One quick and easy way to display negative values is to simply select Tools » Options » Calculation and check the 1904 date system checkbox. Method 1: Changing Excel's Default Date System Here are three methods to get Excel to display negative time values. (See Excel Date and Time for full details.) Because of this, Excel has real trouble coping with the notion of negative time. Times are seen as decimals, with the exception of midnight, which has a numeric value of 1. In the case of a date, by default Excel considers 1 January 1900 to have a numeric value of 1 2 January 1900 a numeric value of 2 and so forth.
Look in the Formula bar and you will see that Excel shows 12::00::00 AM.Įxcel sees dates and times as nothing more than numbers. Similarly, enter the time 24::00::00 in any cell.
If you enter the time 12::00::00 (midday) into any cell and then format it as General, you will see that it has a numeric value of 0.5.
