Transferring data between two Gnucash files, only SLIGHTLY OT

[jhc]

VOILA!! My profound thanks, Derek, for the answer to something I never figured 
out to ask, and you answered /en passant.

/ In your conversation with Jesse C, you dropped this little gem:


    <clip>
    /QIF does not have Bayesian learning. That's only for OFX. However, QIF does
    have a MAP file where it learns your mappings from QIF Account, Category,
    and Payee/Memo strings to GnuCash Accounts. The key to keep in mind is that
    these bindings are _*whole string compares*_, and that they are
    _*per-qiffile-name*_. So if you import Foo.qif and Bar.qif, the mappings are
    different. But if you import Foo.qif and then another Foo.qif, the second
    time it will reuse the bindings you used the first time. As for the
    full-string compare, if you have a Payee of "Citgo 1234567" and then "Citgo
    2345678" it will not know that these are the same, so it wont reuse the
    binding from one run to another.
    /</clip>/
    /

I've been wondering about this for a long time, and I'm glad to finally know it. 
I wish it was a happier outcome, since my bank often puts disqualifying data in 
the 'payee' stream so those strings are hardly ever identical. But at least I 
can now file names alone on import -- where I had been naming them with date 
qualification in advance -- and get closer to -- and rename them for archiving 
after the process, therefore getting closer to something that works.

It would be a great convenience if there were some level of  'soft' match for 
those Payee strings, for situations like mine where the bank 'helps' with 
transaction identity data (specifically for debit card data), where there is a 
try to connect on some percentage of characters, or excluding likely dates 
(being defined by the user would be good too) in the matching of those strings.

You guys just never know when some small thing you might think trivial makes a 
large difference. And a benefit, since I will not feel so marginal when entering 
category and account choices every month. Thanks.