Excel: HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND

⏱️ Time Deconstructor

Goal: Break a timestamp into parts.
Note: Excel stores time as a decimal (0.5 = Noon). These functions extract the readable integers.

18:45:30

HOUR()

MINUTE()

SECOND()

Ready...

          =HOUR(serial_number)
        

Returns hour (0-23). Note: 6 PM returns 18.

          =MINUTE(serial_number)
        

Returns minute (0-59).

          =SECOND(serial_number)
        

Returns second (0-59).

-- Extracting...

=HOUR(A1), MINUTE(A1)...

Output:

🚫 12 vs 24 Hour

HOUR() always returns 24-hour format. If you want "6" instead of "18", you need to use logic: =IF(HOUR(A1)>12, HOUR(A1)-12, HOUR(A1)).

🚫 Decimal Precision

Since Excel stores time as decimals, floating point errors can sometimes make a Second appear as 59 instead of 00. Rounding usually fixes this.