copying accounts and transactions from one book to another

[Mike or Penny Novack]

gnucash.133518b at telus.net wrote:

> No one knows of a method, however roundabout, to import transactions 
> from another book?
>
> Carl
>
> On 2014-05-08 1:14 AM, gnucash.133518b at telus.net wrote:
>
>> Having duly noted the section B.3.2 Q&A in the guide that says it isn't
>> possible to merge two GnuCash files, I have to pose my question anyway.
>> I'm experimenting with investment accounts and do not want to do this in
>> our working book. Only if the result of my experiments is satisfactory
>> would I like to import the investments book accounts and their
>> transactions into our working book. There will be no duplicate entries
>> between the two books.
>
I agree that this sort of testing a good idea. I also agree that being 
able to "merge" two books in this way would make the testing easier. But 
please note one point. You are saying "There will be no duplicate 
entries between the two books" but what precisely would be guaranteeing 
that within gnucash? << see the problem? what if there WERE duplicates? 
-- conditions being true only because of "work flow" decisions aren't 
true in a strong enough sense for safe computer programs -- user errors 
do occur >>

I have done this sort of testing but not without the extra work of 
entering transactions twice, into the current "prod" books and into the 
new "test" books. Then if the test is deemed successful and desired to 
proceed in the new way, it's just a matter of renaming some files (old 
"prod" books to backup, "test" books to prod).

The sort of merge you are requesting NEEDS a component "check for 
duplicates" << refuse to merge if any duplicate are found; but probably 
produce an output listing the duplicate transaction >>

Michael