Last week over at the Chandoo.org Forums, Birko asked a question about How to Import some Numbers as Times.
“I have imported some data that comes in as a number that I need to convert to h:mm. The data string will be either 1,3,4,5,6 integers long and looks like this…eg
Imported Need to equal this
Number h:mm
0 0:00
100 0:01
1000 0:10
10900 1:09
235900 23:59
Can someone please provide a smart formula to convert this (assume data is in cell A1).”
Today in Formula Forensics we will look at how this problem was solved, and the solution which may surprise you.
Importing Numbers as Times.
When I first saw this data I start by looking at patterns.
Working backwards through the list
I can see that 235900 is 23 Hrs, 59 Min and 0 second
I can see that 10900 is 1 Hr, 9 Min and 0 second
I can see that 1000 is 0 Hrs, 10 Min and 0 second
I can see that 100 is 0 Hr, 1 Min and 0 second
I can see that 0 is 0 Hr, 0 Min and 0 second
I then start to think about how to extract the Hours, Minutes and seconds independently from the Text using a series of Left, Right and Mid functions, and quickly realised that due to the varying lengths of the strings, That they will end up being complex formulas as I will need to allow for each string length.
What if I pad the strings with leading 0’s and then extract them.
That is possible, but as a single formula it will be long and cumbersome as the padding has to occur a number of times for each Hour, Minute and Second as part of the Time() function.
So padding may work but is cumbersome, then a bright light moment
What about I use the Text function to do the padding.
And I quickly posted the following formula:
=(LEFT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/24)+(MID(TEXT(A1,"000000"),3,2)/1440)+(RIGHT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/(24*3600))As Time is just a number between 0 = midnight and 0.999999 = 11:59:59 pm, I can extract the Hours, Minutes and seconds separately and then simply add them together to get the actual time
I Can use the Text function to display the Strings in a consistent format that allows me to use the Left, Mid and Right functions to retrieve the Hours minutes and Seconds from the appropriate places.
Lets work through this formula section by section and see what is going on.
Hours
The Hours component of the formula is
=(LEFT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/24)+(MID(TEXT(A1,"000000"),3,2)/1440)+(RIGHT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/(24*3600))
=(LEFT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/24)
Working from the middle out, this formula takes the value in A1 and displays it as a Number with the format “000000”
So using our data
235900 will convert to 235900
10900 will convert to 010900
1000 will convert to 001000
We can now use a Left() function to extract the hours from the first 2 characters of the converted string
Using our examples:
Left(235900,2) = 23
Left(010900,2) = 01
Left(001000,2) = 00
To convert hours to a Time we simply divide by 24
Minutes
The Minutes component of the formula is
=(LEFT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/24)+(MID(TEXT(A1,"000000"),3,2)/1440)+(RIGHT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/(24*3600))
=MID(TEXT(A1,"000000"),3,2)/1440
Once again, Working from the middle out, this formula takes the value in A1 and displays it as a Number with the format “000000”
So using our data
235900 will convert to 235900
10900 will convert to 010900
1000 will convert to 001000
We can now use a Mid() function to extract the minutes from the middle 2 characters of the converted string
Mid(235900,3,2) = 59
Mid(010900,2) = 09
Mid(001000,2) = 10
To convert Minutes to a Time we simply divide by 1440 (1440 is how many minutes are in a day = 24 * 60)
Seconds
The Seconds component of the formula is
=(LEFT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/24)+(MID(TEXT(A1,"000000"),3,2)/1440)+(RIGHT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/(24*3600))
=RIGHT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/(24*3600))Once again, Working from the middle out, this formula takes the value in A1 and displays it as a Number with the format “000000”
So using our data
235900 will convert to 235900
10900 will convert to 010900
1000 will convert to 001000
We can now use a Right() function to extract the minutes from the middle 2 characters of the converted string
Right(235900,3,2) = 00
Right(010900,2) = 00
Right(001000,2) = 00
To convert Seconds to a Time we simply divide by 86400 (86,400 is how many seconds are in a day = 24 * 60 * 60)
Total Time
To get the total Time we simply add the Hour, Minutes and Seconds together
=(LEFT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/24)+(MID(TEXT(A1,"000000"),3,2)/1440)+(RIGHT(TEXT(A1,"000000"),2)/(24*3600))
Download
You can download a copy of the above file and follow along, Download Here.
Formula Forensics “The Series”
You can learn more about how to pull Excel Formulas apart in the following posts
Formula Forensics Needs Your Help
I urgently need more ideas for future Formula Forensics posts and so I need your help.
If you have a neat formula that you would like to share and explain, try putting pen to paper and draft up a Post like above or;
If you have a formula that you would like explained but don’t want to write a post also send it to Chandoo or Hui.
28 Responses to “Pimp your comment boxes [because it is Friday]”
This borders on Excel soft-cell...er, soft-core...porn. My favorite kind.
Wow, that is pimp-TASTIC! I have a question, as a VBA n00b: additional comment boxes stay plain unless I "run" the macro. Is there a way to change all comments, going-forward?
hi Chandoo, well, I like the macro approach. For those who don't like it, there is another way: just add the "draw" toolbar to the shapes toolbar (via Custom etc), click on "edit comment", click on the auto-shape and then choose "draw" drop-down, --> modify auto-shape --> then you even can have a heart or a banner (I like the horizontal banner in in purple :-)) . in excel 2007, you have to add this custom menu that you choose via Excel Options --> Custom --> it is called "change/ modify auto-shape"!!!
best,
@Chandoo. Great Post 🙂
@Tim : the way the macro is coded, it must be run very time.
@Community: If someone has an idea to perform it when opening an existing excel, it should be nice.
