how to intelligently parse .qif files
matthew wilson
waxmop@linuxfreemail.com
Fri, 14 Dec 2001 07:30:05 -0800
I've been using GnuCash for several weeks now. I downloaded a .qif file from my bank and imported the data, assigning everything to
the Expenses:Everything category. Then I went through my Assets:Checking account and reassigned each of the items in my checking
account to the appropriate account. For example, every Starbucks expense went to the Expenses:Fun:CoffeeShops account.
I'm really happy that GnuCash allows me to create these nested expense account classifications, but I'm not looking forward to
reassigning each line-item next month with my next statements.
I thought about writing a few perl scripts to read and rewrite the .qif files I download that would classify my expenses for me. For example,
all lines that contain the string "office depot" would get flagged as "Expenses:Home computer and office".
Before I get started on that, has anyone else tried something like this? Is there already this functionality built in and I just don't know about
it?
Here's another question. If I'm gonna parse a .qif file, is it necessary/ideal to write the results back into a .qif format, or should I dump into
XML? I opened a few .qif files in emacs, and they look pretty goofy.
Thanks for the help.
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