Purpose
Return value
Syntax
=HOUR(serial_number)- serial_number - A valid Excel time.
How to use
The HOUR function returns the hour portion of a time as a number between 0-23. For example, with a time of 9:00 AM, HOUR will return 9. HOUR takes just one argument, serial_number, which must be a valid Excel date or a valid Excel time.
Times can be supplied to the HOUR function as text (e.g. "7:45 PM") or as decimal numbers (e.g. 0.5, which equals 12:00 PM). To create a time value from scratch with separate hour, minute, and second inputs, use the TIME function.
The HOUR function will "reset" to 0 every 24 hours (like a clock). To work with hour values larger than 24, use a formula to convert time to decimal hours.
Example #1 - Hour from time
The HOUR function returns the hour from of a time or date as a number between 0-23. For example:
=HOUR("9:00 AM") // returns 9
=HOUR("9:00 PM") // returns 21
Example #2 - Minutes ignored
The HOUR function ignores minutes and seconds. For example, when given the time "6:30 PM", HOUR returns 18:
=HOUR("6:30 PM") // returns 18
Example #3 - Hour from date
Some Excel dates include time. When given a date that includes time, the HOUR function will extract the hour and ignore the date. For example, with 29-May-2021 6:00 AM in cell A1:
=HOUR(A1) // returns 6
The date portion of the value is ignored completely. If the date contains no time value, HOUR returns 0 (zero) which is midnight.
Example #4 - with TIME function
You can use the HOUR function to extract the hour and feed the result into another formula, like the TIME function. For example, with the time "8:00 AM" in A1, you could force the time to be on the half-hour with:
=TIME(HOUR(A1),30,0) // returns 8:30 AM
Note: Excel stores dates and times as serial numbers. For example, the date Jan 1, 2000 12:00 PM is equal to the serial number 32526.5 in Excel. To check that Excel is correctly recognizing a date or time, you can temporarily format the date as a number.
Notes
- HOUR returns #VALUE! if serial_number is not recognized as a valid date or time.
- HOUR returns #NUM! if serial_number is out of range.
HOUR function videos
How to create date and time series with formulas
How to work with times
Related functions
HOUR Function
The Excel HOUR function returns the hour component of a time as a number between 0-23. For example, with a time of 9:30 AM, HOUR will return 9. You can use the HOUR function to extract the hour into a cell, or feed the result into another formula, like the TIME...
MINUTE Function
The Excel MINUTE function extracts the minute component of a time as a number between 0-59. For example, with a time of 9:45 AM, minute will return 45. You can use the MINUTE function to extract the minute into a cell, or feed the result into another function like the ...
SECOND Function
The Excel SECOND function extracts the seconds component of a time as a number between 0-59. For example, when given the time 9:10:15 AM, SECOND will return 15. You can use the SECOND function to extract seconds into another cell.
TIME Function
The Excel TIME function is a built-in function that allows you to create a time with individual hour, minute, and second components. The TIME function is useful when you want to assemble a proper time inside another formula.
