Often you may want to convert seconds to hours in Excel.
There are two common ways to do so:
Method 1: Convert Seconds to Decimal Hours
For example, 4,350 seconds will be shown as 1.208 hours.
Method 2: Convert Seconds to Hours, Minutes, Seconds
For example, 4,350 seconds will be shown as 1 Hour, 12 Minutes, 30 Seconds.
The following examples show how to use each method in practice with the following dataset in Excel that shows the number of seconds that it took for various athletes to finish some task:
Example 1: Convert Seconds to Decimal Hours
If you’d like to convert seconds to decimal hours then you can simply divide the number of seconds by 3,600, which represents the number of seconds in one hour.
For example, we can type the following formula into cell C2:
=B2/3600
We can then drag and fill this formula down to each remaining cell in column C:
Column C now displays the number of seconds in column B in terms of decimal hours.
For example:
- 2,220 seconds is equal to 0.611 hours.
- 4,350 seconds is equal to 1.208 hours.
- 140 seconds is equal to 0.039 hours.
And so on.
Example 2: Convert Seconds to Hours, Minutes, Seconds
If you’d like to convert seconds to hours, minutes and seconds then you must first divide the number of seconds by 86,400, which is the number of seconds in one day.
For example, we can type the following formula into cell C2:
=B2/86400
We can then drag and fill this formula down to each remaining cell in column C:
Next, highlight the cells in the range C2:C11, then click the Number Format dropdown menu from the Home tab, then click More Number Formats:
In the new window that appears, click Custom in the Category list, then type [hh]:mm:ss in the Type window, then click OK:
Once you click OK, the cells will automatically be formatted as hours, minutes and seconds:
For example:
- 2,220 seconds is equal to 36 minutes and 40 seconds.
- 4,350 seconds is equal to 1 hour, 12 minutes and 30 seconds.
- 140 seconds is equal to 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
And so on.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Excel:
Excel: How to Convert Time Duration to Minutes
Excel: Calculate Difference Between Two Times in Minutes
Excel: Calculate Difference Between Two Times in Hours
