Depending on how the source data is formatted, it could be very simple. If
the data is in CSV format, (comma seperated values). then just go to the
menu:
Data-Import external data..- Import data.

Select 'Delimited'. Follow the prompts.

The csv data in the case of 'missing data' would look something like this

2 days, 3 hours, 19 minutes, 15 seconds
,17 hours, 4 minutes, 12 seconds
1 day, , 1 minute, 38 seconds

Notice the commas for the missing data. Excel will handle this type data
easily.
If the data is fixed width, Excel will handle that too. I can't demonstrate
that here.

John



"Totti" wrote:

Hi everybody,
I have downloaded some data from a file into excel, the data is
actually time data like the following:
2 days, 3 hours, 19 minutes, 15 seconds
17 hours, 4 minutes, 12 seconds
1 day, 1 minute, 38 seconds

it is all in column A, now i want to clean this data assigning it to
different columns, like in column B have hours, if no hours are found,
0 hours, C for minutes and so on so forth. i thought about Data Text
to columns but it doesnt help me much because components will not be
aligned, should i do something to my data so i can be able to get the
preferred result?
and something more please, how could this be done if i wanted to use a
formula?
because i also tried text formulas and i failed, it would be
interesting to me to learn both way if it could be done by both, if
not, just something to proceed on my job and thanks in advance