>>> I want to get the 24-hour equivalent numeric values for the hours and minutes.
>>
>>You may need to wrap it in a TRY..CATCH, but this should work for you:
>>
>>

>>cTime = "03:45pm"
>>?HOUR(CTOT("1/1/01 "+cTime))
>>?MINUTE(CTOT("1/1/01 "+cTime))
>>

>
>How does that work? I did work, but it's like magic! Ok, I know it's not magic...

A shorter version might be:

? hour(Ctot( m.cTime )), minute(Ctot( m.cTime ))

and if you need the value in seconds:

? Ctot( m.cTime ) - ctot('0')

Cetin