = .520833 or 12:30 PM.
- Second: A number from 0 to 32767 representing the second. Any value greater than 59 will be converted to hours, minutes, and seconds. For example, TIME(0,0,2000) = TIME(0,33,22) = .023148 or 12:33:20 AM
Example of TIME 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.
| Hour | Minute | Second |
| 12 | ||
| 16 | 48 | 10 |
| Formula | Description | Result |
| =TIME(A2,B2,C2) | Decimal part of a day, for the time specified in row 2 (12 hours, 0, minutes, 0 seconds) | 0.5 |
| =TIME(A3,B3,C3) | Decimal part of a day, for the time specified in row 3 (16 hours, 48 minutes, 10 seconds) | 0.7001157 |