[GNC] When importing an account tree from a csv file, account type information disappears

[hakon at finne.net]

Thanks, Brad, for the Wiki pointer. No, I had not read it. However, 
while it says something about importing data from specific banking 
formats, the treatment of csv file import seems to be concerned with 
transactions only and not account structures. As for my account Type 
problem, I think I have solved it and I have circulated the solution on 
the list (I did not discover your post until just now). As for importing 
transactions, I have discovered that if the csv file is generated by 
Excel, it turns out that Excel may add three bytes at the start of the 
file. These bytes make up a byte order mark (BOM). This mark is 
interpreted by Excel (and other programs) and not visible. When GnuCash 
imports a transaction csv file with a BOM, however, this mark is simply 
displayed as three characters like any other characters. This blocks the 
import of transactions from the file. I solved this by removing the BOM 
using a hex editor. This does no seem to happen, however, when GnuCash 
imports an account hierarchy written to csv from Excel.

I am running GnuCash 5.10 (Norwegian download) on Windows 11 Enterprise 
(British English with localization Norway and bm). Because of the 
localization, I use semicolon for list element separator and comma as 
the decimal. Obviously these data may be important for diagnosis.

-- Håkon

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2025 01:07:10 -0800
 From: Brad Morrison <bradmorrison at sonic.net>
To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] When importing an account tree from a csv file,
     account type information disappears
Message-ID: <bc9536cfc004aa74f101dbfced87f903 at sonic.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Hi Hakon/GnuCash users,

https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/FAQ#Importing.2FExporting_Data - have you
read this section of the GnuCash Wiki on importing and exporting data?

What version of GnuCash are you using? The current version is 5.10 -
https://www.gnucash.org/download.phtml

What operating system are you using?

---
Thanks,

Brad - https://www.facebook.com/brad.morrison.12327/ &
https://norcal.social/@BradMorrison