HOUR

Returns the hour of a given time.

Syntax:

HOUR(time)

returns the hour of time as a number, 0 - 23. time may be text or a date-time serial number.

Example:

HOUR("2021-12-01 21:30:15")

returns 21.

HOUR(A1)

where cell A1 contains the time 9:25:10 as a date-time serial number, returns 9.

Application:

Analyzing Delivery Times for a Pizza Restaurant

Imagine "Pizza Palace," a bustling pizza delivery business. They want to analyze their delivery efficiency, specifically looking at how many orders are delivered within each hour of their operating day to identify peak times and potential bottlenecks.

Scenario: Pizza Palace records the exact time each order is delivered in their system. They want to generate a report showing the number of deliveries made during each hour of a specific day.

Table: Daily Deliveries

	Order ID	Customer Name	Delivery Timestamp	Delivery Hour
	A	B	C	D
1	1001	Olivia Chen	8/4/2025, 6:15 PM	18
2	1002	Noah Patel	8/4/2025, 7:05 PM	19
3	1003	Sophia Nguyen	8/4/2025, 6:45 PM	18
4	1004	Liam Miller	8/4/2025, 8:30 PM	20
5	1005	Isabella Garcia	8/4/2025, 7:55 PM	19
6	1006	Mason White	8/4/2025, 6:00 PM	18
7	1007	Ava Kim	8/4/2025, 9:10 PM	21
8	1008	Ethan Taylor	8/4/2025, 7:20 PM	19
9	1009	Mia Davis	8/4/2025, 8:00 PM	20
10	1010	Lucas Johnson	8/4/2025, 6:30 PM	18

When the HOUR function is applied to the Delivery Timestamp values, it performs the following:

For 2025-08-04 18:15:30, the HOUR function extracts 18. This means the delivery occurred between 18:00 (6:00 PM) and 18:59:59 (6:59:59 PM).
For 2025-08-04 19:05:10, the HOUR function extracts 19. This indicates the delivery happened between 19:00 (7:00 PM) and 19:59:59 (7:59:59 PM).
Similarly, for 2025-08-04 20:30:25, the HOUR function extracts 20, signifying a delivery between 20:00 (8:00 PM) and 20:59:59 (8:59:59 PM).
And for 2025-08-04 21:10:00, the HOUR function extracts 21, indicating a delivery between 21:00 (9:00 PM) and 21:59:59 (9:59:59 PM).