Re: Debugging assertion failures / printing the value of a value expression
Thanks for this, but I wonder if you have read the previous thread I linked to fully? It discusses what I believe (from admittedly only a quick scan) are the same techniques you describe here, and the problems I ran into with those. Or did I miss something? Thanks again, I do appreciate any alternative approaches, it seems quite likely I've missed a better way. On Fri, 20 Oct 2017, at 23:58, Michael Cooper wrote: > Ah, I misunderstood your original problem, apologies. > > Dodging your question again (since I really don't know the answer), I've > also found that storing values in non-leaf accounts gets me into all > sorts > of trouble. It generally is confusing and my automation doesn't > understand > it. If this example were in accounts, I would do this: > > 2017-10-01 * Opening Balance > Assets:CurrentAccount:Real $1000 > Equity:OpeningBalance > > 2017-10-02 * Savings > Assets:CurrentAccounts:Savings $100 > Assets:CurrentAccounts:Real > > This works with the "assert account(...).total" style of assertion, but > totally fails with the Reconcile method I posted (it thinks that there is > $0 in Assets:CurrentAccounts). The assert style still doesn't show you in > what direction it is wrong, unfortunately. > > Alternatively, this sounds sort of like the envelope-budgeting system I > use. Would something like the below be interesting for you? > > 2017-10-01 * Opening Balance > Assets:CurrentAccount$1000 > (Budgets:SpendingMoney) $1000 > Equity:OpeningBalance > > 2017-10-02 * Savings > [Budgets:Saved] $100 > [Budgets:SpendingMoney] > > 2017-10-03 * Reconcile > [Assets:CurrentAccount] $0 = $1000 > > The "Budgets" subtree are accounts made entirely of virtual transactions > to > track how money has been allocated, whereas the Assets subtree is about > where money really is. I have scripts that help make sure that in > transactions like 2017-10-01 the amount that the asset increases by > balances with the amount the budgets increase by. I then have rules to > automatically pair up Expense and Budget transactions. > > On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 1:46 PM John Lee wrote: > > > Hi Michael > > > > If you take a look at my previous thread here from a week or so back > > you'll see the problem you run into when trying to apply that to the > > transactions I posted in this thread. > > > > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ledger-cli/bqu-qNr6cjM > > > > Consider: > > > > 2017-10-01 * Opening Balance > > Assets:CurrentAccount $1000 > > Equity:OpeningBalance > > > > 2017-10-02 * Savings > > Assets:CurrentAccount:Savings $100 > > Assets:CurrentAccount > > > > 2017-10-03 * Assertion > > [Assets:CurrentAccount] $0 = $1000 > > > > > > That final balance assertion fails for the same reason I mentioned in my > > second post in the earlier thread: that assertion refers not to the > > summed-up total of everything in *or under* Assets:CurrentAccount (as > > you'd see in the output of ledger b Assets:CurrentAccount), but the > > amount that lives in that *exact* location (which you might write in a > > balance command as > > '^Assets:CurrentAccount$'). So $1000 errors, and $900 does not. That > > means I can't record the total balance of that real account, which is > > what I'm after. That's what motivated my use of assertion value > > expressions, with which I guess I've either run into a bug, or I don't > > understand something (see my previous post in this thread). > > > > I get the impression that transferring between subaccounts in this way > > suggested here earlier, is a bit of a dark corner of ledger that's not > > terribly well supported? > > > > I'm keen to hear about other approaches, but so far I'm running into > > roadblocks whichever way I try to tackle using ledger the problem I set > > out in that first thread (which is the same basic problem I'm trying to > > solve here in this thread, though my question here was about a detail). > > > > I guess I should either dust off my very dusty C++ and try to fix it, or > > try one of the ledger spinoffs like beancount... maybe there are > > beancount / hledger people here