How to Get the Seconds from a Time in Excel

Use SECOND on race finish times: read the seconds, convert a time to total seconds, and calculate a per-kilometre pace.

You will learn to

• Extract the seconds from a time
• Convert h:mm:ss to total seconds
• Build a m:ss pace from a finish time

How it works

SECOND(time) returns the seconds part of a time as a number from 0 to 59. =SECOND("0:21:47") returns 47. Together with HOUR and MINUTE you can break any time into its parts.

To convert a duration to total seconds, use =HOUR(B2)*3600+MINUTE(B2)*60+SECOND(B2). To show a pace such as minutes per kilometre, divide the time by the distance and rebuild it as text: =MINUTE(B2/5)&":"&TEXT(SECOND(B2/5),"00").

=SECOND(B2)