Investment Register Display Oddity

David Carlson david.carlson.417 at gmail.com
Thu Dec 1 06:07:35 EST 2016


My wife turned off the computer that had GnuCash running with the file
open, and now after re-opening it looks different, but in fact just as you
describe, David T.

I did find an old lot test file with a multiple lot sale transaction which
shows dollars in each lot split line, but when in Auto split or Ledger
mode, every transaction that shows split lines shows the total number of
shares in both the total shares box and transaction shares box.For the lot
sale transaction, the number of shares box was negative and the total was
positive.

I would think that if the total shares box is supposed to show the sum of
all the split lines shares in the  transaction, then the the shares box in
the upper left should show number of shares in the highlighted split line.
That is not exactly what is shown,

However, I think that the total box should really show the same number when
the split lines are visible as when they are not visible, even regardless
of which line is highlighted.  Also, it should probably be labelled Total
Value.  Then this would be a bug.  In fact, I think that all the boxes
labelled Buy or Sell should be labelled Value, with Total appearing or not
depending on which row is highlighted.

Lacking documentation, which interpretation is correct?  Or is there a
better explanation?  Maybe one of the boxes should be blank, depending on
which row is highlighted.

You can tell that I do not want to accept that it is just an idiosyncrasy.

David C





On Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 11:22 PM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> David,
>
> That is an interesting behavior.
>
> For clarity, I will note that non-highlighted transactions show both the
> shares and the amount spent.
>
> I imagine that there is something about the fact that the current
> transaction is trying to show information about the anchor split (the split
> that brings this transaction into this register), whereas non-selected
> transactions show a default arrangement. The fact that no one has even
> mentioned it in this long a period of time shows you how much that behavior
> gets noticed.
>
> I will note a couple of things:
>
> 1) if the display is set to Basic, all transactions show both shares and
> amount;
> 2) when in Transaction Journal, every transaction shows the shares in this
> spot; and
> 3) when in Auto-Split view, the dollar amounts in the current transaction
> are displayed below in the splits
>
> Now, here’s an added wrinkle: in the event of a sell that involves more
> than one lot, the lots function creates separate splits for each lot in the
> aggregated sale. This results in the transaction appearing multiple times
> in the register when in Auto-Split view, with each non-highlighted instance
> showing the number of shares involved in that particular split. That makes
> sense. However, when you highlight any of these transactions, the full
> transaction displays—and the total shares at the top reflects the full
> number of shares in the transaction. That might be confusing (if anyone
> were to have noticed it before you, that is!).
>
> Items 2 & 3 support my suggestion that in expanded view, the first line of
> the transaction display provides information about the anchor split.
> However, that multi-split situation messes with that a bit.
>
> So, perhaps not so much a bug as an idiosyncrasy?
>
> Cheers,
> David T.
>
> > On Dec 1, 2016, at 8:16 AM, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi. In the security register view I just noticed that when purchasing
> stock
> > the display for the currently selected transaction shows the number of
> > shares purchased in both the Total Shares and Total Buy boxes, but in
> > non-selected transactions, the Total buy box shows the total dollars
> spent.
> >
> > Reviewing the documentation, it appears that it has been that way for a
> > very long time, probably over 10 years. I am currently using Release
> 2.6.14
> > in Windows 10.
> >
> > The documentation shows the register in single line Basic Ledger view
> while
> > I prefer Double Line Transaction Journal or Auto split view, but the view
> > preference does not affect the numbers.
> >
> > Is that the way it is supposed to be, and if so, what is the rationale?
> >
> > By the way, I was unable to find any reference in the current help or
> > Tutorial manuals describing the extra fields visible in the security
> > register view.
> >
> > I suspect that is a bug and the Total Buy box should be showing the
> amount
> > just as the Buy box shows the amount in the buy split line when in Auto
> > split view or Transaction Journal view.
> >
> >
> > David C
> > _______________________________________________
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