Averaging times that span midnight

rspizman

New Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2005
Messages
3
I have a question about averaging specific time events when times span midnight.

I am required to track the times computer files are uploaded to clients. I was asked to provide weekly averages by shift. For our second shift, approximately 20% of the upload times occur before midnight. During the course of a week, there is an average of 500 data points. The data is electronically mined out of our computer system. Below is a small sampling:

1/7/2005 23:16
1/7/2005 23:54
1/7/2005 23:54
1/8/2005 0:18
1/8/2005 0:24
1/8/2005 3:00
1/8/2005 3:00
1/10/2005 2:10
1/10/2005 3:11
1/10/2005 3:11
1/10/2005 3:11

What is wanted is the average TIME, the date is completely arbitrary. The average of the above data is 01/08/05 19:02. If I average just the time, I get 08:08. If I manually alter the dates so all the times between 00:00 and and 04:00 (in this case) are today’s date and all uploads greater than 20:00 hours are yesterday’s date, I get the correct average of 01:35.

Is there any way to calculate the average time without manually altering the dates, especially considering I am dealing with 500 data points per week?

Thanks,
 

Excel Facts

Enter current date or time
Ctrl+: enters current time. Ctrl+; enters current date. Use Ctrl+: Ctrl+; Enter for current date & time.
Welcome to the board!

I get an average of 1:40AM for 1/8/2005, using the formula in D2 below: =AVERAGE(IF(C2:C12=DATEVALUE("1/8/2005"),B2:B12)), which is confirmed with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

B2 =TIME(HOUR(A2),MINUTE(A2),SECOND(A2))
C2 =DATE(YEAR(A2),MONTH(A2),DAY(A2))
Book5
ABCD
1OriginalTimeDate
21/7/200523:1611:16PM1/7/20051:40AM
31/7/200523:5411:54PM1/7/2005
41/7/200523:5411:54PM1/7/2005
51/8/20050:1812:18AM1/8/2005
61/8/20050:2412:24AM1/8/2005
71/8/20053:003:00AM1/8/2005
81/8/20053:003:00AM1/8/2005
91/10/20052:102:10AM1/10/2005
101/10/20053:113:11AM1/10/2005
111/10/20053:113:11AM1/10/2005
121/10/20053:113:11AM1/10/2005
Sheet1
 
Upvote 0
If you want to calculate the average from a range of dates, you could also try
pasting the following in B2 and copying down

=IF(HOUR(A2)+MINUTE(A2)/60<4,HOUR(A2)+MINUTE(A2)/60+24,HOUR(A2)+MINUTE(A2)/60)
this turns time into regular numbers (hours + minutes as fractions of hours) and adds 24 hours to the hour value of times between midnight and 4am (the end of this shift?- you can adjust that if you need to)

Then, you can take the simple average of the B column and convert it back to a time by
=TIME(AVERAGE(B2:B12),MINUTE(MOD(AVERAGE(B2:B12),1)*60),0)
Using B2:B12 as an example

HTH
 
Upvote 0
....or just use the following formula with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER

=AVERAGE(A1:A11-ROUND(A1:A11,0))+1

where your data is in A1:A11

and format as a time e.g. "hh:ss"

This will give you an average time after midnight, irrespective of the date - the "+1" at the end simply ensures that the time is still displayed if the result is negative (i.e. before midnight) but you may wish to dispense with this if the result is to be used for further calculations.
Book1
ABCD
101/07/200523:16
201/07/200523:54
301/07/200523:54
401/08/200500:18
501/08/200500:24
601/08/200503:00
701/08/200503:00
801/10/200502:10
901/10/200503:11
1001/10/200503:11
1101/10/200503:11
12
131:35:22
Sheet2
 
Upvote 0
..or probably slightly better.

=MOD(AVERAGE(A1:A11-ROUND(A1:A11,0))+1,1)

again confirmed with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
 
Upvote 0

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