QIF spec ambiguity in example file

[John Ralls]

On Apr 27, 2014, at 5:13 AM, twinbee42 at skytopia.com wrote:

> Hi John, I've just been looking over your article on the QIF specification and have been pondering an apparent ambiguity in the "Sample Files" example QIF file at the end. I was wondering if you'd be so kind to help clarify things.
> 
> Here's the article:
> 
> http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/browser/gnucash/trunk/src/import-export/qif-imp/file-format.txt
> 
> After the "!Account" line, we have listed the control chars: N, T, D, Q, T, P, N, L, Y. However, the only control chars listed for the "Account Information Format" are: N, T, D, L, /, and $. So I'm guessing Q, P and Y must be referring to perhaps the control chars from the "Investment transaction format". However that doesn't seem to be made clear (as there's no caret symbol to say the "Account Information Format" section is over.
> 
> A further piece of confusion arises since T is listed twice ("TInvst" and "T500"), and so T there means two different things. Also, D looks like a date ("D10/30/2006"). However D is also a control char for the "Account Information Format" which should mean "Description". When parsing this algorithmically, how can I tell which one it's supposed to be? A human can obviously tell it's a date, but I'm surprised, since specifications are usually much more rigid as there can be sometimes be numbers (or even a date) in a description if it's simply arbitrary text.
> 

As a general rule one shouldn't write developers directly. Most projects have mailing lists for handling user enquiries. Ours is gnucash-users at gnucash.org, and I've copied that list on this reply. Please subscribe to that list and direct any further correspondence there.

As it happens, I'n not the author of that file, just the last person to have touched it for a reason unrelated to its content. I don't know much about the QIF spec or the importer. Someone who does can answer your questions on the list.

Regards,
John Ralls