
hledger_csv(5)               hledger User Manuals               hledger_csv(5)



NAME
       CSV - how hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format

DESCRIPTION
       hledger  can read CSV (Comma Separated Value/Character Separated Value)
       files as if they were journal files, automatically converting each  CSV
       record  into  a transaction.  (To learn about writing CSV, see CSV out-
       put.)

       We describe each CSV file's format with a corresponding rules file.  By
       default  this is named like the CSV file with a .rules extension added.
       Eg when reading FILE.csv, hledger also looks for FILE.csv.rules in  the
       same  directory  as  FILE.csv.   You can specify a different rules file
       with the --rules-file option.  If a rules file is  not  found,  hledger
       will create a sample rules file, which you'll need to adjust.

       This  file  contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields
       layout, date format etc.), and how to construct hledger journal entries
       (transactions) from it.  Often there will also be a list of conditional
       rules  for  categorising  transactions  based  on  their  descriptions.
       Here's an overview of the CSV rules; these are described more fully be-
       low, after the examples:

       skip               skip one  or  more  header
                          lines   or   matched   CSV
                          records
       fields             name  CSV  fields,  assign
                          them to hledger fields
       field assignment   assign   a  value  to  one
                          hledger field, with inter-
                          polation
       separator          a custom field separator
       if                 apply    some   rules   to
                          matched CSV records
       end                skip  the  remaining   CSV
                          records
       date-format        describe the format of CSV
                          dates
       newest-first       disambiguate record  order
                          when there's only one date
       include            inline  another  CSV rules
                          file
       balance-type       choose which type of  bal-
                          ance assignments to use

       Note,  for best error messages when reading CSV files, use a .csv, .tsv
       or .ssv file extension or file prefix - see File Extension below.

       There's an introductory Convert CSV files tutorial on hledger.org.

EXAMPLES
       Here are some sample hledger CSV rules files.  See also the  full  col-
       lection at:
       https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv

   Basic
       At  minimum,  the  rules file must identify the date and amount fields,
       and often it also specifies the date format and how many  header  lines
       there are.  Here's a simple CSV file and a rules file for it:

              Date, Description, Id, Amount
              12/11/2019, Foo, 123, 10.23

              # basic.csv.rules
              skip         1
              fields       date, description, _, amount
              date-format  %d/%m/%Y

              $ hledger print -f basic.csv
              2019-11-12 Foo
                  expenses:unknown           10.23
                  income:unknown            -10.23

       Default account names are chosen, since we didn't set them.

   Bank of Ireland
       Here's  a  CSV with two amount fields (Debit and Credit), and a balance
       field, which we can use to add balance assertions, which is not  neces-
       sary but provides extra error checking:

              Date,Details,Debit,Credit,Balance
              07/12/2012,LODGMENT       529898,,10.0,131.21
              07/12/2012,PAYMENT,5,,126

              # bankofireland-checking.csv.rules

              # skip the header line
              skip

              # name the csv fields, and assign some of them as journal entry fields
              fields  date, description, amount-out, amount-in, balance

              # We generate balance assertions by assigning to "balance"
              # above, but you may sometimes need to remove these because:
              #
              # - the CSV balance differs from the true balance,
              #   by up to 0.0000000000005 in my experience
              #
              # - it is sometimes calculated based on non-chronological ordering,
              #   eg when multiple transactions clear on the same day

              # date is in UK/Ireland format
              date-format  %d/%m/%Y

              # set the currency
              currency  EUR

              # set the base account for all txns
              account1  assets:bank:boi:checking

              $ hledger -f bankofireland-checking.csv print
              2012-12-07 LODGMENT       529898
                  assets:bank:boi:checking         EUR10.0 = EUR131.2
                  income:unknown                  EUR-10.0

              2012-12-07 PAYMENT
                  assets:bank:boi:checking         EUR-5.0 = EUR126.0
                  expenses:unknown                  EUR5.0

       The  balance assertions don't raise an error above, because we're read-
       ing directly from CSV, but they will be checked if  these  entries  are
       imported into a journal file.

   Amazon
       Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to gener-
       ate a third posting if there's a fee.  (In practice you'd probably  get
       this data from your bank instead, but it's an example.)

