This week in Formula Forensics we’ll look at, Zebra Stripes and Checker-board Conditional Formatting.
This idea is inspired by a number of posts over the past few years asking about zebra stripes but specifically BobR who in in June 2011, also asked about Checkerboards in the post: Want to be an excel conditional-formatting Rock Star, Comment No. 154.
I got the conditional format for alternating row and column colors,
Is there a conditional format to make it a checkerboard whereas the cell A2 will remove either the conditional for the row or column and then alternately to A4, B1, B3 etc?
Chandoo responded fairly quickly with this Conditional Formatting formula:
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
Unbeknownst to Chandoo I posted this about a minute later:
=ISODD(ROW()+COLUMN())
Both formula correctly answer BobR’s question.
So today we’re going to pull apart Zebra Stripes and Checker Boards and see what makes them tick.
As always you can follow along in a download file here: Download File.
ZEBRA STRIPES
Zebra Stripes as Conditional Formatting is simply applied using a simple formula within Conditional Formatting.
=MOD(ROW(),2)=0
Conditional Formatting requires a formula that returns a boolean “True” to apply a format or a Boolean “False” to not Apply a format.
So the formula is better read as: If MOD(ROW(),2)=0
And If MOD(ROW(),2)=0, the formula will evaluate as True
This is best evaluated as 3 columns on a worksheet.
In cells
B5:B10 The formula =Row() returns the Row Number
C5:C10 The formula =Mod(Row() ,2) returns the Mod of Row Number, divided by 2
The Mod function returns the remainder of the division of the Row Number divided by 2,
So in Row 5, Mod(Row(),2) = Mod(5, 2) = 5/2 = 2 Remainder 1 = 1
and in Row 6, Mod(Row(),2) = Mod(6, 2) = 6/2 = 3 Remainder 0 = 0
D5:D10 The formula =Mod(Row() ,2)=0 checks the remainder against the value 0
This is what evaluates to either True or False depending on the Row number.
Where the Values are True the Format will be applied (Even Rows)
The Conditional Formatting can be applied to Odd Rows If the Formula is slightly altered
=Mod(Row() ,2)=1
Similarly the formatting can be applied to Columns using
=MOD(COLUMN(),2)=0/1
CHECKER BOARDS
RobR received two responses to his Checker-Board Conditional Formatting request.
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
and
=ISODD(ROW()+COLUMN())
Lest see what’s inside these two formula.
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2) =0, MOD( (ROW() -1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
This is a simple If Formula with 3 components
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
If Condition MOD(ROW(),2)=1
Value if True: MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
Value if False: MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1
The If Condition is already known to us, as it’s the same formula used in the Zebra Stripes above.
It evaluates to True when it is on an Odd Row.
So when it is an Odd numbered Row Excel will look at MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
And when it is an Even numbered Row Excel will look at MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1
We can notice that these are the same formulas which have a different ending of =0 and =1
MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
This section Takes each Row subtracts 1 and then multiplies this number by 8. This can be expressed as simply as saying multiply the Row * 8.
This will always return an Even Number and could have been simplified to Row()*2
MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
The next bit adds the column number to the previous Even Number.
So now this part will be Odd when the column is Odd and Even when the column is Even.
MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
The remainder of the formula is the same as the Zebra Stripes formula.
An Odd Number (Odd Columns) in the section above will return a 1 as the result of =Mod(Odd,2)
An Even Number (Even Columns) in the section above will return a 0 as the result of =Mod(Odd,2)
When evaluated against 0 will return True for Even Columns and False for Odd Columns.
Now the exact same happens in the False section of the If formula except that it is evaluated against 1.
=ISODD(ROW()+COLUMN())
I tackled this problem from a different direction to Chandoo.
Knowing that Even + Even = Even and Even + Odd = Odd and that the row and Column Numbers increase in each direction by 1 each Row/Column, it was simply a matter of adding the Row and Column numbers together and checking if it was Odd or Even
The Excel function IsOdd() and IsEven() both return a Boolean “True” if the contents are Odd or “Even” respectively. This negates an external truth check as described above.
This is easily shown by adding a formula to the Checker area
=Row()+Column()
Excel 2003: The above formula won’t work in Excel 2003.
Try this instead =Mod(Row()+Column(),2)=1
If the alternate shading is required a switch to
=ISEVEN(ROW()+COLUMN())
Does the trick.
