Surpassing MySQL’s TIME value limit of 838:59:59
Have a look at timestampdiff which doesn’t have the TIME limitation. I.e. something like (untested): SELECT CONCAT( TIMESTAMPDIFF(HOURS, entry_end_time, entry_start_time), “:”, MOD(TIMESTAMPDIFF(MINUTES, entry_end_time, entry_start_time),60) ) AS total FROM entry WHERE entry_date BETWEEN ‘2012-01-01’ AND ‘2012-12-31′ AND user_id = 3 The concats not ideal, I’m sure there will be a more elegant solution.