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Posted to microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions
Biff
 
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Default Adding or combining time problem.

Hi!

Why are you using the TEXT function?

This is one of those "quirky" things where I can't explain why it works the
way it does, I just know that it works the way it does!

The minus sign in a negative (TEXT) value can't be coerced into a numeric
negative so the value remains a TEXT value. When both values are positive
the act of adding them together:

value1 + value2

coerces them into numeric numbers. If you tried using =SUM(value1,value2),
that would return 0 since both values are TEXT and SUM ignores text.

If you try to coerce -value1 using the unary operator it still errors
because -value1 is a TEXT value.

So, why are you using the TEXT function? Why not just: cell_ref-"37:30"

Then =F23+F50 will work.

Biff

"purtech" wrote in message
...
I am trying to simply add times h:mm format.

=TEXT(F22-"37:30","h:mm")
=TEXT(F49-"37:30","h:mm")

These can and do give negative results because I am using the 1904 date
system.
But, if I try to sum the result of these two if any have a negative result
I
get an error. I am using the below for the sum:

=F23+F50 all h:mm

So how do I add values when one is negative? Or is there another way?

Thanks!