trouble with date when importing a just exported csv file.

[David Carlson]

On 1/28/2015 10:01 PM, David Carlson wrote:
> On 1/28/2015 7:52 AM, Larry Evans wrote:
>> On 01/28/2015 12:01 AM, Edward Doolittle wrote:
>>> 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.
>>>
>>>
>> [snip]
>> I agree about the exporter putting more information than needed.
>> I had misread:
>>
>> http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.6/C/gnucash-help/ch04s02.html#AccTree-FileMenu
>>
>> at:
>>
>> Starts the CSV Account file import process. The file to import must be
>> in the same format as the one exported by GnuCash.
>>
>> in particular, I'd read the:
>>
>>   The file to import must be in the same format
>>   as the one exported by GnuCash.
>>
>> as applying to the import of transactions (the next line) instead of the
>> import of accounts :(
>>
>> So.. I changed the contents of file import to:
>>
>> 2014-12-01,Checking Account,Opening Balance,Opening Balances,500.00
>>
>> and was able to import it as expected; however, I tried something
>> similar for the SHA1 account but ran into problems when importing file
>> with contents:
>>
>> 2015-01-02,SHA1,buy another,Checking Account,T,1
>>
>> As shown by the 2 attachments.  The last attachment, shows I needed some
>> action, but I've no idea what action that would be.
>>
>> I'm guessing, and as others in this thread have mentioned, using csv
>> import is probably not the best; however, that's all I've got from
>> my broker :(
>>
>> Thanks for all the help.
>>
>> -regards,
>> Larry
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> Larry,
>
> don't give up yet... The match screen looks a lot like the match
> screen for the OFX importer.  When I get to that point in the OFX
> importer, I just click on the "A" box the first time I see a
> transaction, then see what the importer brought in.  If it really
> matches an existing transaction I can just decide which of the two to
> delete.  The second time a similar transaction comes in then I can
> choose U+ R or R if I like what appears.  Have fun.
>
> David C


I forgot to mention that the importer shows that transaction line as red
because it sees that the incoming transaction matches an existing
transaction, as far as it can tell.  It is often wrong, though, so that
is why I check the "A" box if I am not sure that is actually is right
about the match.

transactions that it knows are new show up as yellow or green and have
different choices about assigning transfer accounts, for example.

David C