              "Date","Type","To/From","Name","Status","Amount","Fees","Transaction ID"
              "Jul 29, 2012","Payment","To","Foo.","Completed","$20.00","$0.00","16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL"
              "Jul 30, 2012","Payment","To","Adapteva, Inc.","Completed","$25.00","$1.00","17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL"

              # amazon-orders.csv.rules

              # skip one header line
              skip 1

              # name the csv fields, and assign the transaction's date, amount and code.
              # Avoided the "status" and "amount" hledger field names to prevent confusion.
              fields date, _, toorfrom, name, amzstatus, amzamount, fees, code

              # how to parse the date
              date-format %b %-d, %Y

              # combine two fields to make the description
              description %toorfrom %name

              # save the status as a tag
              comment     status:%amzstatus

              # set the base account for all transactions
              account1    assets:amazon
              # leave amount1 blank so it can balance the other(s).
              # I'm assuming amzamount excludes the fees, don't remember

              # set a generic account2
              account2    expenses:misc
              amount2     %amzamount
              # and maybe refine it further:
              #include categorisation.rules

              # add a third posting for fees, but only if they are non-zero.
              if %fees [1-9]
               account3    expenses:fees
               amount3     %fees

              $ hledger -f amazon-orders.csv print
              2012-07-29 (16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Foo.  ; status:Completed
                  assets:amazon
                  expenses:misc          $20.00

              2012-07-30 (17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Adapteva, Inc.  ; status:Completed
                  assets:amazon
                  expenses:misc          $25.00
                  expenses:fees           $1.00

   Paypal
       Here's  a  real-world rules file for (customised) Paypal CSV, with some
       Paypal-specific rules, and a second rules file included:

              "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note"
              "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","Calm Radio","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-6.99","0.00","-6.99","simon@joyful.com","memberships@calmradio.com","60P57143A8206782E","MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month","","I-R8YLY094FJYR","","-6.99",""
              "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","6.99","0.00","6.99","","simon@joyful.com","0TU1544T080463733","","","60P57143A8206782E","","0.00",""
              "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","Patreon","PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment","Completed","USD","-7.00","0.00","-7.00","simon@joyful.com","support@patreon.com","2722394R5F586712G","Patreon* Membership","","B-0PG93074E7M86381M","","-7.00",""
              "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","7.00","0.00","7.00","","simon@joyful.com","71854087RG994194F","Patreon* Membership","","2722394R5F586712G","","0.00",""
              "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-2.00","0.00","-2.00","simon@joyful.com","tle@wikimedia.org","K9U43044RY432050M","Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation","","I-R5C3YUS3285L","","-2.00",""
              "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","2.00","0.00","2.00","","simon@joyful.com","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00",""
              "10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","noble@bene.fac.tor","simon@joyful.com","6L8L1662YP1334033","Joyful Systems","","I-KC9VBGY2GWDB","","9.41",""

              # paypal-custom.csv.rules

              # Tips:
              # Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download
              # Suggested transaction type: "Balance affecting"
              # Paypal's default fields in 2018 were:
              # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Shipping Address","Address Status","Item Title","Item ID","Shipping and Handling Amount","Insurance Amount","Sales Tax","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Reference Txn ID","Invoice Number","Custom Number","Quantity","Receipt ID","Balance","Address Line 1","Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood","Town/City","State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic","Zip/Postal Code","Country","Contact Phone Number","Subject","Note","Country Code","Balance Impact"
              # This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in "Customize report fields":
              # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note"

              fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note

              skip  1

              date-format  %-m/%-d/%Y

              # ignore some paypal events
              if
              In Progress
              Temporary Hold
              Update to
               skip

              # add more fields to the description
              description %description_ %itemtitle

              # save some other fields as tags
              comment  itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_

              # convert to short currency symbols
              if %currency USD
               currency $
              if %currency EUR
               currency E
              if %currency GBP
               currency P

              # generate postings

              # the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account
              # (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields)
              account1 assets:online:paypal
              amount1  %netamount

              # the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party
              # (account2 is set below)
              amount2  -%grossamount

              # if there's a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal.
              if %feeamount [1-9]
               account3 expenses:banking:paypal
               amount3  -%feeamount
               comment3 business:

              # choose an account for the second posting

              # override the default account names:
              # if the amount is positive, it's income (a debit)
              if %grossamount ^[^-]
               account2 income:unknown
              # if negative, it's an expense (a credit)
              if %grossamount ^-
               account2 expenses:unknown

              # apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks
              include common.rules

              # apply some overrides specific to this csv

              # Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending,
              # which can be disregarded in this case.
              if
              Bank Account
              Bank Deposit to PP Account
               description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle
               account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking
               account1 assets:online:paypal

