Robert, Copied from my test sheet - change my A2 to J5 and my B2 to J6: Try the following: =TEXT(DATEDIF(A2,B2,"Y"),"0000")&"-"&TEXT(DATEDIF(A2,B2,"YM"),"00")&"-"&TEXT ((IF((B2-A2)<1,(DATEDIF(A2,B2,"MD")-1),DATEDIF(A2,B2,"MD"))),"00")&" "&TEXT(B2-A2,"hh:mm") (This gives a format of '0000-00-00 6:44' for your calculation. The IF function - if you can see it! - is necessary to cope with the time of day being less in J6 than in J5) or: =DATEDIF(A2,B2,"Y")&"yrs, "&DATEDIF(A2,B2,"YM")&"mths, "&(IF((B2-A2)<1,(DATEDIF(A2,B2,"MD")-1),DATEDIF(A2,B2,"MD")))&"dys, "&TEXT(B2-A2,"hh:mm") (just a rearrangement to give "0yrs, 0mths, 0dys 6:44" An expansion of the final TEXT expression would, I think, give you the format you quoted as the last of the two. Andrew -----Original Message----- From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Robert Carneal Sent: 18 August 2005 11:30 To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [mso] Calculating less than 24 hours of life when crossing midnight? Objective: How long did this person live? If I format as yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM, and enter 1955-10-25 19:23 in J5, and enter 1955-10-26 02:07 in J6. Entering =J6-J5 in cell J7, yields 1900-01-00 06:44. I know and understand that "1900" is zero in this case, but does anyone have a suggestion how work the formula so that the answer above would read: "0000-00-00 06:44" -or- 0yrs 0mths 0 dys 6hrs 44 mins ???? The last two formats would be easier for non-computer literate people to understand. I prefer the YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM format if possible. It will be faster for students to enter. Thank you everyone. Robert ___________________________________________________________ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************