Vanishing transactions and log file [repair procedure and nominations for unreasonable behaviors]

[Ross Boylan]

On Sat, 2008-03-29 at 14:03 -0700, Charles Day wrote:
>         1. Displaying a single transaction as multiple entries in the
>         register
>         if one is in "Basic Ledger" or "Autosplit" view mode.  This
>         only happens
>         if the transaction has multiple splits using the account on
>         which the
>         register is open.  Note that if one follows the advice on
>         entering stock
>         sales, one will have multiple splits in the account on view.
>         I thought these multiple entries were duplicates; I guess I
>         tried to
>         delete one and ended up deleting the whole transaction.
> 
> Wow, I didn't know it worked that way. I always assumed it was one
> entry per transaction, not one per split. So I second this
> nomination... and would have made the same mistake. (Note: Transaction
> Journal mode operates as expected.)

It depends what you mean by entry, but I don't think it's exactly either
one.  Let's say the register shows this in journal mode
2/23/08  xxxxxx			$100
         A                        $5
         B                       $95
where A and B are accounts.  Call the entire group of 3 lines, or
generally the line with the date and all the lines until the next date,
a "group".  Call each of the individual lines with A or B a "detail."

Ordinarily, 1 group = 1 transaction, and each detail is a split.

The problem comes if you're in register A, and your transaction has more
than one A split.

Then each A split appears as its own "group".

So sometimes one transactions appears as multiple groups (I'm guessing
by "entry" you meant what I've called "group" here).

So, usually one transaction with all its splits goes into one group.

However, with multiple splits in the display account, and the view mode
as "Basic Ledger" or "autosplit", you get multiple groups.  Here's where
you get into trouble if you think 1 group = 1 transaction, which seems
like the obvious thing to assume.

In autosplit mode, which group you select you see all the splits
underneath it when you select that group.  Leading the unwary (me) to
think the transaction has been duplicated and that one of the duplicates
needs to be eliminated.

The only advantage of the approach as a design is that, in basic ledger
view, one does see every single split for that account on one line.
This is a very reasonable thing to want to see, and for the program to
display.  In the case of the stock sales, it means you get paired lines,
with one having the shares sold and the other having the dollar value of
the capital gain, but no shares, no price, and no effect on the account
balance.  That's a little weird, but in other uses of splits all the
splits would be "real" entries.