Provided by: hledger_1.19.1-1_amd64 
NAME
CSV - how hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format
DESCRIPTION
hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma, semicolon, or tab)
containing dated records as if they were journal files, automatically converting each CSV
record into a transaction.
(To learn about writing CSV, see CSV output.)
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 below,
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 interpolation
separator a custom field separator
if block apply some rules to CSV records matched
by patterns
if table apply some rules to CSV records matched
by patterns, alternate syntax
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 balance 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 collection 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 necessary 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 reading 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 generate 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 whenever 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 another 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 journal 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) posting 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 conflicts.
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 assignment" 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 " becomes 1 when
interpolated) (#1051). See TIPS below for more about referencing other fields.
separator
You can use the separator rule to read other kinds of character-separated data. The
argument is any single separator character, or the words tab or space (case insensitive).
Eg, for comma-separated values (CSV):
separator ,
or for semicolon-separated values (SSV):
separator ;
or for tab-separated values (TSV):
separator TAB
If the input file has a .csv, .ssv or .tsv file extension (or a csv:, ssv:, tsv: prefix),
the appropriate separator will be inferred automatically, and you won't need this rule.
if block
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.
Matching the whole record
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 enclosing 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 actually
see 2020-01-01,Acme, Inc., 1,000).
Matching individual fields
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.
Combining matchers
A single matcher can be written on the same line as the "if"; or multiple matchers can be
written on the following lines, non-indented. Multiple matchers are OR'd (any one of them
can match), unless one begins with an & symbol, in which case it is AND'ed with the
previous matcher.
if
MATCHER
& MATCHER
RULE
Rules applied on successful match
After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all indented by at least
one space. Three kinds of rule are allowed in conditional blocks:
• field assignments (to set a hledger field)
• skip (to skip the matched CSV record)
• 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
if table
if,CSVFIELDNAME1,CSVFIELDNAME2,...,CSVFIELDNAMEn
MATCHER1,VALUE11,VALUE12,...,VALUE1n
MATCHER2,VALUE21,VALUE22,...,VALUE2n
MATCHER3,VALUE31,VALUE32,...,VALUE3n
<empty line>
Conditional tables ("if tables") are a different syntax to specify field assignments that
will be applied only to CSV records which match certain patterns.
MATCHER could be either field or record matcher, as described above. When MATCHER
matches, values from that row would be assigned to the CSV fields named on the if line, in
the same order.
Therefore if table is exactly equivalent to a sequence of of if blocks:
if MATCHER1
CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE11
CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE12
...
CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE1n
if MATCHER2
CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE21
CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE22
...
CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE2n
if MATCHER3
CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE31
CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE32
...
CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE3n
Each line starting with MATCHER should contain enough (possibly empty) values for all the
listed fields.
Rules would be checked and applied in the order they are listed in the table and, like
with if blocks, later rules (in the same or another table) or if blocks could override the
effect of any rule.
Instead of ',' you can use a variety of other non-alphanumeric characters as a separator.
First character after if is taken to be the separator for the rest of the table. It is
the responsibility of the user to ensure that separator does not occur inside MATCHERs and
values - there is no way to escape separator.
Example:
if,account2,comment
atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it
%description groceries,expenses:groceries,
2020/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out
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-Format.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:
• the CSV might sometimes contain just one day of data (all records having the same date)
• the CSV records are normally in reverse chronological order (newest at the top)
• 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/entrproject :
$ 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 enclosed in quotes, note:
• they must be double quotes (not single quotes)
• spaces outside the quotes are not allowed
File Extension
To help hledger identify the format and show the right error messages, CSV/SSV/TSV files
should normally be named with a .csv, .ssv or .tsv filename extension. Or, the file path
should be prefixed with csv:, ssv: or tsv:. Eg:
$ hledger -f foo.ssv print
or:
$ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo
You can override the file extension with a separator rule if needed. See also: 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 generated 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 assertions 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:
• https://hledger.org -> sidebar -> real world setups
• https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion
Setting amounts
A posting amount can be set in one of these ways:
• by assigning (with a fields list or field assignment) to amountN (posting N's amount) or
amount (posting 1's amount)
• 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.
• 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:
• If an amount value is parenthesised, it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped.
• If an amount value begins with a double minus sign, those cancel out and are removed.
• 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:
• 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).
• or assign it to currencyN which adds it to posting N's amount only.
• 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 literal "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,
• 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 repeated, the last one
wins:
• skip (at top level)
• date-format
• newest-first
• fields - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial assignments to hledger fields
Then for each CSV record in turn:
• test all if blocks. If any of them contain a end rule, skip all remaining 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.
• 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.
• compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was assigned to it (and
interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a default
• 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_timedot(5), ledger(1)
http://hledger.org