trouble with date when importing a just exported csv file.

[Edward Doolittle]

I've never used the CSV importer. I tried importing the CSV you supplied by
setting the Separator to @ and date format to y-m-d, and got to an error
message that says: The date format could be wrong *or there are not enough
columns set...* [emphasis mine]

The problem wasn't the date format, but that I didn't operate the CSV
importer properly to set the columns. I went back and changed a few
settings. Start import on row 2 and stop on row 3, and then I selected the
type of each column by clicking on the white-on-gray box at the top of the
column and choosing from the drop down list.

That got me past the error message. It still doesn't look quite right on my
machine, but I think I may have messed something up when I cut and pasted
the CSV to a file, so I didn't continue with the import.

I'm guessing that the CSV exporter puts more information into the file than
the CSV importer can use, e.g., reconciliation, currency units/symbols,
etc. So it seems to me that exporting to CSV and then importing back into
GnuCash might result in some "flattening" of the information which may or
may not be significant. Perhaps others can shed some light on that issue.


On 27 January 2015 at 21:41, Larry Evans <cppljevans at suddenlink.net> wrote:

> On 01/27/2015 08:19 PM, David Carlson wrote:
> > On 1/27/2015 6:34 PM, Edward Doolittle wrote:
> >> In North America SEC and OSC have a "T+3" rule for settling trades,
> which gives the buyer of securities three days to deposit any cash required
> for a purchase. While not exactly "buying on credit", it means that one
> does not in general need the cash in the brokerage account in order to buy
> securities, even in a cash/non-margin account.
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPad
> >>
> > Edward,
> > Thanks for the information.  I knew that there were rules but I didn't
> > know what they were.  My broker doesn't stick his neck out on that, even
> > if I have the funds in another account that he is managing.  He would
> > transfer the funds into the desired account first before issuing a trade
> > order.
> >
> > I think that Larry was just using fictional transactions, but they may
> > need to more closely match the way things really happen to work
> > correctly in GnuCash. I know that reports would not give correct results.
> >
> > I was hoping that someone that understands and/or uses CSV imports
> > enough to explain the date format issue and more would help.  I also
> > have no idea whether GnuCash can import it's own exports, as that is not
> > a normal use case either.
>
> The page in the Gnucash manual:
>
> http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-help/ch04s02.html
>
> says:
>
>   Import Transactions from CSV...
>
>
>   Starts the CSV Transactions file import process. The file to
>   import must be a delimited file.
>
> but I don't see on that page any more details.  In particular, I
> see nothing about a date format.
>
>
> OTOH, this post:
>
> http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2012-April/044274.html
>
> may give me a solution. However, that post does say,
>
>   Choose your correct Date format
>
> but I thought I did that when I selected the y-m-d "Date Format" as
> shown in the 8.PreviewSettings.png file attached to my previous post :(
>
> -regards,
> Larry
>
>
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-- 
Edward Doolittle
Associate Professor of Mathematics
First Nations University of Canada
1 First Nations Way, Regina SK S4S 7K2

« Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents
et un ingrat. »
-- Louis XIV, dans Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV, Chap. XXVI