Forcing order with time format on Excel - excel

I run a test overnight and have the results written on a txt file that I later extract the time and value from. The result is something like this:
Time data
Because it goes overnight and the time resets, the resulting plot is this:
Out of order plot
Is there any way to force the order in which the values are plotted without modifying the original .txt file so that it looks like my daytime tests?
in order plot
Edit:
Indeed the actual data skips and the timestamps are not periodic, here's how it looks around midnight
Not periodic timestamps

You will need a helper column and you need to make sure your time is actual excel time, and not a time string. Assuming your time is in column B starting in cell B2 you can use the following process:
1) Test cell
=ISNUMBER(B2)
If that is TRUE then you know you have your time stored in excel format. In excel time is stores as a decimal which represents the portion of a day. 12 noon is 0.5. Dates are stored as integers and represent number of days since 1900/01/01 with that date being day 1.
2) Add 24 hour increment
In order to properly sort your order for graphing purposes, you will need to add a day everytime your data passes the 24 / midnight mark. Assuming your data is sorted chronologically as per your example, use the following formulas in lets say column C
First cell C2
=B2
In C3 and copy down
=IF(B2>B3, B3+1,B3)
which can be rewritten as
=B3+(B2>B3)
Now format the cells in C for time. The date will not display, only time will. The times after the 23:59:59 mark will all be the following day.

Related

Excel average if function for obtaining hourly data

I have minute data for air temperature and relative humidity (about 930,000 cells) for a building and I am trying to obtain the hourly average using excels "AverageIF" function. Here's the criteria that I have come up with: whenever one hour passes, average the air temperature and relative humidity for that hour. I am having trouble communicating these criteria to excel and any help would be appreciated. I have included a pic of what my data looks like:
the yellow row is me manually adding a row after an hour has passed and calculated the average using the average function.
In the example above I went a bit long winded in the formula to deal with time intervals where there was no data, as that generates a divide by 0 error.
Essentially what I did was setup a summary table to the right. I gave a start and end time for each hour (ASSUMING this is based on a 24 hour clock and not 1 hour from some arbitrary start time)
I used the AVERAGEIFS function as you have two criteria. Everything after a start time and everything before an end time. Only lines that match BOTH criteria are included.
The basic formula looks like this and is based on my example cell J4:
AVERAGEIFS(E$4:E$31,$C$4:$C$31,">="&$H4,$C$4:$C$31,"<="&$I4)
If the date is important, then you would need to add a date column to the table on the right and add a third criteria to the formula above.
In order to deal with divide by zero error and display blank instead of zero so you can distinguish between actual average of 0 and no data and still presenting an error when another type of error comes up I use the following formula in J4:
=IFERROR(AVERAGEIFS(E$4:E$31,$C$4:$C$31,">="&$H4,$C$4:$C$31,"<="&$I4),IF(ERROR.TYPE(AVERAGEIFS($E$4:$E$31,$C$4:$C$31,">="&$H4,$C$4:$C$31,"<="&$I4))=2,"","ERROR"))
The above formulas can be copied down and to the right.

Excel - Plot time slots on a continuous time axis

Let's say we have time slots documented in which a production line was running. In between each product maufactured are time slots in which the machine was idling.
I now want to plot the machine status over time, basically as a boolean value (running vs idling).
I get the machine log and need the chart on the right.
The machining duration will ultimately be logged including seconds and may vary for each product.
The first - and probably biggest - challenge for me is to find a smart way to extract the status from the time stamps. My current first step ist to create a table row for each minute and use the if statement in H4 to check wether article 1 was being manufactured.
IF(AND([#Time]>Machine_log[#Start],[#Time]<Machine_log[#Finish]);;)
However, since the final list will range over 24 hours or more and the number of articles quickly reaches 50 and more, I would love to avoid using nested IFs on this one..
I'm thankfull for any input and open for inspiration :)
Thank you all in advance!
PS: Anyone know how a better way than a scatter chart with two values per X-Value to display the chart as vertical lines/right angles like this?
One option is to add only those points that are necessary to the Status extraction table (which I named "Status"). (I named the Machine log table "Log").
Note: it looks like you are using a semicolon list separator, so you'll need to change the commas in the formulas below to semicolons.
Formula for the Time column:
=IF(ROW()=ROW(Status),MIN(Log[Start])-1/144,IFERROR(INDEX(Log[[Start]:[Finish]],INT((ROW()-ROW(Status)-1)/4)+1,MOD(INT((ROW()-ROW(Status)-1)/2),2)+1),MAX(Log[Finish])+1/144))
Formula for the Production running? column (enter into H4 and fill down):
=IF(SUMPRODUCT(--(Log[[Start]:[Finish]]=[#Time])),IF([#Time]=G3,3-H3,H3),1)
These formulas will pad your plot with 10 minutes of off time on either side.
To answer your question about avoiding two points for each x-value: no, each point on the plot has to have a corresponding data pair.
UPDATE IN RESPONSE TO COMMENT: I failed to mention that the above solution assumes the time data in the Machine log table are in ascending order. This means that if your data span more than one day, they will need to contain a date component or you can get plots where the line crosses back to the beginning. For example, if you have 23:57:00 followed by 00:10:00 with no date component, Excel treats these as 11:57 pm on 1 January 1900 and 12:10 am on 1 January 1900. (To see this, change the format to "General", and you'll see the values that Excel uses to encode date-time aren't in ascending order.) The solution is to enter the dates as "8/16/2020 23:57:00" and "8/17/2020 00:10:00" in the formula bar. If you're copying over from another data source, the date needs to be copied with the time. If the dates and times are in separate columns, your Start and Finish columns would each be a date column plus a time column.

