Adding mm:ss values
 

I recently started using Comcast phone.

When I download lists of calls, the numbers are of the form minutes:seconds

I'd like to add up those numbers.

Short of writing my own function, does Excel provide functions to do this?

Adding mm:ss values
 

you can just add them together and format your result cell as hh:mm:ss...

"Howard Kaikow" wrote:

I recently started using Comcast phone.

When I download lists of calls, the numbers are of the form minutes:seconds

I'd like to add up those numbers.

Short of writing my own function, does Excel provide functions to do this?

Adding mm:ss values
 

... or as [h]:mm:ss if the total might go beyond 24 hours, or as [mm]:ss if
you want the answer to appear as minutes & seconds.
--
David Biddulph

"Sean Timmons" wrote in message
...
you can just add them together and format your result cell as hh:mm:ss...

"Howard Kaikow" wrote:

I recently started using Comcast phone.

When I download lists of calls, the numbers are of the form
minutes:seconds

I'd like to add up those numbers.

Short of writing my own function, does Excel provide functions to do
this?

Adding mm:ss values
 

"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message
...
.. or as [h]:mm:ss if the total might go beyond 24 hours, or as [mm]:ss if
you want the answer to appear as minutes & seconds.

Thanx.

I tried both, neither did the deed.

Adding mm:ss values
 

"Howard Kaikow" wrote:
I tried both, neither did the deed.

If you want help, it would be useful if you provided some helpful
information. For example, a concrete example and, in this case, the results
after you "tried both [and] neither did the deed".

First, I wonder if the cells that you downloaded are formatted as Text.

Second, I wonder how you implemented Sean's suggestion ("just add them"):
using SUM, or use "+". They have different results when cells are formatted
as Text.

Third, if the cells are not formatted as Text, I wonder if what you think of
as "min:sec" was interpreted as hh:mm because there was only one colon in
the input. In that case, ironically, Sean's suggestion would yield
something reasonable and reveal the interpretation error more obviously than
David's suggestion (which would be better if the data were formatted and
interpreted correctly in the first place).

We could go down this complex troubleshooting tree and provide you with a
myriad of potential solutions, which you would have to try one by one and
report back for additional assistance.

Or you could provide some helpful information that will probably get you an
answer more expeditiously. The choice is yours.


----- original message -----

"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message
...
.. or as [h]:mm:ss if the total might go beyond 24 hours, or as [mm]:ss if
you want the answer to appear as minutes & seconds.
--
David Biddulph

"Sean Timmons" wrote in message
...
you can just add them together and format your result cell as hh:mm:ss...

"Howard Kaikow" wrote:

I recently started using Comcast phone.

When I download lists of calls, the numbers are of the form
minutes:seconds

I'd like to add up those numbers.

Short of writing my own function, does Excel provide functions to do
this?

Adding mm:ss values
 

"JoeU2004" wrote in message
...
"Howard Kaikow" wrote:
I tried both, neither did the deed.

If you want help, it would be useful if you provided some helpful
information. For example, a concrete example and, in this case, the
results
after you "tried both [and] neither did the deed".

I have posted an example (twice),but,so far, neither has shown up in the
news reader.


First, I wonder if the cells that you downloaded are formatted as Text.

The downloaded file was a tab delimited text file.
I gave the file a .xls etension and then opened wit Excel.

Adding mm:ss values
 

"Howard Kaikow" wrote:
The downloaded file was a tab delimited text file.
I gave the file a .xls etension and then opened wit Excel.

Geesh, I did not even know that worked until I tried it.

I assume that the times in the tab-delimited text file are in the form
mm:ss, not 0:mm:ss. Unfortunately, you neglected (once again) to mention
that.

In that case, if you select one of the "min:sec" cells and click on Format
Cells Number, you will see that the cell is formatted as hh:mm. So it is
being interpreted as hr:min, not min:sec.

If you implemented Sean's suggestion (especially the part about formatting
the results as hh:mm:ss), you should have gotten numbers that looked almost
right, but with ":00" as a suffix. (You might have told us that.)
Ironically, if you had not formatted the result explicitly, it should have
looked like what you expected, unless the "minutes" (really hours) exceeds
24.

(But it is not good to leave it in that form anyway. The misinterpretation
as hr:min will bite you sooner or later.)

The question of how to proceed depends on your circumstances. One idea:
edit the tab-delimited file and change times from mm:ss to 0:mm:ss. Note:
that assumes that "mm" is 59 or less.

Of course, all of this is predicated on my assumptions in the absence of
concrete information. If my assumptions are wrong, so is my advice. GIGO.


I have posted an example (twice),but,so far, neither
has shown up in the news reader.

It appears that you are using Outlook Express as your news reader and
posting directly to the MS news server.

If that is the case, you might have encountered transient network errors.
Happens to me on rare occassion. Very confusing, since the OE error is
sometimes delayed.

I am assuming that you are not encountering normal posting delays because
this (your third?) posting showed up, but not the others after quite a long
time now.

How are you trying to post examples? You should be able to write them in
text form in the body of your posting just as easily as you write any other
text.


----- original message -----

"Howard Kaikow" wrote in message
...
"JoeU2004" wrote in message
...
"Howard Kaikow" wrote:
I tried both, neither did the deed.

If you want help, it would be useful if you provided some helpful
information. For example, a concrete example and, in this case, the
results
after you "tried both [and] neither did the deed".

I have posted an example (twice),but,so far, neither has shown up in the
news reader.


First, I wonder if the cells that you downloaded are formatted as Text.

The downloaded file was a tab delimited text file.
I gave the file a .xls etension and then opened wit Excel.

Adding mm:ss values
 

"JoeU2004" wrote in message
...
"Howard Kaikow" wrote:
The downloaded file was a tab delimited text file.
I gave the file a .xls etension and then opened wit Excel.

Geesh, I did not even know that worked until I tried it.

I assume that the times in the tab-delimited text file are in the form
mm:ss, not 0:mm:ss. Unfortunately, you neglected (once again) to mention
that.

I did mention that in the initial posting in this thread.

In any case, the tone of your comeents makes me ignore them anyway.

Adding mm:ss values
 

Joe's comments were absolutely justified. If you don't give the
information, then no-one can give you a sensible answer. You may get more
help at microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions.clairvo yant.
--
David Biddulph

Howard Kaikow wrote:
"JoeU2004" wrote in message
...
"Howard Kaikow" wrote:
The downloaded file was a tab delimited text file.
I gave the file a .xls etension and then opened wit Excel.

Geesh, I did not even know that worked until I tried it.

I assume that the times in the tab-delimited text file are in the
form mm:ss, not 0:mm:ss. Unfortunately, you neglected (once again)
to mention that.

I did mention that in the initial posting in this thread.

In any case, the tone of your comeents makes me ignore them anyway.

Adding mm:ss values
 

"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message
...
Joe's comments were absolutely justified. If you don't give the
information, then no-one can give you a sensible answer. You may get more
help at microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions.clairvo yant.

The tone of his comments was not justified.

Adding mm:ss values
 

LOL

"Howard Kaikow" wrote:

"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message
...
Joe's comments were absolutely justified. If you don't give the
information, then no-one can give you a sensible answer. You may get more
help at microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions.clairvo yant.

The tone of his comments was not justified.