Standard order question

[Guido Van Hoecke]

Hi,

I've been using gnucash since dec 2005 for my accounting. I use the
standard order for all my accounts. I have vainly searched the
documentation to get a definition of this 'Standard order'.

What I do want, is to view my transactions in exactly the sequence I
have entered them. (Basically, this means sorted by
transactions.post_date, transactions.enter_date).

Until gnucash 2.2.x, I managed to achieve this, albeit by some rather
unfortunate trickery. Whenever I entered something in the num field,
it had to start it with a period. Then the record would keep its entry
sequence on the display. My postprocessing software would ignore that
period. So there was no real problem.

I am now using 2.3.2 and still using the 'Standard order'. However
transactions are not always displayed in the same sequence as they
were entered. I have not found any logic in this. I do not know why
some transactions are displayed out of order, nor what the order of
these transactions is.

So I have following questions:

1. Somebody please explain this 'Standard order'.

2. Why is this order not always adhered to in 2.3.x?

3. Why is the 'Date of entry' order completely f***ed up? It does not
show records in sequence of entry. It even mingles dates of entry! (By
the way, I failed to find a description of this sort order too.)

Maybe it could help if one would know how I am using Gnucash. I enter
all details for all my purchases. So I have e.g. a liability account
for each of the supermarkets and shops where I buy stuff. When
returning from the supermarket, I select the account for the store
where I bought stuff, and enter every detail line and use the num
field to receive the quantity. So e.g. I'd have a transaction dated
'2009.07.20', num value '3l', description 'coke zero 50cl', transfer
'costs.beverages.sparkling.coke.zero', and increase '4.50'. Every
single item I purchase gets entered. Remember that I enter '.3l' in
the num field, so that the num field has no influence on the 'standard
order'. That is, with 2.2.x at least. Since using 2.3.x, this order is
no longer guaranteed. I want the entered transactions to remain listed
exactly in the sequence entered, which obviously is the sequence on
the store ticket.

I wrote some perl reporting software that uses the 'increase' and the
'num' fields to compute unit prices. So I needed some field to enter
the quantity purchased. The 'num' field was available, so that's how
it evolved.

I am very willing to provide detailed examples / info about cases
where the sort order deviates from my expectations to clarify my
point.


Guido

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