Excel: Count Total Schedules at 30 Minute intervals taking day into account

In assessing how many agents can be added to certain times of day without exceeding the number of seats in the call center, I'm trying to discern how many agents are scheduled for each half hour interval on each day of the week.
Using the =SUMPRODUCT(((A$2:A$1000<=D2)+(B$2:B$1000>D2)+(A$2:A$1000>B$2:B$1000)=2)+0) formula I've been able to identify how many total agents work for each interval, however this doesn't take the day of week into account.
I currently have my spreadsheet setup this way:
K is the start time of the shift, L is the end time of the shift, M to S pulls data from another sheet that shows a 1 if the agent works on that day of the week and 0 if they do not, and then U has all the time intervals listed out. In the example, it's cut off but the columns continue down as needed. U goes to 49 and I've just been using a range from 2 to 500 for the others as we currently do not have that many shifts and I'm leaving space for the moment.
After some Googling, I tried =SUMPRODUCT(--(M2:M500="1"),(((K$2:K$1000<=U2)+(L$2:L$1000>U2)+(K$2:K$1000>L$2:L$1000)=2)+0)) but it only returns #VALUE! so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Any suggestions of how I can make this work? Please let me know if more information would be useful. Thanks.
=sumproduct(($K$2:$K$1000<=U2)*($L$2:$L$1000>=U2))
That will count the number of occurrences where the start time is less than or equal to the time in U2 AND the end time is greater than or equal to U2. It will check time from row 2 to row 1000. Any time one condition is checked and its true the comparison will result in value of TRUE and FALSE when its not true. The * act like an AND condition while at the same time converts TRUE and FALSE values to 1 and 0. So both conditions have to be true for a value of 1 to result. Sumproduct then totals up all the 1 and 0 to get you a count.
In order to consider the days of the week, you will need one thing to be true. Your headers in M1:S1 will need to be unique (which I believe they are). You will need to either repeat them in adjacent columns to M or in say V1 you have a cell that can change to the header of the day of the week you are interested in. I would assume the former so you can see each day at the same time.
In order to do this you want to add more conditions and pay attention to you reference locks $.
In V2 you could use the following formula and copy down and to the right as needed:
=sumproduct(($K$2:$K$1000<=$U2)*($L$2:$L$1000>=$U2)*(M$2:M$1000))
UPDATE #1
ISSUE 1 Time ranges ending the following day (after midnight)
It is based on the assumption that the ending time is later than the start time. When a shift starts at 22:00 and end at 6:30 as an example, our mind says that the 0630 is later than 22:00 because it is the following day. Excel however has no clue that 0630 is the following day and without extra information assumes it to be the same day. In excel date is stored as an integer and time is stored as a decimal. When you only supply the time during entry it uses 0 for the date.
In excel the date is the number of days since 1900/01/00. So one way to deal with your time out is to add a day to it. This way excel will know your out time is after your in time when the hour is actually earlier in the day.
See your sample data below.
Using your sample data, I did a straight copy of the value in L and placed it in M (=L3 and copy down). I then changed the cell display format from time to general. This allows you to see how excel sees the time. Note how all the time is less than 1.
In column N I added 1 to the value when the out time was less than the in time to indicate that it was the following day and we had not actually invented time travel. I also used the trick of a math operation will convert a TRUE/FALSE result to 1 or 0 to shorten the equation. I used =M3+(L3<K3) and copied down. You will notice in the green bands that the values are now greater than 1.
In the next column I just copied the values from N over using =N3 copied down, and then I applied just a time display format for the cell. Because it is only time format, the date is ignored and visually your time in column O looks the same as column L. The big difference is excel now knows that it is the following day.
you can quickly fix your out times by using the following formula in a blank column and then copying the results and pasting them back over the source column using paste special values.
=M2+(L2<K2)
The next part is for your time check. When looking at the 12:00 time you need to look at 1200 of the current day incase a shift started at 12:00 and you need to look at the 1200 period of the following day. In order to do that we need to modify the the original formula as follows:
=sumproduct(($K$2:$K$1000<=$U2)*($L$2:$L$1000>=$U2)*(M$2:M$1000)+($K$2:$K$1000<=$U2+1)*($L$2:$L$1000>=$U2+1)*(M$2:M$1000))
Note that the + in the middle of (M$2:M$1000) + ($K$2:$K$1000<=$U2+1)? This + acts like an OR function.
Issue 2 Time In/Out 15 minute increments, range 30 minute increments
You may be able to achieve this with the ROUNDDOWN Function or MROUND. I would combine this with the TIME function. Basically you want to have any quarter hour start time be treated as 15 minutes sooner.
=ROUNDDOWN(E3/TIME(0,30,0),0)*TIME(0,30,0)
Where E3 is your time to be converted
So your formula may wind up looking something like:
=sumproduct((ROUNDDOWN($K$2:$K$1000/TIME(0,30,0),0)*TIME(0,30,0)<=$U2)*($L$2:$L$1000>=$U2)*(M$2:M$1000)+((ROUNDDOWN($K$2:$K$1000/TIME(0,30,0),0)*TIME(0,30,0)<=$U2+1)*($L$2:$L$1000>=$U2+1)*(M$2:M$1000))
similar option could be used for the leaving time and rounding it up to the next 30 minute interval. In which case just use the ROUNDUP function. Though I am not sure it is required.

