question about importing .qif files

Chris Baker electro@1939worldsfair.com
23 Jul 2000 10:27:01 -0700


Richard Wackerbarth <rkw@dataplex.net> writes:

[...]

> The system works very well with well formed QIF files and most files that 
> were generated by programs which come close to meeting the spec.
> We are interested in any failures encountered so that we can develop 
> appropriate corrections and/or workarounds to enable us to import data from 
> any reasonable source.

I just thought I'd take this opportunity to point out two problems I
had with the import process and how I worked around them.

1.  Case matters.  This is always a problem moving from dos/win/mac to
    unix.  Make sure that the QIF file names have the same case as the
    account to which they correspond.  IMHO, account name should not
    be case sensitive, and anyone who depends on this behavior is a
    nutcase, but I can see the other side of the argument, so I'll
    just warn people about it.

2.  It doesn't like account names with dashes in them.  I assume this
    is because it replaces file name dashes with spaces.  Why put
    dashes in your account names, you ask?  When I moved from the Mac
    version to the Windows version, the importer choked on my account
    names with spaces in them, and I had to add dashes :-)

Anyway, I'm really happy with gnucash so far.  After years of dealing
with Intuit's "why fix bugs when you can add features instead"
development methodolgy, I'm quite pleased to have my data in a format
I have some control over.  I hope to be able to contribute, either at
the Scheme level or the C level (or both), once I get up to speed.

Best wishes,

cbb