@Community: if someone has some code to revamp the commentboxes on all sheets, please share it. 🙂
@Microsoft Excel-progammers: some pimpoptions for the commentboxes should be great.
Cheerio
Tom
For the auto run, please add the codes in workbook:
Private Sub Workbook_SheetActivate(ByVal Sh As Object)
Call Comments_Tom
End Sub
Wow, that was a lot of fun... Thanks Tom!
@Jeff... Now, 5000 people know about your favorite porn... 😛
@Tim ... you can write an event to handle the new comments. I wouldnt recommend it as it is really painful. another option is to use the macro suggested by Yukikomi. It will update comments everytime you activate the sheet.
@laguerriere: very cool 🙂
@Chandoo ... Thanks! This is good stuff. I combined your tip with a tip from Mark O'Brien, then assigned it to a button on Excel 2010's Quick Access Toolbar, to format comments AS I add them. I also like how Mark's code saves me the trouble of backspacing my name out of new comments:
Sub AppendToExistingComment()
'Source: Mark O'Brien at http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57296
Dim oRange As Range
Dim oComment As Comment
Dim sText As String
'Use object variable to hold range.
Set oRange = ActiveCell
'Use object variable for comment
Set oComment = oRange.Comment
'text to be added to the comment box
sText = InputBox("Type text to be added:", "APPEND TO COMMENT TEXT")
If Len(sText) = 0 Then End
'If Active Cell has a comment then append new text to the end of the comment text
If Not oComment Is Nothing Then
sText = oComment.Text & vbNewLine & sText
oRange.Comment.Delete
End If
'Add a comment with the contents of sText
oRange.AddComment sText
DoEvents
Comments_Tom
End Sub
Thank you very much for the code, it seems to be working for the most part; I am having a problem however. Once the routine makes the corrections to the comment, the comment becomes invisible. By invisible, I mean that when I highlight my mouse over it, nothing appears. However, when I right click the cell and click 'edit comment' then the comment becomes visible and I enter edit mode. Upon clicking out of the comment, it simply vanishes again. I've tried to fix this problem by adding a .shape.visible = msoTrue but then every comment is always visible. o_O please advise...
Thank you,
Nick
@Nick- That is because the font color of the comment is white and when you select the color of selection is also white hence you can not see anything. Try to change the color code in the routine to something else. would work
Thanks for that! The code works perfectly!
[...] look at Format Excel Comment Boxes using VBA Macros | Chandoo.org - Learn Microsoft Excel Online [...]
@ Chandoo - code works great and the comments look super cool. But I have ran into a small issue. In the comments, I am inserting pictures. When I run the macro, for all comments which already have pictures; pictures are deleted. Pls help me retain the pics in comments.
[…] posted some code one of his readers submitted, it "pimps" your comment boxes from those boring black-text-on-yellow rectangles to something more professional and eye-pleasing. […]
love in it
Hi Tom,
This looks really excellent. I am however relatively new to macros / VBA codes so having copy pasted your code in the Developer mode of an Excel file, what are the next steps to use them? Can you please help? Just to recap, I opened a blank Excel workbook, clicked on Developer, copy pasted the comments code and saved the file to the desktop.
Now how do I go about using it to add comments to an existing file? My apologies for asking a question which may be basic to you great geniuses, but I am not there yet and aspire to get there.
Many thanks for helping me with next steps that I need to take so that I can now use the code.
Best Wishes
Deepak Dave, CMA, MBA, PMP
Senior Management Consultant
Dear Dave,
The best thing to do is to copy the macro in the personal.xls(x) file. The personal excel file will always be launched when you open excel so you can use it with every excelworkbook.
Read all about it on the page of Microsoft.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Copy-your-macros-to-a-Personal-Macro-Workbook-aa439b90-f836-4381-97f0-6e4c3f5ee566
Once you have the macro in the personal, you can 'call' the macro by the keyboardcombination 'alt+f8' and klik on the macroname.
Hope this clarifies the 'how to'. Good luck with your first steps in the wonderfull world of macro's.
Tom
Hi Tom,
Many thanks. I will try that out. Learning is fun and learning this stuff is even more amazing.
Best Wishes
Deepak Dave
There is a line 'Dim LArea As Long' which does not appear to be used. Have I missed something?
Dear Gary,
Correct the 'Dim LArea As Long' is indeed not relevant and can be deleted.
Tom
Excellent hack!
For some reason when I opened my file after using LibreOffice Calc, all comment boxes had changed to some arrow shape.
So this macro helped me from manually changing more than 5000 comments in a worksheet, or having to install some Excel extension.
I used it with the following attributes to get back old style comments:
It helped me from manually changing more than 5000 comments in a worksheet, or having to install some Excel extension.
.Shape.AutoShapeType = msoShapeRectangle
.Shape.TextFrame.Characters.Font.Name = "Calibri"
.Shape.TextFrame.Characters.Font.Size = 10
.Shape.TextFrame.AutoMargins = True
.Shape.TextFrame.AutoSize = True
Thanks a lot!
This was helpful, thank you
I think this is among the most significant
information for me. And i am glad reading your article.
But wanna remark on some general things, The site style is great,
the articles is really great : D. Good job, cheers
Is there code to add to this that will format a particular part of the comment (i.e. make the last sentence in the comment bold and in italics)?
This is fantastic!
How would I add auto-sizing to it?
I tried adding this:
.Shape.AutoSize = True but it gives me an error and as a novice at VBA I can't figure it out.
.Shape.TextFrame.AutoSize = True
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This is GREAT!
How should the code be changed in order to tun once for all worksheets in a workbook?