The Gnucash database?

[blfs]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Heller" <heller at deepsoft.com>
To: <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: The Gnucash database?


>
>
> In message
<071920041758.10744.40FC0BD6000BDECE000029F822007503309C00040D at comca
> st.net>, blfs at comcast.net writes:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >-------------- Original message --------------
> >
> >> "blfs" writes:
> >>
> >> >
> >> > I glanced through the OFX stuff on the net.
> >> >
> >> > There must be code out there somewhere that converts
> >> > text to OFX. I dont know anything about QIF or
> >> > OFX but they seem like very different applications.
> >> >
> >> > OFX is for secure transactions over the net and I would
> >> > think it would be rather limited. QIF is an out of the box
> >> > financial program I understand with limited security.
> >> >
> >> > It would seem to me that the most natural way to write
> >> > Gnucash would be to write it for a flat text file in the Unix
> >> > tradition. If it is not trivial to translate a flat text file to
> >> > the format required for Gnucash that is a rather serious
> >> > design flaw. I can certainly load a flat text file into any
> >> > database I know of with relative ease.
> >> >
> >> > I must be missing something here.
> >>
> >> You are. Gnucash IS NOT A DATABASE!!!!
> >>
> >> Go read the archives.
> >>
> >> -derek
> >>
> >> --
> >> Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
> >> Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB)
> >> URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/ PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH
> >> warlord at MIT.EDU PGP key available
> >If you cant query the data easily loaded into the Gnucash program
> >without using the Gnucash interface that is a problem.  I have installed
the
> >program and read a little about it, but I am really stuck on this point
that
> >it cannot import a plain flat text file.  I dont understand this.
> >
> >Further, if Gnucash is a financial program it is a database no matter how
> >you want to define database this type of program has to be one.  It
> >is impossible to have a financial program that is not a database.
>
> 'database' is a deceptively simple term.  There are simple databases,
> that are basically 'static' 2D arrays (one dimension is the 'columns',
> which are field names', the other dimension is the 'rows', the tupple
> numbers), where each row (tupple) is an *isolated* instance.  If
> Gnucash worked with this sort of database (which seems to be what you
> are thinking about), then your problems make sense.  OTOH, some
> databases are more complex.  In the case of Gnucash the database is
> more than 2D, it is effectively three or more dimensions.  There are
> muliple sets of rows of tupples. Each set (or table) is an account. For
> any transaction, (at least) *two* tupples exist, in (at least) *two*
> tables (accounts).  This is basic double-entry bookkeeping, which is what
> Gnucash does.  Note that all of the tables (accounts) are *ordered* in
> date order.  Any one account, *by itself*, makes no sense, since *every*
> transaction references at two accounts.
>
> The only kind of file Gnucash can import is a *transaction* file (such
> as QIF, which is what Quicken exports).  This sort of file, although a
> text file, is not really a 'flat' database file.  Each record actually
> describes a *pair* of matched (and balanced) tupples, in two *differnt*
> tables (accounts) -- a 'debit' tupple and a 'credit' tupple. For
> example, a checking account (an asset account) and your electric bill
> (an expense account).
>
> Yes, Gnucash has a 'database' (in normal mode, stored in an XML file),
> but it is not a *simple* database.  This is probably what is causing
> you confusion.
>
> What does your 'flat' text file look like?  Is it something like:
>
> date,transactionid,description,status,debitaccount,creditaccount,amount
>
> Then it should be possible to write code to import this sort of file,
> but each item will affect two accounts (tables).  This is somewhat
> non-trivial.
>
> >MIME-Version: 1.0
> >
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>                                      \/
> Robert Heller                        ||InterNet:   heller at cs.umass.edu
> http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller  ||            heller at deepsoft.com
> http://www.deepsoft.com              /\FidoNet:    1:321/153
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To make this discussion more concrete, let's compare
Gnucash with Sql-ledger.

I have looked at both, but I have given sql-ledger a longer
look, but I am not using it.

In sql-ledger just by the design alone I know I can
import flat text files and I can query the date any old
way I please once it is imported.

Now the import issue is important if you are moving from
one database to another, and the ability to query the data
is extremely important in a financial package.

I wanted to give Gnucash a go, but if I cant import data
that is a major stumbling block right from the get go.
Is one supposed to start by typing in data?