Adding large minute and second values

[Guest]

I'm trying to total a column with large minute values. For example, I want
to add 0:1125325:27 (1,125,325 minutes, 27 seconds) with 0:2358964:18
(2,358,964 minutes, 18 seconds. My total column shows as 00:00, no matter
how I play with the format. I have the individual times formatted as
h:mm:ss, and I have the total column formatted as [mm]:ss so the results will
stay in minutes. However, it's almost like I need to have h:mmmmmmm:ss and
[mmmmmmmm]:ss. However, that's not working for me. If I try to create
h:mmmmmmm:ss, Excel saves it as h:mmmm:ss, and then it reads the 'm' as month
instead of minute. I'm not getting anywhere. If anyone knows how to make
this work, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you!

 

[Fred Smith]

In Excel, there is no such thing as 'large minute values'. Excel stores dates
and times only one way: the day is the number of days since 1/1/1900, and the
time is a fraction of a day. Excel will store your value of 1,125,325 minutes,
27 seconds as the number 781.476, meaning it's 781.476 days (or 1,125,325m 27s)
since midnight, 1/1/1900.

What Excel will do is display an internal date/time cell in many different ways.
Many of these display formats are provide in the Format Cell dialogue box.
However, you can also create your own.

I had no problems getting Excel to display this time as 1125325:27 using the
format [mm]:ss. I also had no problem adding your two times together and
displaying the result 3484289:45.

So it's not the format [mm]:ss which is causing the problem. It must be
something else.