Subtract Hours

[Guest]

I have a list of times and I need to subtract 5 hours from each time. Some
are AM and some are PM. What is the best function to use?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

One way:

=A1-TIME(5,0,0)

Alternatively, since times in XL are stored as fractional days, you
could use

=A1 - 5/24

which is just a bit more efficient than using the TIME() function.

 

[Guest]

I tried the first example you gave =A1-TIME(5,0,0) - however my result is
########## that no matter how wide I make the column it keeps doing that. I
got the same result with your second suggestion. Do I need to select a
different time format?

 

[Bob Phillips]

That is because A1 probably starts at less than 5 hours, and Excel doesn't
like negative time.

What would you like to happen if A1 is less than 5am to start with?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Sorry - If you're using the WinXL default 1900 date system, that
indicates that the result is negative, and that date system can't
display negative times.

Instead, use

=MOD(A1-TIME(5,0,0),1)

 

[Guest]

Bingo! That worked great - thank you for your help.