              # Currency conversions
              if Currency Conversion
               account2 equity:currency conversion

              # common.rules

              if
              darcs
              noble benefactor
               account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub
               comment2 business:

              if
              Calm Radio
               account2 expenses:online:apps

              if
              electronic frontier foundation
              Patreon
              wikimedia
              Advent of Code
               account2 expenses:dues

              if Google
               account2 expenses:online:apps
               description google | music

              $ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv  print
              2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:memberships@calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
                  assets:online:paypal          $-6.99 = $-6.99
                  expenses:online:apps           $6.99

              2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
                  assets:online:paypal               $6.99 = $0.00
                  assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-6.99

              2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:support@patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed
                  assets:online:paypal          $-7.00 = $-7.00
                  expenses:dues                  $7.00

              2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
                  assets:online:paypal               $7.00 = $0.00
                  assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-7.00

              2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:tle@wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
                  assets:online:paypal             $-2.00 = $-2.00
                  expenses:dues                     $2.00
                  expenses:banking:paypal      ; business:

              2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
                  assets:online:paypal               $2.00 = $0.00
                  assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-2.00

              2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems  ; itemid:, fromemail:noble@bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
                  assets:online:paypal                       $9.41 = $9.41
                  revenues:foss donations:darcshub         $-10.00  ; business:
                  expenses:banking:paypal                    $0.59  ; business:

CSV RULES
       The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order.
       Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored.

   skip
              skip N

       The  word  "skip"  followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells
       hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines  preceding  the  CSV  data.
       (Empty/blank  lines  are skipped automatically.) You'll need this when-
       ever your CSV data contains header lines.

       It also has a second purpose: it can be used inside if blocks to ignore
       certain CSV records (described below).

   fields
              fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ...

       A  fields  list  (the  word  "fields" followed by comma-separated field
       names) is the quick way to assign CSV field values to  hledger  fields.
       It does two things:

       1. it  names  the  CSV fields.  This is optional, but can be convenient
          later for interpolating them.

       2. when you use a standard hledger field name, it assigns the CSV value
          to that part of the hledger transaction.

       Here's  an  example  that  says "use the 1st, 2nd and 4th fields as the
       transaction's date, description and amount; name the  last  two  fields
       for later reference; and ignore the others":

              fields date, description, , amount, , , somefield, anotherfield

       Field  names  may  not contain whitespace.  Fields you don't care about
       can be left unnamed.  Currently there must be least  two  items  (there
       must be at least one comma).

       Note,  always  use  comma in the fields list, even if your CSV uses an-
       other separator character.

       Here are the standard hledger field/pseudo-field names.  For more about
       the transaction parts they refer to, see the manual for hledger's jour-
       nal format.

   Transaction field names
       date, date2, status, code, description, comment can be used to form the
       transaction's first line.

   Posting field names
   account
       accountN,  where  N  is 1 to 99, causes a posting to be generated, with
       that account name.

       Most often there are two postings, so you'll want to set  account1  and
       account2.   Typically  account1 is associated with the CSV file, and is
       set once with a top-level assignment, while account2 is  set  based  on
       each transaction's description, and in conditional blocks.

       If  a  posting's  account name is left unset but its amount is set (see
       below), a default account name will be chosen (like  "expenses:unknown"
       or "income:unknown").

   amount
       amountN  sets  posting N's amount.  If the CSV uses separate fields for
       inflows and outflows, you can use amountN-in and  amountN-out  instead.
       By  assigning to amount1, amount2, ...  etc.  you can generate anywhere
       from 0 to 99 postings.

       There is also an older, unnumbered form of these  names,  suitable  for
       2-posting transactions, which sets both posting 1's and (negated) post-
       ing 2's amount: amount, or amount-in and  amount-out.   This  is  still
       supported  because  it  keeps pre-hledger-1.17 csv rules files working,
       and because it can be more succinct, and because  it  converts  posting
       2's amount to cost if there's a transaction price, which can be useful.

       If you have an existing rules file using the unnumbered form, you might
       want to use the numbered form in certain  conditional  blocks,  without
       having  to  update  and  retest all the old rules.  To facilitate this,
       posting   1   ignores    amount/amount-in/amount-out    if    any    of
       amount1/amount1-in/amount1-out are assigned, and posting 2 ignores them
       if any of amount2/amount2-in/amount2-out are  assigned,  avoiding  con-
       flicts.

   currency
       If the CSV has the currency symbol in a separate field (ie, not part of
       the amount field), you can use currencyN to prepend it to  posting  N's
       amount.  Or, currency with no number affects all postings.

   balance
       balanceN  sets  a balance assertion amount (or if the posting amount is
       left empty, a balance assignment) on posting N.

