Military Time in Excel

Military time, also known as 24-hour time, is used in Excel for several reasons:

1. International Compatibility: Military time is widely used internationally and is understood around the world. Using military time in Excel ensures that your data is easily understood by people from different countries, especially when you are working with international partners or clients.
2. Accurate Time Calculations: Military time helps ensure accurate time calculations, especially when you are working with large amounts of data. For example, if you are calculating the duration between two times, you can avoid confusion over AM/PM by using military time.
3. Sorting Data: When sorting data in Excel that includes time information, using military time ensures that the data is sorted correctly. This is because Excel sorts time in ascending order, so 1:00 PM will come before 2:00 AM unless you use military time.
4. Avoiding errors: In some cases, using military time can help you avoid errors when entering or interpreting data. It eliminates the need to distinguish between AM and PM, which can sometimes be confusing, especially when working with large amounts of data.

Overall, using military time in Excel can save time, reduce errors, and make your data more accurate and understandable.

How to add military time in Excel

To add military time in Excel, you can use the formula “=TEXT(A1,”hh:mm”)” where A1 is the cell containing the military time you want to convert.

For example, if you have military time “1730” in cell A1, you would enter “=TEXT(A1,”hh:mm”)” in another cell, and it will display as “17:30”.

Alternatively, you can also use the TIME function in Excel. For example, if you have hours in cell A1 and minutes in cell B1, you can use the formula “=TIME(A1,B1,0)” to convert it into military time.

This will give you a result of “5:30:00 PM” for the military time “1730”. To display the time as 24-hour format, you can format the cell with the custom format “hh:mm”.

How to subtract military time in Excel

To subtract military time in Excel, you can use the following formula:

=MOD((time2-time1),24)

Here, “time1” and “time2” are two cells that contain the military time values that you want to subtract. The MOD function is used to ensure that the result stays within the range of 0 to 23.

For example, if you have the start time in cell A2 and the end time in cell B2, you can subtract them using the following formula:

=MOD((B2-A2),24)

This will return the difference between the two times in hours.

Formula for Converting a normal time into a military time

To convert a normal time into military time, you need to add or subtract 12 hours from the given time depending on whether it is AM or PM.

Here’s the formula:

=IF(A2=0,”00:00″,IF(A2<>””,TEXT(A2,”hh:mm”)&” “&UPPER(TEXT(A2,”AM/PM”)),””))

This formula will convert the time in cell A2 into military time.

Explanation of formula:

• The IF statement checks if the value in cell A2 is equal to zero. If it is, the formula returns “00:00” (which represents midnight) because Excel cannot display time values less than 00:00 or greater than 24:00.
• The second IF statement checks if cell A2 has a value and converts it to a text string in the format of “hh:mm AM/PM”. The TEXT function formats the time in cell A2 as a text string using the “hh:mm” format, which displays the hour and minute values of the time. The UPPER function converts the “AM/PM” text to uppercase letters for consistency.
• Finally, if cell A2 is blank, the formula returns an empty string (“”).

Example: Suppose you have a list of times in column A that are in normal time format (e.g., 9:30 AM). To convert these times to military time, you can enter the above formula into cell B2 and copy it down to the rest of the cells in column B.

Note that the formula returns “00:00” for a time value of zero because Excel cannot display negative time values.

How to convert a normal time into military time with text function

Here’s an example of how to convert a normal time into military time using the TEXT function in Excel:

Suppose we have a time value in cell A1 of “3:30 PM” that we want to convert to military time. We can use the following formula in cell B1:

=TEXT(A1, "HH:mm")

Explanation:

• The TEXT function takes a value and formats it as text according to a specified format string.
• In this case, we’re taking the value in cell A1 and formatting it using the “HH:mm” format string.
• The “HH” code represents the hour in 24-hour format (i.e., military time), with leading zeros if necessary.
• The “mm” code represents the minute.

