Thanks. But then from that perspective, having pretty much a different link per transaction is not really an issue performance-wise? Almost all of my transactions will end up having their own unique link not connecting to anything else. I guess alternatively I could have a 'transaction_id' metadata but using links seems easier and I can just rely on the same_link_operator to filter out duplicates when importing.
On Thursday, 29 January 2026 at 18:25:56 UTC-5 Martin Blais wrote: > They're equivalent semantically. > I use links for linking together a small number of related transactions > and tags for larger groups of transactions e.g. a project, a trip, etc. > > On Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 18:24 Artur Matos <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> Really basic question, but I'm a bit confused If I should be using >> transaction IDs as links, with the express purpose of filtering duplicates. >> Most of my financial data has stable, unique transaction IDs, so I can >> easily output ^TRANSACTION1, ^TRANSACTION2, etc.. per transaction. >> >> Beangulp has same_link_operator which seems expressly designed for this >> purpose - use the links to find and filter out duplicate transactions upon >> importing. >> >> But at the same time, I the beancount language syntax manual ( >> https://beancount.github.io/docs/beancount_language_syntax.html#links) >> refers to links as a mechanism to group disparate transactions together, >> e.g. as part of the same invoice, and it doesn't mention anything about >> duplicate detection. >> >> If I use transaction IDs as links I will end up with lots of different >> links (all unique) and I'm not sure if this has performance implications. >> >> Am I overthinking it? >> >> Thanks, >> >> Artur >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Beancount" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/3e7721b6-ed8d-4b6b-8574-ba52cef18a3an%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/3e7721b6-ed8d-4b6b-8574-ba52cef18a3an%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/27fff318-96ef-473b-9c7b-06ccbc89ca1bn%40googlegroups.com.
