Re: Machine-readable reports

[Peter Keen]

Hi Oleg,

You can specify your own formats for both the balance and register reports. See the docs for output customization[1] and formatting codes[2]. I use a custom format when loading data into my sql reporting database which is effectively the CSV output plus a bunch of fields. You can see the register format I use in the source for ledger-web[3].

[1]: http://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Output-Customization

[2]: http://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Formatting-codes

[3]: https://github.com/peterkeen/ledger-web/blob/master/lib/ledger_web/config.rb#L100

--Pete

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 1:54 AM, oleg dashevskii <olegdas...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

having been a proud user of ledger+vim+custom shell scripts combo for a long time, I want to integrate ledger into some bigger system now. Another program would generate transactions, save them into a file consumable by ledger, run "balance" or "register" commands and parse the report.

The question is what's the best way to do that. 3.0 docs describe XML format, but I couldn't make "xml" command work (besides, does XML support metadata?). Still, input data can be put into a text file. What concerns me more is output of "balance" and "register". The normal ledger output is custom-tailored to fit screen width, some account names are presented in a compact way, etc. This presents a problem for parsing, since parser must identify the exact account name.

So, how can I solve this problem? Can XML (or CSV which is also mentioned in the docs) be used for input and output? Or, are there any flags which make ledger output more machine-readable?

--

Oleg.

--
 
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ledger-cli+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
 
 

[Zack Williams]

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 1:54 AM, oleg dashevskii <olegdas...@gmail.com> wrote:

So, how can I solve this problem?

The "xml" output format is basically the same as "balance", not "register" 

As for the rest of it, I'd probably go to the python interface.  It works OK, but is a bit rough around the edges (You can add/subtract amounts, but no multiplication, etc.) 

My generic python boilerplate, if anyone is interested: 

---

#!/usr/bin/env python 

# must be run via `ledger python <thisfile>.py <journalfile>`

import ledger

import sys

journal = ledger.read_journal(sys.argv[1])

# create a USD commodity

comms = ledger.commodities

usd = comms.find_or_create('$')

# return an amount for the balance

def balance_for_account(acctname):

    account = journal.find_account_re(acctname)

    return balance_posts_subaccts(account)

# recursively determine the balance for all posts/subaccounts in given account

def balance_posts_subaccts(account):

    total = ledger.Balance()

    for post in account.posts():

        total += post.amount

    for subacct in account.accounts():

        total += balance_posts_subaccts(subacct)

    return total

print balance_for_account("Equity:Accounts").value(usd);

--

- Zack