Today we will learn to use Excel’s LEFT and FIND formulas. But what fun it is to learn a new formula on a Tuesday?
So, we will actually learn to use these formulas to solve the problem: “extract the username from an email ID”
How is an email ID structured?
Any email ID contains 2 parts – user name and domain name.
For eg. in my email id – chandoo.d@gmail.com – chandoo.d is user name and gmail.com is domain.
So how do we get the user name out?
As you can see, username always starts at left and goes up to the symbol “@”. So, If we write a formula to fetch all the characters up to “@” symbol, it will get us the user name.
This is where LEFT() and FIND() formulas enter the scene.
What does Excel LEFT formula do?
Excel LEFT formula will let you cut a portion of text from left. For eg. =LEFT("Long",2) will give you Lo. (syntax and examples)
So, to get the email username, we need to get all the letters in the left of email ID up to the location of “@” symbol. And how do we find the position of a symbol in a text?
We use FIND formula.
FIND formula gives the location of one text in another. For eg. =FIND("do", "chandoo") will give us 5 (the location of “do” in “chandoo”).
FIND will throw an error (#VALUE!) if the text you are trying to find is not available. For eg. =FIND("peace", "world") will throw #VALUE!
Armed with these 2 formulas, now let us get that user name out of email ID
Assuming cell A1 has the email id, the formula for getting user name is =LEFT(A1,FIND("@",A1)-1)
We have to use -1 as find actually tells the position of “@” and we need all the letters up to “@”, but not “@”.
This is how it works:

Your homework:
- How would you extract the domain out of email ID? (Hint: there is a right formula for everything)
Use comments to write your answers. Don’t cheat.
Learn more excel formulas:
- 51 Excel Formulas in Plain English – Syntax, Examples and Explanation
- Excel Formulas & Working with Text
- Excel Formula Examples & Tutorials
- Learn Excel Formulas using my e-book – it is in a fun format & easy to understand














13 Responses to “Convert fractional Excel time to hours & minutes [Quick tip]”
Hi Purna..
Again a great tip.. Its a great way to convert Fractional Time..
By the way.. Excel has two great and rarely used formula..
=DOLLARFR(7.8,60) and =DOLLARDE(7.48,60)
basically US Account person uses those to convert some currency denomination.. and we can use it to convert Year(i.e 3.11 Year = 3 year 11 month) and Week(6.5 week = 6 week 5 days), in the same manner...
This doesn't work for me. When applying the custom format of [h]:mm to 7.8 I get 187:12
Any ideas why?
@Jason
7.8 in Excel talk means 7.8 days
=7.8*24
=187.2 Hrs
=187 Hrs 12 Mins
If you follow Chandoo's instructions you will see that he divides the 7.8 by 24 to get it to a fraction of a day
Simple, assuming the fractional time is in cell A1,
Use below steps to convert it to hours & minutes:
1. In the target cell, write =A1/24
2. Select the target cell and press CTRL+1 to format it (you can also right click and select format cells)
3. Select Custom from “Number” tab and enter the code [h]:mm
4. Done!
Hi, sorry to point this out but Column C Header is misspelt 'Hours Palyed'
good one
So how do I go the other way and get hours and minutes to fractional time?
If you have 7.5 in cell A1,
- Use int(A1) to get the hours.
- Use mod(A1,1)*60 to get minutes.
If you have 7:30 (formatted as time) in A1
- Use hours(a1) to get hours
- Use minutes(a1) to get minutes.
I had the same issue. You can solve it by changing the format as described above:
Right click cell > Format Cells > (In Number tab) > Custom > Then enter the code [h]:mm
([hh]:mm and [hhh]:mm are nice too if you want to show leading zeros)
Thanks guys, these are the tips I'm looking for.
...dividing the number of minutes elapsed by the percent change is my task - "int" is the key this time
It doesnt work for greater than 24 hours
It returns 1:30 for 25.5 hours. It should have returned 25:30
Ideally I would right function as
=QUOTIENT(A1,1)&":"&MOD(A1,1)*60
Sorry, replied to wrong comment....
----
I had the same issue. You can solve it by changing the format as described above:
Right click cell > Format Cells > (In Number tab) > Custom > Then enter the code [h]:mm
([hh]:mm and [hhh]:mm are nice too if you want to show leading zeros)
Clever use of MOD here to extract the decimal part of a number. Divide a number containing a decimal by 1 and return the remainder. Humm. Very clever.
Thanks very much, extremely useful !