ID: Q121944
The information in this article applies to:
Fractions of a degree are commonly expressed in units called minutes and seconds. One degree is equivalent to 60 minutes, and similarly, one minute equals 60 seconds. These units are most commonly used for expressing a navigational point such as a point on a nautical chart.
Although Microsoft Excel lacks a built-in number format to express these terms, this article contains a sample custom function you can use to convert a degree value (stored in decimal format, or base 10) to degrees, minutes, and seconds (stored in text format). Also, this article contains a user-defined function that converts degrees, minutes, and seconds (stored in text format) to a degree value (stored in decimal format).
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The following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications custom function accepts an angle formatted as a decimal value and convert it to a text value displayed in degrees, minutes, and seconds.
Function Convert_Degree(Decimal_Deg) As Variant
With Application
'Set degree to Integer of Argument Passed
Degrees = Int(Decimal_Deg)
'Set minutes to 60 times the number to the right
'of the decimal for the variable Decimal_Deg
Minutes = (Decimal_Deg - Degrees) * 60
'Set seconds to 60 times the number to the right of the
'decimal for the variable Minute
Seconds = Format(((Minutes - Int(Minutes)) * 60), "0")
'Returns the Result of degree conversion
'(for example, 10.46 = 10~ 27 ' 36")
Convert_Degree = " " & Degrees & "~ " & Int(Minutes) & "' " _
& Seconds + Chr(34)
End With
End Function
=Convert_Degree(10.46)
The following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications custom function accepts a text string of degrees, minutes and seconds formatted in the exact same format that the Convert_Degree function returns (for example, 10~ 27' 36") and converts it to an angle formatted as a decimal value. This is exactly the reverse of the Convert_Degree custom function.
WARNING: This custom function fails if the Degree_Deg argument does not follow the format of the following:
<degrees>~ <minutes>' <seconds>"
Function Convert_Decimal(Degree_Deg As String) As Double
' Declare the variables to be double precision floating-point.
Dim degrees As Double
Dim minutes As Double
Dim seconds As Double
' Set degree to value before "~" of Argument Passed.
degrees = Val(Left(Degree_Deg, InStr(1, Degree_Deg, "~") - 1))
' Set minutes to the value between the "~" and the "'"
' of the text string for the variable Degree_Deg divided by
' 60. The Val function converts the text string to a number.
minutes = Val(Mid(Degree_Deg, InStr(1, Degree_Deg, "~") + 2, _
InStr(1, Degree_Deg, "'") - InStr(1, Degree_Deg, _
"~") - 2)) / 60
' Set seconds to the number to the right of "'" that is
' converted to a value and then divided by 3600.
seconds = Val(Mid(Degree_Deg, InStr(1, Degree_Deg, "'") + _
2, Len(Degree_Deg) - InStr(1, Degree_Deg, "'") - 2)) _
/ 3600
Convert_Decimal = degrees + minutes + seconds
To use this function, create a conversion formula, as in the following example:
=Convert_Degree("10~ 27' 36""")
NOTE: You are required to type three quotation marks (""") at the end of argument of this formula to balance the quotation mark for the seconds and the quotation mark for the text string.
For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
TITLE : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for
Applications
Keywords : kbprg kbdta kbdtacode PgmOthr PgmHowto KbVBA
Version : WINDOWS:5.0,5.0c,7.0,97; MACINTOSH:5.0,5.0a,98
Platform : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowtoLast Reviewed: May 17, 1999