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
hledger 1.18.99 September 2020 hledger_csv(5)