3 Formulas for Rounding Time to the Nearest Hour in Excel

Microsoft Excel has multiple functions for rounding times. Among them, the ROUND, MROUND, FLOOR, CEILING, etc. are some of the functions. In this tutorial, I will help you with 3 formulas for rounding time to the nearest hour in Excel.

Round off time to Nearest hour in excel.xlsx

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Dataset

In the column, Timestamp, I have some random timestamps. In the column, Nearest Hour, I will use formulas for rounding all the timestamps to their nearest hours.

Easiest Way of Rounding Time to the Nearest Hour

Excel has a dedicated function for rounding times to a certain multiple. The name of the function is MROUND. Now I will use the MROUND function to round off the timestamps to their nearest hours in Excel.

Syntax

=MROUND(number, multiple)

Formula

=MROUND(A2,"1:00")

Usage Guide

Step_1: Type the formula in cell B2.

Step_2: Press ENTER.

Step_3: Copy down the formula to cell B10 by dragging the lower-right corner of cell B2.

Final Result

The MROUND function rounds off all the timestamps to their corresponding nearest hours.

For example, the timestamp 2:25:23 PM has two bracket timestamps that are the nearest whole hours. They are 2:00:00 PM and 3:00:00 PM. The timestamp 2:00:00 PM is closer to 2:25:23 PM than that of 3.00:00 PM.

Thus, the formula has returned 2:00:00 PM in cell B2 instead of 3:00:00 PM.

Formula Explanation

According to the syntax of the MROUND function, cell A2 is the number. And “1:00” is multiple. The multiple specifies that the formula must return the nearest hour i.e. 2:00:00 PM.

If you mention any other multiple other than 1:00, the formula will return the corresponding nearest multiple of the specified hour.

Alternative Way #1: Using ROUND Function

You can also use the ROUND function instead of the MROUND function. But you need to add some extra weights in order to calculate the nearest hours. Now let me show you how to round off time to the nearest hour.

Syntax

=ROUND(number, num_digits)

Formula

=ROUND(A2*24,0)/24

Usage Guide

Step_1: Type the formula in cell B2.

Step_2: Press ENTER.

Step_3: Copy down the formula to cell B10 by dragging the lower-right corner of cell B2.

Final Result

The above formula rounds off all the timestamps to their corresponding nearest hours.

Thus, the formula has returned 2:00:00 PM in cell B2 instead of 3:00:00 PM.

Formula Explanation

The formula used above is ROUND(A2*24,0)/24.

First, the time is converted to hours. This is done by multiplying the time by 24. Then the fraction is rounded off using the ROUND function. In the formula, 0 specifies that there will be no decimal places after the decimal point. Thus the ROUND function returns solid rounded hours of the time in cell A2.

Finally, the rounded hours are divided by 24 to get back to the original time format again.

Alternative Way #2: Using TIME, HOUR, MINUTE, & SECOND Functions

Finally, I will combine the TIME, HOUR, MINUTE, and SECOND functions. This combination will return the rounded-off times to their nearest hours.

Syntax

=TIME(HOUR(time) +((MINUTE(time)+SECOND(time)/60)>30),0,0)

Formula

=TIME(HOUR(A2) +((MINUTE(A2)+SECOND(A2)/60)>30),0,0)

Usage Guide

Step_1: Type the formula in cell B2.

Step_2: Press ENTER.

Step_3: Copy down the formula to cell B10 by dragging the Fill Handle.

Final Result

The formula converts all the timestamps to their nearest hours. To return the nearest hours, sometimes the formula rounded up the timestamps. Sometimes the formula is also rounded down the timestamps to calculate the nearest hours.

Formula Explanation

Here, the main formula is made up of the TIME function.

The syntax of the TIME function is:

=TIME(hour, minute, second)

The main idea behind the formula is to work with hours, minutes, and seconds separately.

HOUR(A2) returns 14. But it is converted to 2 as the cell format is set to 12-Hour time format.

MINUTE(A2) returns the minute part of the time in cell A2.
SECOND(A2)/60 returns the second part of the time in cell A2.
(MINUTE(A2)+SECOND(A2)/60)>30 returns TRUE if the summation of MINUTE(A2) and SECOND(A2)/60) are greater than 30. Otherwise, it returns FALSE.

HOUR(A2) +((MINUTE(A2)+SECOND(A2)/60)>30) when (MINUTE(A2)+SECOND(A2)/60)>30 returns TRUE, one extra hour is added to the hour returned by HOUR(A2). But when (MINUTE(A2)+SECOND(A2)/60)>30 returns FALSE, 0 is added to the hour returned by HOUR(A2).
The two zeros (0) at the end of the formula convert the minutes and seconds to zeros in the final time format.
Finally, the TIME function returns the converted time of cell A2 into the hour, minute, and second format.

Conclusion

So, I have discussed 3 formulas for rounding time to the nearest hour in Excel. I expect you’ve found this article helpful. You can read more Excel articles from our website’s Blog page. Have a great workday!

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