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Excel's Formula - sisman

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176<br />

Part II: Using Functions in Your <strong>Formula</strong>s<br />

You can use the TIME function to fill a range of cells with incremental times. Figure 6-9 shows a<br />

worksheet with a series of times in ten-minute increments. Cell A1 contains a time that was<br />

entered directly. Cell A2 contains the following formula, which was copied down the column:<br />

=A1+TIME(0,10,0)<br />

Figure 6-9: Using a formula to create a series of incremental times.<br />

You can also use the Excel AutoFill feature to fill a range with times. For example, to<br />

create a series of times with ten-minute increments, type 8:00 AM in cell A1 and 8:10<br />

AM in cell A2. Select both cells, and then drag the fill handle (in the lower-right corner<br />

of cell A2) down the column to create the series.<br />

Converting between time zones<br />

You may receive a worksheet that contains dates and times in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT,<br />

sometimes referred to as Zulu time), and you may need to convert these values to local time. To<br />

convert dates and times into local times, you need to determine the difference in hours between<br />

the two time zones. For example, to convert GMT times to U.S. Central Standard Time (CST), the<br />

hour conversion factor is –6.<br />

You can’t use the TIME function with a negative argument, so you need to take a different<br />

approach. One hour equals 1 ⁄24 of a day, so you can divide the time conversion factor by 24 and<br />

then add it to the time.<br />

Figure 6-10 shows a worksheet set up to convert dates and times (expressed in GMT) to local<br />

times. Cell B1 contains the hour conversion factor (–5 hours for U.S. Eastern Standard Time; EST).<br />

The formula in B4, which copies down the column, is<br />

=A4+($B$1/24)

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