who can comment re whether those systems > > have ways to tackle the problem from the thread linked above? > > > > On Thu, 19 Oct 2017, at 23:54, Michael Cooper wrote: > > > This isn't a direct answer to your question, but this is how I do these > > > kind of balance checks: > > > > > > 2017/01/01 * Opening Balance > > > Assets:Checking$1000 > > > Equity:Opening > > > > > > 2017/01/02 * Savings > > > Assets:Savings $100 > > > Assets:Checking > > > > > > 2017/01/03 * Reconcile > > > [Assets:Checking] $0 = $900 > > > [Assets:Savings] $0 = $100 > > > > > > 2017/01/04 * Savings > > > Assets:Savings $100 > > > Assets:Checking > > > > > > 2017/01/05 * Reconcile > > > [Assets:Checking] $0 = $800 > > > [Assets:Savings] $0 = $200 > > > > > > This works well. I rea
Re: Debugging assertion failures / printing the value of a value expression
Ah, I misunderstood your original problem, apologies. Dodging your question again (since I really don't know the answer), I've also found that storing values in non-leaf accounts gets me into all sorts of trouble. It generally is confusing and my automation doesn't understand it. If this example were in accounts, I would do this: 2017-10-01 * Opening Balance Assets:CurrentAccount:Real $1000 Equity:OpeningBalance 2017-10-02 * Savings Assets:CurrentAccounts:Savings $100 Assets:CurrentAccounts:Real This works with the "assert account(...).total" style of assertion, but totally fails with the Reconcile method I posted (it thinks that there is $0 in Assets:CurrentAccounts). The assert style still doesn't show you in what direction it is wrong, unfortunately. Alternatively, this sounds sort of like the envelope-budgeting system I use. Would something like the below be interesting for you? 2017-10-01 * Opening Balance Assets:CurrentAccount$1000 (Budgets:SpendingMoney) $1000 Equity:OpeningBalance 2017-10-02 * Savings [Budgets:Saved] $100 [Budgets:SpendingMoney] 2017-10-03 * Reconcile [Assets:CurrentAccount] $0 = $1000 The "Budgets" subtree are accounts made entirely of virtual transactions to track how money has been allocated, whereas the Assets subtree is about where money really is. I have scripts that help make sure that in transactions like 2017-10-01 the amount that the asset increases by balances with the amount the budgets increase by. I then have rules to automatically pair up Expense and Budget transactions. On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 1:46 PM John Lee wrote: > Hi Michael > > If you take a look at my previous thread here from a week or so back > you'll see the problem you run into when trying to apply that to the > transactions I posted in this thread. > > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ledger-cli/bqu-qNr6cjM > > Consider: > > 2017-10-01 * Opening Balance > Assets:CurrentAccount $1000 > Equity:OpeningBalance > > 2017-10-02 * Savings > Assets:CurrentAccount:Savings $100 > Assets:CurrentAccount > > 2017-10-03 * Assertion > [Assets:CurrentAccount] $0 = $1000 > > > That final balance assertion fails for the same reason I mentioned in my > second post in the earlier thread: that assertion refers not to the > summed-up total of everything in *or under* Assets:CurrentAccount (as > you'd see in the output of ledger b Assets:CurrentAccount), but the > amount that lives in that *exact* location (which you might write in a > balance command as > '^Assets:CurrentAccount$'). So $1000 errors, and $900 does not. That > means I can't record the total balance of that real account, which is > what I'm after. That's what motivated my use of assertion value > expressions, with which I guess I've either run into a bug, or I don't > understand something (see my previous post in this thread). > > I get the impression that transferring between subaccounts in this way > suggested here earlier, is a bit of a dark corner of ledger that's not > terribly well supported? > > I'm keen to hear about other approaches, but so far I'm running into > roadblocks whichever way I try to tackle using ledger the problem I set > out in that first thread (which is the same basic problem I'm trying to > solve here in this thread, though my question here was about a detail). > > I guess