Parse time string to time

To parse a text string that represents a time into a proper Excel time, you can use a formula based on the RIGHT, LEFT, MID, and TIME functions. In the example shown, the formula in F5 is: =TIME(LEFT(E5,2),MID(E5,3,2),RIGHT(E5,2)) Which parses a 6-character time string in hhmmss format into a valid Excel time. Note: the examples above use different time format codes as indicated in the screenshot. Context Excel expects times in Excel to be entered with the hour and minute separated by a colon. If you are entering a time with seconds, you'll need to add another colon to separate minutes and seconds, as seen in the table below: Desired time Entry format 2.5 hours 2:30 30 minutes 0:30 10 minutes, 15 seconds 0:10:15 45 seconds 0:00:45 The example on this page shows one way to skip the colons and enter a simple 4-digit or 6-digit text string that represents a time, then parse the text into a proper Excel time with a formula in a helper column. This is a good example of nesting one function inside another in the same formula.