GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 501497
Values in Gnucash reports are hard to import in spreadsheets
Last modified: 2018-06-29 21:55:33 UTC
Aim is to import gnucash reports in openoffice or other spreadsheets for further calculations and modification. It is possible to import gnucash exported reports (html tables) into openoffice spreadsheets. But, as values output with special characters as (e.g. Rs 3,00,000.00) the spreadsheet recongizes this value as a string and not as a number. Hence no calculations can be done. Please give an option where all values are reported without currency symbols or commas in reports. Thanks. Other information:
The question is: what is the data needed for outside of gnucash? And is the data needed as displayed - or do you really need the underlying transactions? Taking inspiration from siebel you can export a report in two ways: - report formatted, i.e. the data that you see on the screen - transactions (line items) on which the report is based Both are exported in a tab separated format and will normally be imported directly into the e.g. Calc or Excel for further formatting or analysis. Depending on the underlying data, there may be issues with formatting of numbers as texts (mainly due to decimal separator and not currency text). Requirement based on the input from the comments above and the text in the bug: - add export options based on tab separated data and not html - select to export either - report layout or - underlying report transactions
I did some investigation work on this. I am using the currency GBP (Great British Pounds): £. I created an advanced portfolio report, and exported the report as an html file. Using Gnumeric v1.7.11, I could open the html file as a spreadsheet. I found that gnumeric correctly treated an entry like £123,456 as a currency number, and I was able to use its value in formula arithmetic. Using OpenOffice 2.3.0 Calc, I could not open the html file as a spreadsheet. However, I could copy the report from GnuCash by highlighting the text and pasting it into a Calc. I found that, like Gnumeric, it "did the right thing" with regards to the currency special values and comma separators.
If I read Pandya right, the problem is with the representation of the old hindi units Lakh [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh] and Crore. 3 Million in south asia is writen as 30 Lakh or 30,00,000.00 . Some programs understand this and others not. So he wishes an option to export without commas.
There was a short discussion on the mailing list https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2008-January/021970.html and in IRC http://lists.gnucash.org/logs/2008/01/2008-01-04.html#T13:53:49. AndrewSW thinks, it would be easy to do at the report level by changing the markup from "number cell" to some other format.
See http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/FAQ#Q:_How_can_I_export_data.3F and especially http://www.alice-dsl.net/gnuc2ooo/gnuc2ooo_en/intro.html This is the best solution so far.
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