calculating negative time differences

  • Thread starter Thread starter michelle selby
  • Start date Start date
M

michelle selby

Does anyone know if Excel can calculate differences in
times, but so that it would display a negative value. it
only lets me perform differences if the time values are
positive.

For example, if run time today took longer than yesterday,
then i want it to reflect as a drop in time by showing a
negative time value. not sure if excel is capable of such.

sample: 15:20 monday
23:20 tuesday

now that's a negative 8 minute time difference (worse
today than yesterday), but the system only lets me
calculate if the scenario is reversed.

any ideas???

-michelle
 
Assuming that 15:20 is using a custom format of mm:ss (otherwise, it's not
an 8 minute difference but 8 hours), try something along the lines of:

=(a1-a2)*1440

If you meant an 8 hour difference:

=(a1-a2)*24

HTH

-Dave
 
You can display negative times if you switch to the 1904 date system
(Tools/Options/Calculation).

But beware that if you have dates in the workbook (or your times include the date), the date
will increase by 1462 days. To correct this, you'll have to subtract 1462 from each date. Put
the number 1462 in a cell, Edit/Copy it, then select the cells with dates and Edit/Paste Special
and select the Values and Subtract options.
 
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