Excel 2003: The above formula won’t work in Excel 2003.
Try this instead =Mod(Row()+Column(),2)=0
Learn More About Conditional Formatting Here:
http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/03/13/excel-conditional-formatting-basics/
and
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/03/13/want-to-be-an-excel-conditional-formatting-rock-star-read-this/
and
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/10/14/more-than-3-conditional-formats-in-excel/
DOWNLOAD
You can download a copy of the above file and follow along, Download Here.
OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES
You can learn more about how to pull Excel Formulas apart in the following posts
Formula Forensics 001 – Tarun’s Problem
Formula Forensics 002 – Joyce’s Question
Formula Forensics 003 – Lukes Reward
Formula Forensics 004 – Freds Problem
We 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 as Luke did in Formula Forensics 003. or this post.
If you have a formula that you don’t understand and would like explained but don’t want to write a post also send it in to Chandoo or Hui.
41 Responses to “Calculate Elapsed Time in Excel [Quick Tips]”
Hi Chandoo,
To calculate time lapses in excel I usually use the DATEDIF function. Even though is undocumented by MS there is a great explanation of its use in Chip Pearson's site :
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/datedif.aspx
Is pretty easy to use and has great flexibility.
See you and keep Excelling!!!
Another great article, I will be linking to it on my blog.
Oliver:
Yes, I think that DATEDIFF do it better.
Great post! This a fantastic tutorial on calculating elapsed time in Excel that could be helpful even to a novice user. Keep up the useful tips!
Also, the Office community on Facebook could really benefit from you knowledge! Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/office
Cheers,
Andy
MSFT Office Outreach Team
hi, Chandoo !!!
for elapsed time , we can use this unique formula either for hours, minutes or seconds : NOW()-A1)
but using respective special number formats
for hours : [h] ==> 46553
for minutes : [m] ==>2793212
for seconds : [s] ==> 167592763
We can also use mean duration for years (orbital period of the Earth around the Sun : i-e tropical year) which is : 365.25 days
and mean duration for month : 365.25/12 days
be Excelent !!!!
@Oliver... Thanks for the pointer to datediff(). I will update the post with information about this as well.
@Glen... thanks for the linklove 🙂
@Andy... Welcome. Thanks for telling us about the office community on FB.
@Modeste ... that is very cool. I will remember these formatting codes for an upcoming article on number formatting codes 🙂
Great tip Chandoo! I use the formula to calculate years elapsed all the time. It can seriously help save a ton of time with calculations. Also, NETWORKDAYS is one that helps and can seriously impress a boss. Keep up the great work here!
No problem! I will definitely be directing people with tough Excel questions to your blog. Keep up the great posts!
Andy
MSFT Office Outreach Team
Hi,
always great posts and a good way to start my day
but regarding the elapsed time calculations: have you never noticed that there is a result difference between using =TODAY()-A1 and using =NETWORKDAYS(A1,TODAY())?
try it for A1= a Monday such as 21sep09 and "today" is e.g. a Thursday; you get 3 or 4 respectively as a result, depending on the formula used; this is because formula =networkdays() always includes both the startdate and the end date and not only the time between these 2.
This is easily corrected/compensated bij always adding a -1 to the =networkdays() formula because the majority of us will count startday as day 0 and then the result will be consistent across the different formulas.
However, you then get into trouble if you calculate the networkdays for a date further in the past and where either the start or end date falls in a weekend.
just thought to point this out as to me these formula's are not interchangeable just like that!
have a great day!
Paul
=DATEDIF([DOJ],TODAY(),"Y") & " Y, " & DATEDIF([DOJ],TODAY(),"YM") & " M, " & DATEDIF([DOJ],TODAY(),"MD") & " D"
This will fix your 30 Days problem
I calculated the time diff between two date+ times by subtracting 2 cells & custom formatted it to "d hh:mm" format.
E.g.
Cell A1 04-Jan-12 6:00 PM
Cell A2 05-Jan-12 4:45 PM
Cell A3 0 22:45 (formula: =A1-A2)
Wat shud i do 2 not display the "zero" values i.e. no. of days in this case is zero hence the cell shud display " 22: 45" and not "0: 22: 45".
@Amol
Try the Custom Format code:
[
<1] hh:mm ; [>=1] d “d” hh:mmHi Chandoo,
If possible to compute the interval of time and date in one column.