Formatting Existing Excel Cells to Time Format Without Date

I'm working on an excel 2010 sheet where I mark down the date and time an event happens. The date is in one column, and auto formats to 17-Nov when I would type in 11-17 (I was fine with this). The time is in a separate column.
I am trying to find the average time an event occurred, without regard to the date, so I would use =AVERAGE(C1:C10). However, I only receive a date back (like 17-APR).
I did not format the cells before I began to enter in data, and I would simply type in a 3:27pm event as 1527, and no reformatting would happen.
Now, when I attempt to reformat the column to hhmm, all the numbers entered so far turn to 0000. When I try to edit the 0000, it is formatted as 6/13/1906 12:00:00 AM.
What I want to do is have the time formatted as hhmm and not include a date in the cell, and be able to run formulas on it, such as the average time an even occurred.
Summary:
*Currently time is entered simply as ####. I entered 3:27pm as 1527.
*Trying to reformat the time column results in 0000 in all cells in the column that previously had a ####.
*Modifying the 0000 displays as 6/13/1906 12:00:00 AM
*I want to format the time as hhmm so I can simply type in 2357, and have it display as 2357, but understand I mean 11:57pm, and let me take averages.
*Hell, even being able to enter 1547 and have it auto format to 15:47 or 3:47p would be great.
Thanks for reading my question!
An easy way to apply an autoformat (though Excel won't see it as a true "Time") is to go into Format Cells>Custom> and use ##":"##. This will turn 1245 into 12:45. Mind you, this will be a text string so if you copy it to another cell and then apply a time, it will show as 12:00:00. Excel will also not be able to run formulas on it, but it's a quick and dirty way to make it look pretty.
Another option is to have a formula such as =TIME(LEFT(A1,2),RIGHT(A1,2),) where A1 would be replaced with the cell you are actually referencing. This will convert the number to a time that Excel will recognize as a time allowing you to run other functions on it, but requires another column.
If you are entering the times as 4-digit numbers, you'll need to do a calculation to get the hours and minutes, then use the TIME function to get an actual time:-
=TIME(A1/100,MOD(A1,100),0)
Another way is
=LEFT(A1,2)/24+RIGHT(A1,2)/1440
but then you have to format the result as a time.
Excel sees a number like 1547 as approximately 4 years on from 1st January 1900 if you format it as a date, so it will come out as something like 26/3/1904 in UK format or 3/26/1904 in US-style format.
Note that the time function can only give you values up to 23:59:59 (stored as 0.999988426), but the second method will give you a datetime value with one or more days as the whole number part. This can be useful if you want to do calculations on times spanning more than one day.
The above behaviour is because dates and times are stored as real numbers with the whole number part representing days and the decimal part representing fractions of a day (i.e. times). In spite of misleading information from Microsoft here, dates actually start from 31/12/1899 (written as 0/1/1900) with serial number 0 and increment by 1 per day from then on.

Time series mock data generation for 16 years of quarterly data in Excel or Matlab

I would like to generate a mock time series quarterly dataset from, say, 2000-2016 for a variable (quarterly credit growth) that averages around a certain value (say, 30%). Can anyone give a suggestion on how to do this in principle?
Edit: what I was implying were the actual data values for each time period, i.e. data with a certain mean and variance.
Found a solution with a code in Matlab, for anyone interested, see below in answers.
Excel approach:
You can make column A your date list. In A1, or A2 or more if you have header rows, you will have to seed your list by providing the first start date. Lets assume you put your seed date in A2. I would then go about adding 3 month to you start date using a formula, and copy down until you have hit your desired date. In order to add the 3 months I would use the following in A3.
=date(year(A2),Month(A2)+3,day(A1)
that will give you the first day of the month every 3 months. If you want the first day of the month every 3 months, set the day to 1 like so:
=date(year(A2),Month(A2)+3,day(A1)
And end of month could be calculated as:
=eomonth(date(year(A2),Month(A2)+3,day(A1)),0)
however I would prefer to do the end of month calculation based on the row you are in so I would do it more like:
=EOMONTH($A$2,(rows($A$2:A3)-1)*3)

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