GnuCash Feature Request: List all commodity prices in the data file sorted by date

[John Ralls]

> On Oct 28, 2016, at 9:44 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> John,
> 
> Unfortunately, GnuCash includes the storage of historical commodity prices, and users really ought to be able to manage the data stored in the file. As it stands, the price db is like the proverbial roach motel: prices check in, but they never check out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKhGHxO-woc <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKhGHxO-woc>). 
> 
> Today, just for yucks, I took a look at my own price db, accumulated over the last ten years. I was looking to clear out entries that were unnecessary, because I had sold the stocks, and no longer needed daily entries for those holdings. I figured to retain monthly or quarterly values for these holding, so that I might be able to see how the stock had performed over the time period that I held it. I went through and removed many entries for many of those holdings (a total of 100k from my 3.8MB compressed GnuCash data file). It was a three hour process, notable for its fundamentally manual, commodity-by-commodity, date-by-date elimination process. 
> 
> It is unfortunate that GnuCash is unable to offer its user base a better option to manage the prices in the price db.

David C.,

To remove all prices from before the American Revolution, open the price editor and click the "Remove old prices" button. Enter 1775-04-18 in the date box and select both check buttons. Click OK.I'll be greatly amused if any prices are actually removed from your database. ;-)

David T.,

I don't think that David C.'s suggestion would have made your ordeal significantly shorter; you'd still have to pick through every single quote and either select it or not; They'd just be sorted differently and you'd be clicking the delete checkbox instead of the minus button, and you wouldn't have to open the tree. On the other hand you would have to pay close attention to make sure that you didn't delete prices for stocks that you still want daily quotes for.

Both,

ISTM you really want a more powerful remove old prices box, one that can automatically prune prices based on periodicity and holding period. That's the sort of thing Bob Fewell likes to write, so perhaps he will. You can increase the odds by filing a bug report; you both have been around long enough to know what happens with feature requests on the mailing list.

Regards,
John Ralls