[GNC] How to import transactions from Release 5.10 into Release 4.8

[David Carlson]

Kalpesh,

This question started when I accidentally deleted a transaction from the
file that I was editing with GnuCash 4.8 but the transaction was still
present in the file that I was editing with GnuCash release 5.10.  I wanted
to replace the 'lost' transaction in the file for release 4.8 editing.  (I
am running two instances of GnuCash concurrently while testing release
5.10).

It occurred to me that there may be a need for other users to export
transactions while using release 5.10 or later to import back to release
4.x which can do the multi-line CSV import, but with somewhat different
format details.  I thought some users may have enough transactions to need
a better solution than a brute force one-field-at-a-time cut and paste with
clipboard type of solution and that there could be an 'automatic' solution
provided by a developer or experienced user.

It may not continue to be possible to open the same file with either
release 4.x or 6.x when GnuCash gets to that point.  I solved my problem
shortly after my original post but others may need a solution in the future.

On Thu, Feb 6, 2025 at 9:44 AM Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net> wrote:

> Hmmm. Why would you want to export from 4.8 to import into 5.10 when you
> can simply open the file in 5.10? I would think that making copy of the
> file (save-as option from GNUCash), then delete un-wanted accounts in 4.8
> version and then open that pared down one in 5.10 is much cleaner to go
> about.
>
> Are you trying to merge books (or files)?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2025 4:57 PM
> To: David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Subject: Re: [GNC] How to import transactions from Release 5.10 into
> Release 4.8
>
> David
>
> I don't think one could expect there to be a setting in Gnucash 4.8 to
> import the Export format from later versions of the program  e.g. 5.10 as
> that Export format did not exist at the time of release of GC 4.8.
>
> The workaround might to be to export the same or a similar set of
> transactions from 4.8, compare that to the format of the same or a similar
> set of transaction exported from 5.10. Then compare the two formats and
> note any differences.
>
> You may be able to get an import by a reassignment of the headers to
> different columns in the input file, but if the differences cannot be
> handled by that then using a macro/scripted editor to reformat the file to
> a format which can be imported may be necessary.
>
> David Cousens
>
> On Wed, 2025-02-05 at 13:44 -0600, David Carlson wrote:
> > There is no setting to import transactions from a csv file made by
> > release
> > 5.10 into a file using release 4.8.
> >
> > Is there a work-around?
> >
>
>
>
>

-- 
David Carlson