       Also, for compatibility with hledger <1.17: balance with no  number  is
       equivalent to balance1.

       You  can  adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the balance-type
       rule (see below).

   comment
       Finally, commentN sets a comment on the Nth posting.  Comments can also
       contain tags, as usual.

       See TIPS below for more about setting amounts and currency.

   field assignment
              HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE

       Instead  of  or  in addition to a fields list, you can use a "field as-
       signment" rule to set the value of a single hledger field,  by  writing
       its  name (any of the standard hledger field names above) followed by a
       text value.  The value may contain interpolated CSV fields,  referenced
       by  their  1-based position in the CSV record (%N), or by the name they
       were given in the fields list (%CSVFIELDNAME).  Some examples:

              # set the amount to the 4th CSV field, with " USD" appended
              amount %4 USD

              # combine three fields to make a comment, containing note: and date: tags
              comment note: %somefield - %anotherfield, date: %1

       Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like "  1  "  be-
       comes 1 when interpolated) (#1051).  See TIPS below for more about ref-
       erencing other fields.

   separator
       You can use the separator directive to read other kinds  of  character-
       separated data.  Eg to read SSV (Semicolon Separated Values), use:

              separator ;

       The  separator directive accepts exactly one single byte character as a
       separator.  To specify whitespace characters, you may use  the  special
       words TAB or SPACE.  Eg to read TSV (Tab Separated Values), use:

              separator TAB

       See also: File Extension.

   if
              if MATCHER
               RULE

              if
              MATCHER
              MATCHER
              MATCHER
               RULE
               RULE

       Conditional  blocks ("if blocks") are a block of rules that are applied
       only to CSV records which match certain patterns.  They are often  used
       for customising account names based on transaction descriptions.

       Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this:

              REGEX

       REGEX  is  a  case-insensitive  regular expression which tries to match
       anywhere within the CSV record.  It is a POSIX  ERE  (extended  regular
       expression)  that  also  supports GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>),
       and  nothing  else.   If  you  have  trouble,  be  sure  to  check  our
       https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions doc.

       Important  note: the record that is matched is not the original record,
       but a synthetic one, with any enclosing double quotes (but not  enclos-
       ing whitespace) removed, and always comma-separated (which means that a
       field containing a comma will appear like  two  fields).   Eg,  if  the
       original record is 2020-01-01; "Acme, Inc.";  1,000, the REGEX will ac-
       tually see 2020-01-01,Acme, Inc.,  1,000).

       Or, MATCHER can be a field matcher, like this:

              %CSVFIELD REGEX

       which matches just the content of a particular CSV field.  CSVFIELD  is
       a  percent  sign  followed  by  the field's name or column number, like
       %date or %1.

       A single matcher can be written on the same line as the "if"; or multi-
       ple matchers can be written on the following lines, non-indented.  Mul-
       tiple matchers are OR'd (any one of them can match).

       After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all  in-
       dented  by at least one space.  Three kinds of rule are allowed in con-
       ditional blocks:

       o field assignments (to set a hledger field)

       o skip (to skip the matched CSV record)

       o end (to skip all remaining CSV records).

       Examples:

              # if the CSV record contains "groceries", set account2 to "expenses:groceries"
              if groceries
               account2 expenses:groceries

              # if the CSV record contains any of these patterns, set account2 and comment as shown
              if
              monthly service fee
              atm transaction fee
              banking thru software
               account2 expenses:business:banking
               comment  XXX deductible ? check it

   end
       This rule can be used inside if blocks (only),  to  make  hledger  stop
       reading this CSV file and move on to the next input file, or to command
       execution.  Eg:

              # ignore everything following the first empty record
              if ,,,,
               end

   date-format
              date-format DATEFMT

       This is a helper for the date (and date2) fields.  If  your  CSV  dates
       are  not  formatted  like  YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY.MM.DD, you'll
       need to add a date-format rule describing them  with  a  strptime  date
       parsing  pattern, which must parse the CSV date value completely.  Some
       examples:

