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Date & Time2026-03-1410 related articles

TIME Function in Excel

Build a valid Excel time value from hour, minute, and second components.

Syntax

TIME(hour, minute, second)

Arguments

hour

Required

The hour portion of the time value.

minute

Required

The minute portion of the time value.

second

Required

The second portion of the time value.

What it returns

Returns a valid Excel time serial number that can be formatted as time.

What TIME does

TIME turns separate hour, minute, and second values into a real Excel time. The result is a number underneath, but with time formatting it becomes readable and usable in schedules and calculations.

Practical examples

Build a time directly

=TIME(9,30,0)

This returns 9:30 AM once the cell is formatted as time.

Convert seconds into a time display

=TIME(0,0,A2)

If A2 contains seconds, TIME can help convert the value into a time-style result.

Common mistakes and notes

TIME returns a fraction of a day

That means you can add it to dates, subtract it from other times, and multiply it when you need numeric conversions.

Large inputs roll over

Values above the normal hour, minute, or second limits are normalized by Excel. That can be helpful, but it can also hide bad source data if you are not watching for it.

Related functions

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Official documentation