How to change time stamp formatting general to time formatt without losing time!?

Hi all,

I have a string of time stamps in general number format, i.e. 1254, 1257, 1259, 1301, 1304, ...etc.

I want to find the difference (mins) between each one, i.e. from above, 3, 2, 2, 3, ...etc

Problem is that in the general number format is stuffing it up, i.e. 1301 - 1259 = 42, which is not correct.

When I convert the format to time, it just ignores the original time and displays it as 00:00.

How can I turn the original numbers to a format that will make sense when I measure the differences between numbers??

Thanks.

Dave

This will convert the numbers to 'real' times.

=TIMEVALUE(TEXT(A1, "00\:00"))

You'll probably need to format the cells with the formula.

Assume that the data is starting from A2 cell

A2 cell
1254

In B2 cell
=IF(ISNUMBER(A2),(--(LEFT(A2,2)&":"&RIGHT(A2,2))),"")
Apply Time Format and drag it down.

In C2 cell
=IF(AND(ISNUMBER(B2),ISNUMBER(B1)),B2-B1,"")
Apply Time Format and drag it down.

Hope this helps!

Both methods work great! Thanks very much!!