Excel Formula Help Please

[joggerjayne]

Is there a simple formula for this ...

Cell A - input a starting time in an easy format

Cell B - input a finishing time in an easy format

Cell C - calculates the difference in minutes between A and B

Feel free to make it really simple and treat me like an idiot. Which, to be fair, quite a few ABers think I am, lol.

[dr b]

in cell A1 enter 9:30 AM
in cell B1 enter 1:00 PM
in cell C1 enter =(b1-a1)*24*60

The *24 gets it in hours, then *60 gets it in minutes

You will also need to clear the formatting of cell C1 because Excel will try to format it as a time. You should have 195 (minutes) in cell C1.

[dr b]

Sorry 210 minutes not 195.

[joggerjayne]

Fab, DB. Thank you, thank you, thank you ... x x x x x x x

Mwah !!

Been trying to figure that out for ages.

[society]

I too now understand how to do it. Thanks Dr B and thanks JJ for the question.

[carrust]

It's all Klingon to me:-)

[ABerrant]

You could also enter the times in 24H format (e.g. 09:30 and 13:00) so that AM and PM are not needed.

[joggerjayne]

Woo!

You guys are fab!

J x

[society]

Isn't it amazing how much we lean on AB from each other

What punctuation should I have used at the end of my sentence above? I'm not truly asking a question.

[joggerjayne]

As it's a rhetorical question, and so more of a statement than a question, I think you can be forgiven for using an exclamation mark.

[society]

I did think that was appropriate but was a bit uncertain. Thank you JJ x

[joggerjayne]

Am I allowed a follow up question?

Like ...

Can I tell the formula to always count forwards?

Eg.

09:00 AM until 01:00 AM is 16 hours.

But the spreadsheet wants to treat it as -8 hours.

[ABerrant]

Provided you never exceed a 23:59 time difference (in which case you would then need to specify dates along with times) you can get away with this formula:

=(B1-A1+(A1>B1))*24*60

[joggerjayne]

Hang on ... trying that ...

[joggerjayne]

Yaay!

Thanks, ABerrant ... x x x