How to convert number of minutes to hh:mm format in TSQL?

You can convert the duration to a date and then format it:

DECLARE
    @FirstDate datetime,
    @LastDate datetime

SELECT
    @FirstDate = '2000-01-01 09:00:00',
    @LastDate = '2000-01-01 11:30:00'

SELECT CONVERT(varchar(12), 
       DATEADD(minute, DATEDIFF(minute, @FirstDate, @LastDate), 0), 114) 

/* Results: 02:30:00:000 */

For less precision, modify the size of the varchar:

SELECT CONVERT(varchar(5), 
       DATEADD(minute, DATEDIFF(minute, @FirstDate, @LastDate), 0), 114) 

/* Results: 02:30 */

This function is to convert duration in minutes to readable hours and minutes format. i.e 2h30m. It eliminates the hours if the duration is less than one hour, and shows only the hours if the duration in hours with no extra minutes.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[MinutesToDuration]
(
    @minutes int 
)
RETURNS nvarchar(30)

AS
BEGIN
declare @hours  nvarchar(20)

SET @hours = 
    CASE WHEN @minutes >= 60 THEN
        (SELECT CAST((@minutes / 60) AS VARCHAR(2)) + 'h' +  
                CASE WHEN (@minutes % 60) > 0 THEN
                    CAST((@minutes % 60) AS VARCHAR(2)) + 'm'
                ELSE
                    ''
                END)
    ELSE 
        CAST((@minutes % 60) AS VARCHAR(2)) + 'm'
    END

return @hours
END

To use this function :

SELECT dbo.MinutesToDuration(23)

Results: 23m

SELECT dbo.MinutesToDuration(120)

Results: 2h

SELECT dbo.MinutesToDuration(147)

Results: 2h27m

Hope this helps!

I'm not sure these are the best options but they'll definitely get the job done:

declare @durations table
(
    Duration int
)

Insert into @durations(Duration)
values(60),(80),(90),(150),(180),(1000)

--Option 1 - Manually concatenate the values together
select right('0' + convert(varchar,Duration / 60),2) + ':' + right('0' + convert(varchar,Duration % 60),2)
from @Durations

--Option 2 - Make use of the time variable available since SQL Server 2008
select left(convert(time,DATEADD(minute,Duration,0)),5)
from @durations

GO