              # MM/DD/YY
              date-format %m/%d/%y

              # D/M/YYYY
              # The - makes leading zeros optional.
              date-format %-d/%-m/%Y

              # YYYY-Mmm-DD
              date-format %Y-%h-%d

              # M/D/YYYY HH:MM AM some other junk
              # Note the time and junk must be fully parsed, though only the date is used.
              date-format %-m/%-d/%Y %l:%M %p some other junk

       For the supported strptime syntax, see:
       https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-For-
       mat.html#v:formatTime

   newest-first
       hledger  always sorts the generated transactions by date.  Transactions
       on the same date should appear in the same order as their CSV  records,
       as  hledger  can  usually auto-detect whether the CSV's normal order is
       oldest first or newest first.  But if all of the following are true:

       o the CSV might sometimes contain just one day  of  data  (all  records
         having the same date)

       o the  CSV  records are normally in reverse chronological order (newest
         at the top)

       o and you care about preserving the order of same-day transactions

       then, you should add the newest-first rule as a hint.  Eg:

              # tell hledger explicitly that the CSV is normally newest first
              newest-first

   include
              include RULESFILE

       This includes the contents of another CSV rules  file  at  this  point.
       RULESFILE  is  an  absolute file path or a path relative to the current
       file's directory.  This can be useful for sharing common rules  between
       several rules files, eg:

              # someaccount.csv.rules

              ## someaccount-specific rules
              fields   date,description,amount
              account1 assets:someaccount
              account2 expenses:misc

              ## common rules
              include categorisation.rules

   balance-type
       Balance assertions generated by assigning to balanceN are of the simple
       = type by default, which is  a  single-commodity,  subaccount-excluding
       assertion.  You may find the subaccount-including variants more useful,
       eg if you have created some virtual subaccounts  of  checking  to  help
       with  budgeting.  You can select a different type of assertion with the
       balance-type rule:

              # balance assertions will consider all commodities and all subaccounts
              balance-type ==*

       Here are the balance assertion types for quick reference:

              =    single commodity, exclude subaccounts
              =*   single commodity, include subaccounts
              ==   multi commodity,  exclude subaccounts
              ==*  multi commodity,  include subaccounts

TIPS
   Rapid feedback
       It's a good idea to get rapid feedback  while  creating/troubleshooting
       CSV rules.  Here's a good way, using entr from http://eradman.com/entr-
       project :

              $ ls foo.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ----; hledger -f foo.csv print desc:SOMEDESC'

       A desc: query (eg) is used to select just one, or a  few,  transactions
       of  interest.   "bash  -c"  is used to run multiple commands, so we can
       echo a separator each time the command re-runs,  making  it  easier  to
       read the output.

   Valid CSV
       hledger  accepts  CSV  conforming to RFC 4180.  When CSV values are en-
       closed in quotes, note:

       o they must be double quotes (not single quotes)

       o spaces outside the quotes are not allowed

   File Extension
       CSV ("Character Separated Values") files should be named  with  one  of
       these  filename extensions: .csv, .ssv, .tsv.  Or, the file path should
       be prefixed with one of csv:, ssv:, tsv:.  This helps hledger  identify
       the format and show the right error messages.  For example:

              $ hledger -f foo.ssv print

       or:

              $ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo

       More about this: Input files in the hledger manual.

   Reading multiple CSV files
       If  you  use  multiple  -f  options to read multiple CSV files at once,
       hledger will look for a correspondingly-named rules file for  each  CSV
       file.   But if you use the --rules-file option, that rules file will be
       used for all the CSV files.

   Valid transactions
       After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the gen-
       erated journal entries as it would for a journal file - balancing them,
       applying balance assignments, and canonicalising  amount  styles.   Any
       errors  at this stage will be reported in the usual way, displaying the
       problem entry.

       There is one exception: balance assertions, if you have generated them,
       will  not  be checked, since normally these will work only when the CSV
       data is part of the main journal.  If you do need to check balance  as-
       sertions generated from CSV right away, pipe into another hledger:

              $ hledger -f file.csv print | hledger -f- print

   Deduplicating, importing
       When  you  download a CSV file periodically, eg to get your latest bank
       transactions, the new file may overlap with  the  old  one,  containing
       some of the same records.

       The import command will (a) detect the new transactions, and (b) append
       just those transactions to your main journal.  It is idempotent, so you
       don't  have to remember how many times you ran it or with which version
       of the CSV.  (It keeps state in a hidden .latest.FILE.csv  file.)  This
       is the easiest way to import CSV data.  Eg:

              # download the latest CSV files, then run this command.
              # Note, no -f flags needed here.
              $ hledger import *.csv [--dry]

       This  method  works  for  most CSV files.  (Where records have a stable
       chronological order, and new records appear only at the new end.)

