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laurim90014468
laurim90014468
Participant
May 1, 2018
Answered

I created a time sheet form in Excel and made it into a fillable PDF. I want to calculate the difference between the end time and the start time in the simplified field notation format. I went into Edit and right clicked or double clicked on the an

  • May 1, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 814 views

I created a time sheet form in Excel and made it into a fillable PDF.  I want to calculate the difference between the end time and the start time in the simplified field notation format.  I went into Edit and right clicked or double clicked on the answer box and went to the Calculate tab and Simplified field notation.  I put in the start and end time (we use military time and I wonder if this is the issue).  If I use the Number format is calculates fine for most anything I put in for the start or end, but if I put a start time of 8:30 and an end time of 12:15, it gives me 3.85 instead of 3.75. What am I doing wrong?

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Correct answer gkaiseril

The calculations are primarily doe in binary usually using IEEE 16 bit floating point values. Time is not decimal values since the number of seconds in a minute is 60, the number of minutes in an hour is 60, the number of hours in a day is 24, etc.

In order to compute time intervals you need to convert the time string value into a value that can be expressed in decimal values or is based on the time standard. If you convert the the hours and minutes to minutes, compute the difference in minutes, and then covert the minutes into hours and minutes you still may need to deal with the time intervals that include the change to or from Daylight Savings time or British Summer time.

This question has been asked many times and answered. Many solutions and examples have been posted. You can find them by using the search feature of this forum.

See TimeCalculations.pdf for a working example.

1 reply

G
gkaiserilCorrect answer
Inspiring
May 1, 2018

The calculations are primarily doe in binary usually using IEEE 16 bit floating point values. Time is not decimal values since the number of seconds in a minute is 60, the number of minutes in an hour is 60, the number of hours in a day is 24, etc.

In order to compute time intervals you need to convert the time string value into a value that can be expressed in decimal values or is based on the time standard. If you convert the the hours and minutes to minutes, compute the difference in minutes, and then covert the minutes into hours and minutes you still may need to deal with the time intervals that include the change to or from Daylight Savings time or British Summer time.

This question has been asked many times and answered. Many solutions and examples have been posted. You can find them by using the search feature of this forum.

See TimeCalculations.pdf for a working example.

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