In column C I would like to compute the total days and hours . What formula ? Please help
Example.
Column A Column B
2/13/12 3:30 AM 2/14/12 12:00 AM
In referenc to Elapsed time in months
To calculate the elapsed time in months, we can use the formula =(NOW()-A1)/30. This returns the value in 30 day months.
I use to apply formula =ROUND((TODAY()-A1)/30,0). Today, I faced a peculiar situation, A1 has date 01-Mar-2009, and today being 01-Mar-2012, it should be 36 months, but it is showing 37 months!!
Any suggestions to avoid such errors?
Regards,
Prasad DN
All I want to do is add up a series of times and receive a reply that gives me a total. What I used to do was subtrace the end time from the start time and format the result as [hh]:mm but this doesn't seem to work anymore. How has Bill Gates confounded me?
@Pete
I use Excel 2010 and it still works
The times must be entered as times in the format hh:mm:ss or hh:mm without seconds
Adding up times is as simple as =Sum(Range) or =Sum(A2:A10)
then using a Custom Number format as you have mentioned [h]:mm
If this isn't working, 2 ideas
1. Check your times are times and not text
2. Can you share your data or file with us?
My hospital tracks times from patient arrival to various procedures or treatments. When those times cross over midnight, the regular formulas (2nd time minus first time) don’t work because the result is negative and Excel (2007) won’t show a negative number in time format.
I couldn’t find a solution here (chandoo.org) but found one elsewhere that worked and it’s very simple. I would like to share it.
Assuming 1st time in A1 (column for patient arrival time) (11:00 PM), and 2nd time in B1 (column for x-ray given) (12:30 AM)). Should be 1:30 elapsed time.
=B1-A1+(B1<A1) [This comparison is the key to the solution.]
=12:30 AM – 11:00 PM + (12:30 AM < 11:00 PM)
=0.0208 – 0.9583 + (True)
=-0.9375 + (1) [This is the key! If it is false, Excel adds 0. If it’s true, Excel adds 1 and that is what corrects the negative number. Now Excel can interpret the number as a time.]
=0.0625
Converted to hh:mm = 1:30
I wrapped this formula inside an IFERROR one to alert my data entry person if she messed up and applied it to lots of different columns and it has worked wonderfully. No more complaints from the data entry person who just plugs in times from medical charts.
Very interesting solution. Thank you so much for sharing it with all of us.
HI,
I am working on a Xl application..
I want to capture time between two clicks.
Ex, in my application during run somewhere I press OK button and then I click Cancel.. I want to measure time between these two clicks... Is it possible??
Pls help on this...
@shashidhar
The answer is Yes
You will have to add an appropriate VBA event to start and stop a timer.
There are techniques which can time to the millisecond so maybe look those up on the net
WOW!!!!!! I truly love your excel time format program! WHOOOO! I am very interested in how the time formats "update" (manually on a physical keyboard) that "updates" the time into its respective decimal time formats, such as:
YYYY.yyyy, HH.hhh, etc...
How do those formulas or equations work if not in Excel mode? Example: TI calculators, Word, or any other computer language programming? Just wanted to see how it works. E-mail me at Ultra64848689Ti@gmail.com.
Thanks again for an EXCELLENT Excel program into decimal time formats!
Here's an idea: how about creating an APP for iOS and Android? Just wanted to point that out. =-D
Regarding the elapsed time in months:
I made this function to determine the time elapsed since a date using the number of days in each respective month. It's a simple subtraction and I think it works very well:((Year Today-Year A1)*12++(Month Today - Month A1)+(Day Today/Days in Month Today)-Days A1/Days in month A1)
Here's the function:
=((YEAR(TODAY())-YEAR(A1))*12)+(MONTH(TODAY())-MONTH(A1))+(DAY(TODAY())/DAY(DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH(TODAY())+1,0))-DAY(A1)/DAY(DATE(YEAR(A1),MONTH(A1)+1,0)))
Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!
I need the ability to calculate how much progress we have made between two dates and I want to represent that as a percentage.
I am thinking this would be a combination of today, networkdays & dividing the days elapsed vs the total days. Then it should be as easy as formatting my cell. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
@Christian
Your correct
dates are just numbers and so you can use simple math to derive the percentage
=(Date Now-Start Date)/(End date-Start date)
that will give you a number between 0 and 1
which you can format as a %'age
is there a way out to calculate the productivity for an employee
The day start is at 08:00 and day end is 20:00
The start date / time is recorded and end date / time is recorded
I want to calculate the timelapse taking into consideration the day begin and dayend time.