       A number of other tools and workflows, hledger-specific and  otherwise,
       exist for converting, deduplicating, classifying and managing CSV data.
       See:

       o https://hledger.org -> sidebar -> real world setups

       o https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion

   Setting amounts
       A posting amount can be set in one of these ways:

       o by assigning (with a fields list  or  field  assignment)  to  amountN
         (posting N's amount) or amount (posting 1's amount)

       o by  assigning to amountN-in and amountN-out (or amount-in and amount-
         out).  For each CSV record, whichever of these has a  non-zero  value
         will  be  used,  with  appropriate  sign.  If both contain a non-zero
         value, this may not work.

       o by assigning to balanceN (or balance) instead of the  above,  setting
         the  amount  indirectly via a balance assignment.  If you do this the
         default account name may be wrong, so you should set that explicitly.

       There is some special handling for an amount's sign:

       o If an amount value is parenthesised, it will be de-parenthesised  and
         sign-flipped.

       o If  an amount value begins with a double minus sign, those cancel out
         and are removed.

       o If an amount value begins with a plus sign, that will be removed

   Setting currency/commodity
       If the currency/commodity  symbol  is  included  in  the  CSV's  amount
       field(s), you don't have to do anything special.

       If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field, you can either:

       o assign  that  to currency, which adds it to all posting amounts.  The
         symbol will prepended to the amount quantity (on the left side).   If
         you  write  a  trailing space after the symbol, there will be a space
         between symbol and amount  (an  exception  to  the  usual  whitespace
         stripping).

       o or assign it to currencyN which adds it to posting N's amount only.

       o or  for  more  control, construct the amount from symbol and quantity
         using field assignment, eg:

                fields date,description,currency,quantity
                # add currency symbol on the right:
                amount %quantity %currency

   Referencing other fields
       In field assignments, you can interpolate only CSV fields, not  hledger
       fields.   In  the example below, there's both a CSV field and a hledger
       field named amount1, but %amount1 always means the CSV field,  not  the
       hledger field:

              # Name the third CSV field "amount1"
              fields date,description,amount1

              # Set hledger's amount1 to the CSV amount1 field followed by USD
              amount1 %amount1 USD

              # Set comment to the CSV amount1 (not the amount1 assigned above)
              comment %amount1

       Here,  since there's no CSV amount1 field, %amount1 will produce a lit-
       eral "amount1":

              fields date,description,csvamount
              amount1 %csvamount USD
              # Can't interpolate amount1 here
              comment %amount1

       When there are multiple field assignments to the  same  hledger  field,
       only the last one takes effect.  Here, comment's value will be be B, or
       C if "something" is matched, but never A:

              comment A
              comment B
              if something
               comment C

   How CSV rules are evaluated
       Here's how to think of CSV rules being evaluated (if  you  really  need
       to).  First,

       o include  - all includes are inlined, from top to bottom, depth first.
         (At each include point the file is inlined and  scanned  for  further
         includes, recursively, before proceeding.)

       Then  "global"  rules  are  evaluated, top to bottom.  If a rule is re-
       peated, the last one wins:

       o skip (at top level)

       o date-format

       o newest-first

       o fields - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial assignments
         to hledger fields

       Then for each CSV record in turn:

       o test  all if blocks.  If any of them contain a end rule, skip all re-
         maining CSV records.  Otherwise if any of them contain a  skip  rule,
         skip  that  many  CSV  records.   If  there are multiple matched skip
         rules, the first one wins.

       o collect all field assignments at top level and in matched if  blocks.
         When  there  are multiple assignments for a field, keep only the last
         one.

       o compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was  as-
         signed to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a de-
         fault

       o generate a synthetic hledger transaction from these values.

       This is all part of the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger  can
       use  to parse input files.  When all files have been read successfully,
       the transactions are passed as input to whichever hledger  command  the
       user specified.



REPORTING BUGS
       Report  bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel
       or hledger mail list)


AUTHORS
       Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2007-2019 Simon Michael.
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.


SEE ALSO
       hledger(1),     hledger-ui(1),     hledger-web(1),      hledger-api(1),
       hledger_csv(5), hledger_journal(5), hledger_timeclock(5), hledger_time-
       dot(5), ledger(1)

       http://hledger.org



hledger 1.18.1                     June 2020                    hledger_csv(5)
