Import Export

[Mike or Penny Novack]

On 12/9/2016 11:32 PM, David Goodmanson wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just wanted to find out whether GnuCash uses, or can use, CSV formats for
> data importing and exporting?  Does it have a way of interacting with Excel?
>
> Thanks
>
> David
Just a reminder to folks about what the .csv format is and what it isn't.

CSV stands for "comma separated variables". In other words, each 
"record" of the file is a series of variables delineated by commas. That 
is ALL that is meant by "csv format", a PHYSICAL description of the 
data. Whether a file in this format can be usefully imported depends on 
the LOGICAL structure of the data. In other words, is the order of those 
variables (and their data type) what is expected by the application into 
which being imported.

In cases where the application provides an export in the same format 
(logical a swell as physical) as it would accept as an import (if what 
you have exported you can import) then it can be useful to do an export 
and then look at the result so that you can see what the order of fields 
is. Compare with what you propose to import. Is the order (and data 
type) the same? Then you can go ahead. If the order (or data type) does 
not match, then you will first have to pass what you want to import 
through an editing program that will do a conversion for you.

In other words, JUST because gnucash wants its imports to be in .csv 
format and you have a file in .csv format is not enough for you to 
expect you can simply import it (and get what you expect).

Michael D Novack