If the work begins and ends the same day, a simple formula b1-a1 would compute the productivity.
But if the process remains incomplete and is carried over to the next day, then timelines to be computed accordingly
to clarify,
if start time of an activity is 03/15/2015 18:00 hrs and end time is 03/16/2015 11:00 hrs, then the resultant formula should be 5 hrs (ie 18:00 to 20:00 hrs on day1 + 08:00 to 11:00 hrs on day2) ie 2+3
please guide.
Venkatesh, try (b1-a1)-0.5
This will subtract the fixed amount of time between shifts, 12 hours. If the time between shifts varies, then you could reference other cells that contain the variables.
Please help. when I use the networking days formula I get a date (2-may-00) I want actual number of days. I managing projects and I need to know how many days have passed since we received a project to the current date. Please help Thanks
@Aria: Just format the cell as general or number. that will fix the problem.
You rock! I looked at 17 other sites and they all did not work. Yours did. Thanks!
Hi folks ...
calculating age in years , months and days
=text(now()-a1,"yy")&" y " &text(now()-a1,"mm")-1 &" m "&text(now()-a1,"dd") & " d"
Hi, the Elapsed time in days [ =TODAY()-A1 ] works great however, if I do not have a date in A1, it shows 42157. Anyway to get it to display 0 or a Null value?
@Dan
=If(A1="",0,TODAY()-A1)
I get #NAME? and the formula does not work.
Hi Chandoo,
This might be a challenge - I am looking to calculate elapsed time between two columns
Start date Complete date
9/9/2015 7:21 10/2/2015 11:01
I need to take into account the following:
1) The employee works 7:00-3:15 pm each day
2) Std Work hours are 7hrs 45 min each day
3) Need to take into account all holidays in between start and end date
4) Work week is Mon through Friday.
Can you help?
Thanks!
Hi, i have a certain name (wilium) in column A and against this name i have 2 option, 1 Done and 2 Inprogress. i want that i count done again wilium and count inprogress against wilium separately. which formula will work for it??
Hi, i have a certain name (wilium) in column A and against this name i have 2 option, 1 Done and 2 Inprogress in column C. i want that i count done again wilium and count inprogress against wilium separately. which formula will work for it??
Year, month, day results for DoB.
The formulas I have found on the net and the datedif function do not work. This is what I came up with using a Microsoft support paper dated April 1997 with some modifications:
IF(OR(A2>$A$1,ISBLANK(A2)),"",IF(YEAR($A$1)=YEAR(A2),0,IF(MONTH($A$1)>=MONTH(A2),YEAR($A$1)-YEAR(A2),YEAR($A$1)-YEAR(A2)-1))&" years "&MONTH($A$1)-MONTH(A2)+IF(AND(MONTH($A$1)<=MONTH(A2),DAY($A$1)<DAY(A2)),11,IF(AND(MONTH($A$1)=DAY(A2)),12,IF(AND(MONTH($A$1)>MONTH(A2),DAY($A$1)=DAY(A2),ABS(DAY($A$1)-DAY(A2)),DAY(EOMONTH(A2,0))-DAY(A2)+DAY($A$1))&" days")
Check it out...
Hi, Augustin
what about :
calculating age in years , months and days
=YEAR(NOW()-DoB)-1900 & " y " & MONTH(NOW()-DoB)-1 & " m " & DAY(NOW()-DoB) & " d"
Hi Chandoo,
I am looking for help with the elapse time formula. I have a recruitment tracking sheet where we track the number of days the positions are opened, and when they are finally closed.
The opened positions will have a running turnaround time (TAT) formula and I am using this formula:
=NETWORKDAYS (start_date, TODAY (), Holidays2018)
Now, without disrupting the running TAT formula, how do I then get the TAT to stop when we have a final end date? All the information below is row:
- start_date --> Cell A
- TODAY () --> cell B
- end_date --> Cell C
Hope you are able to help. Thanks!
Interesting question. Try this:
Thank you for this helpful article. I was trying for days now to figure it out. Now the only issue I have is that if I do not have a value inputed for =TODAY()-[@[Date Precured]] Date Precured then it shows 44055. How can I get it to leave it blank if there is no data? Thanks again!!!