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

[Brad Morrison]

Hi Hakon/GnuCash users, 

My apologies, I use a Linux distribution, so my knowledge of Windows is
limited, hopefully someone else will be able to resolve the issue you
are noticing... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux &
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows 

I also have Libre Office on my machine, not Microsoft Excel/Office -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice &
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel  

---
Thanks, 

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

On 2025-01-10 07:16, hakon at finne.net wrote:

> 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 impor!
 ts 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