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How to convert time string to time in Excel?

For instance, you have a list of text string in a worksheet, and now you need to convert these text strings to time or date and time, how can you solve it? Here I will introduce some tricks for you to quickly convert text string to time in Excel.

Convert text string to time

Convert text string to date and time

arrow blue right bubble Convert text string to time

To convert text string to time, you can use some formulas to solve.

1. Select a cell and type this formula =TIMEVALUE(LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-2)&":"&RIGHT(A1,2)) (A1 is the text string you need to convert to time) into it, and press Enter. If you need, you can drag the fill handle to the range you need. See screenshot:
doc-time-string-to-time-1

2. Then right click at these selected cells, and select Format Cells from the context menu, and then in the Format Cells dialog, select Time from the Category list under Number tab, then select the time type you need.
doc-time-string-to-time-2

3. Click OK, now text strings are converted to time.
doc-time-string-to-time-3

Note:

1. This formula cannot work correctly when text string including seconds, such as 120158.

2. If your text string format is 120456P, you can use this formula =TEXT(--(LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)),"0\:00\:00")+((RIGHT(A1,1)="P")/2), then format the cells as the 12 hour clock you need. See screenshot:

doc-time-string-to-time-4
doc-time-string-to-time-5

arrow blue right bubble Convert text string to date and time

If your text string includes date and time such as 20141212 0312, you can use a little long formula to solve.

1. In the blank cell, type this formula =DATE(LEFT(A1,4),MID(A1,5,2),MID(A1,7,2))+TIME(MID(A1,10,2),RIGHT(A1,2),0), and then press Enter key, if you need, you can apply this formula to a range.

2. Then right click at the selected cells and select Format Cells from context menu, then in the Format Cells dialog, select Date from the Category list, and select the type you need from right section.
doc-time-string-to-time-6

3. Click OK. Now you can see the text string converted to date and time.
doc-time-string-to-time-7

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Quickly convert time to decimal value in Excel
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Comments (19)
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Katelin
Katelin
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Would love any help with this. I have data that is reported as "1d 01h 01m" representing 1 day, 1 hour, 1 min and I need to be able to represent this as a single number (preferably in # of minutes) any thoughts on how I can convert this string to a number value? Thanks all!
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abinash kumar
abinash kumar
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how to convert 06Hr:11Mi into 06:11
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Sunny
Sunny     abinash kumar
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Hi, abinash kumar, you can remove alpha characters from your time string.
This tutorial can help you:
How to remove alpha characters from cells in Excel?
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Tina
Tina
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how do I convert Date/Time with this text format 08/07/2022 1519
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Sunny
Sunny     Tina
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Hi, Tina, please give me a specific example for explaining and descriping your problem. Thank you.
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Erin
Erin
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Hi there!

I used one of formulas above to convert a time string and it worked beautifully expect for anything that had a format of 1200P. It should convert to 12:00 but instead converts to 00:00. Any thoughts on why or how to fix it?

I used: "120456P, you can use this formula =TEXT(--(LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)),"0\:00\:00")+((RIGHT(A1,1)="P")/2)"

I did not have any seconds in my time string so I deleted the last set of 0's in the formula and it still worked.
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mukul.aggarwal06@gmail.com
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Hi.,I have a query.
I want to convert a duration extracted in a format #h #m #s to duration format so that I can filter it. For example:
My data has a field named Session Duration and the format of the cell is "General" and the cell says "1h 2m 15s". I need to convert this data into 01:02:15 but not in time format but a duration. Is there a way to do that.
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ruben
ruben
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=A1/(24*60) (algebra methods)..hahhaha
then apply time format
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Gabriel
Gabriel
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How can I convert 1 Hour 35 Min 25 Sec, stored as a text format into Hour format (hh:nn:ss)?
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Sunny
Sunny     Gabriel
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Hi, Gabriel, you can try this formula =TIME(LEFT(K4,1),MID(K4,8,2),MID(K4,15,2)) K4 is the cell contains text you want to convert, then format the result as time.
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Ayaan
Ayaan
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2h 50m how do i convert into 2:50
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Sunny
Sunny     Ayaan
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Hi, Ayaan, you can try Find and Replace function, h (blank) replace wth : , m replace with nothing
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syd@dieselogic.com
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using the [ =TEXT(--(LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)),"0\:00\:00")+((RIGHT(A1,1)="P")/2) ] formula,
in example #2 above, 123706A >> gets converted to 12:37:06 PM (instead of 12:37:06 AM)
how may this be rectified?
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Sunny
Sunny    
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You only need to change the P to A in the formula =TEXT(--(LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)),"0\:00\:00")+((RIGHT(A1,1)="A")/2), the format the formula cell as hh:mm:ss AM/PM
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syd@dieselogic.com
    Sunny
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so if you enter 35943A you get 3:59:43 AM (which is great).
but if you enter 123706A you would expect to get 12:37:06 AM but instead you get 12:37:06 PM (which is not so great).
also if you enter 123706P you get 12:37:06 AM (again expecting to get 12:37:06 PM).
the meridiem are only incorrect for 12xxxx, formula works flawlessly for 1~11.
any way to improve the formula, to be all encompassing? thank you
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Sunny
Sunny    
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It is a little complex, sorry I cannot help you. Maybe someone in our forum https://www.extendoffice.com/forum.html can help you if you place the question in it.
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Syd
Syd
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using the [ =TEXT(--(LEFT(A1,LEN(A1)-1)),"0\:00\:00")+((RIGHT(A1,1)="P")/2) ] formula,
in example #2 above, 123706A >> gets converted to 12:37:06 PM (instead of 12:37:06 AM)
how may this be rectified?
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