Add and Subtract Times

time google-sheets addition duration subtraction
Collin J picture Collin J · Nov 23, 2015 · Viewed 28.5k times · Source

I'm working on a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that takes lap times (from running track splits) and subtracts them (to get the time from an individual lap) and then adds them to get the final times (in a column labeled "Total").

I've tried using the 123 button to format the cells like "mm:ss:SS" (if that's even right) but that still doesn't work... I don't get an error or anything, the total column just says 00:00.00.

What am I doing wrong? How can it be fixed?

Answer

user5514149 picture user5514149 · Nov 23, 2015

You'll need to format your cells for duration:

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After your cells are formatted correctly, I'd try the "=SUM" function:

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The function for subtraction is "=MINUS":

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Also, you can work with the conditional formatting to output things of interest on your sheet (for example negative/positive splits):

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If you're working with Google Sheets this will be your Bible: Google spreadsheets function list

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