When we apply this formula to our example, we get the result “15:30”, which represents the same time in military time format.

Note that if the original time value is in 12-hour format and does not include the AM/PM indicator, you may need to add logic to your formula to account for this. For example, if all values are either AM or PM, you could use the following formula:

=TEXT(A1&" "&IF(HOUR(A1)<12,"AM","PM"), "HH:mm")

This formula concatenates the original time value with either “AM” or “PM” depending on the hour of the day, and then uses the same “HH:mm” format string to convert the value to military time.

How to Get Military Time using Custom Formatting

You can also get military time using custom formatting in Excel. Here’s an example of how to do it:

Suppose we have a time value of “3:30 PM” in cell A1 that we want to convert to military time format. We can use the following custom number format for cell B1:

HH:mm

Here’s how to apply the custom format:

1. Select cell B1.
2. Right-click and select “Format Cells”.
3. In the “Format Cells” dialog box, select the “Custom” category.
4. In the “Type:” field, enter “HH:mm”.
5. Click “OK” to apply the format.

After applying this custom format, the value in cell B1 changes to “15:30”, which represents the same time in military time format.

Explanation:

• The HH code in the custom format represents the hour in 24-hour format (i.e., military time), with leading zeros if necessary.
• The mm code represents the minute.

Note that this custom format assumes that the original time value is in 12-hour format with the AM/PM indicator. If your data does not include the AM/PM indicator or is already in 24-hour format, you may need to adjust the custom format accordingly.

How to enter military time in Excel without a colon

To enter military time in Excel without a colon, you can use the following formula:

=TIMEVALUE(LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-2)&”:”&RIGHT(A1,2))

This formula will convert a string of military time (e.g. “0800” or “1730”) into a valid Excel time value.

Here’s how to use this formula in Excel:

1. In your Excel worksheet, enter the military time value into a cell (e.g. “0800” or “1730”).
2. In another cell, enter the formula shown above, replacing “A1” with the cell reference where you entered the military time value.
3. Press Enter to calculate the formula.
4. The result will be a valid Excel time value that you can format as desired.

Note that if you have leading zeros in your military time value (e.g. “0800”), you’ll need to use the LEFT function to remove them before applying the TIMEVALUE function.

Excel military time with leading zero

To display military time with a leading zero in Excel, you can use the custom format “hhmm” or “hh:mm”. Here’s how:

1. Select the cell(s) that contain the military time value you want to format.
2. Right-click on the selected cell(s) and choose “Format Cells” from the context menu.
3. In the Format Cells dialog box, select “Custom” from the list of categories.
4. In the Type field, enter “hhmm” or “hh:mm”.
5. Click OK to apply the formatting.

Now the military time values in the selected cells will be displayed with a leading zero if the hour is less than 10. For example, the time value “0900” will be displayed as “09:00” with the custom format “hh:mm”.

Military Time in Google Sheets

Here are two ways to convert a time to military time in Google Sheets:

1. Custom Number Formatting: Similar to Excel, you can use custom number formats in Google Sheets to display time values in military format. Here’s how:

• Select the cell or range you want to format.
• Right-click and select “Format cells” or click on the Format > Number > More Formats > Custom number format menu option.
• In the “Custom number formats” dialog box, enter the following format: HH:mm
• Click “Apply” to apply the format.

The above format will display the value in 24-hour time format.

2. TEXT Function: You can use the TEXT function in Google Sheets to convert a time value to military time format. The syntax for the function is:

=TEXT(value, "HH:mm")

where value is the time value you want to convert.

Here’s an example:

Suppose we have a time value of “3:30 PM” in cell A1. To convert this value to military time format, you can use the following formula in cell B1:

=TEXT(A1, "HH:mm")

This formula will return the time value in cell A1 in military time format.

Note that the TEXT function works with any supported date or time format. You can learn more about date and time formats in Google Sheets by visiting the official Google Sheets Help Center.

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