I should either dust off my very dusty C++ and try to fix it, or > try one of the ledger spinoffs like beancount... maybe there are > beancount / hledger people here who can comment re whether those systems > have ways to tackle the problem from the thread linked above? > > On Thu, 19 Oct 2017, at 23:54, Michael Cooper wrote: > > This isn't a direct answer to your question, but this is how I do these > > kind of balance checks: > > > > 2017/01/01 * Opening Balance > > Assets:Checking$1000 > > Equity:Opening > > > > 2017/01/02 * Savings > > Assets:Savings $100 > > Assets:Checking > > > > 2017/01/03 * Reconcile > > [Assets:Checking] $0 = $900 > > [Assets:Savings] $0 = $100 > > > > 2017/01/04 * Savings > > Assets:Savings $100 > > Assets:Checking > > > > 2017/01/05 * Reconcile > > [Assets:Checking] $0 = $800 > > [Assets:Savings] $0 = $200 > > > > This works well. I read these reconcile transactions as "If $0 is added > > to > > the account, the balance should be $800". > > > > If I instead change the last reconcile to "[Assets:Checking] $0 = $700" > > (that is, make it $100 off) I get this error: > > > > While parsing file "/home/mythmon/tmp/foo.ledger", line 18: > > While parsing posting: > > [Assets:Checking] $0 = $700 > > > > Error: Balance assertion off by $-100 (expected to see $800) > > > > This shows me both the value I said it should be ($700), the value Ledger > > says it should be ($800), and the difference ($-100). All of these end up > > being very useful at different ti
Re: Debugging assertion failures / printing the value of a value expression
Hi Michael
If you take a look at my previous thread here from a week or so back
you'll see the problem you run into when trying to apply that to the
transactions I posted in this thread.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ledger-cli/bqu-qNr6cjM
Consider:
2017-10-01 * Opening Balance
Assets:CurrentAccount $1000
Equity:OpeningBalance
2017-10-02 * Savings
Assets:CurrentAccount:Savings $100
Assets:CurrentAccount
2017-10-03 * Assertion
[Assets:CurrentAccount] $0 = $1000
That final balance assertion fails for the same reason I mentioned in my
second post in the earlier thread: that assertion refers not to the
summed-up total of everything in *or under* Assets:CurrentAccount (as
you'd see in the output of ledger b Assets:CurrentAccount), but the
amount that lives in that *exact* location (which you might write in a
balance command as
'^Assets:CurrentAccount$'). So $1000 errors, and $900 does not. That
means I can't record the total balance of that real account, which is
what I'm after. That's what motivated my use of assertion value
expressions, with which I guess I've either run into a bug, or I don't
understand something (see my previous post in this thread).
I get the impression that transferring between subaccounts in this way
suggested here earlier, is a bit of a dark corner of ledger that's not
terribly well supported?
I'm keen to hear about other approaches, but so far I'm running into
roadblocks whichever way I try to tackle using ledger the problem I set
out in that first thread (which is the same basic problem I'm trying to
solve here in this thread, though my question here was about a detail).
I guess I should either dust off my very dusty C++ and try to fix it, or
try one of the ledger spinoffs like beancount... maybe there are
beancount / hledger people here who can comment re whether those systems
have ways to tackle the problem from the thread linked above?
On Thu, 19 Oct 2017, at 23:54, Michael Cooper wrote:
> This isn't a direct answer to your question, but this is how I do these
> kind of balance checks:
>
> 2017/01/01 * Opening Balance
> Assets:Checking$1000
> Equity:Opening
>
> 2017/01/02 * Savings
> Assets:Savings $100
> Assets:Checking
>
> 2017/01/03 * Reconcile
> [Assets:Checking] $0 = $900
> [Assets:Savings] $0 = $100
>
> 2017/01/04 * Savings
> Assets:Savings $100
> Assets:Checking
>
> 2017/01/05 * Reconcile
> [Assets:Checking] $0 = $800
> [Assets:Savings] $0 = $200
>
> This works well. I read these reconcile transactions as "If $0 is added
> to
> the account, the balance should be $800".
>
> If I instead change the last reconcile to "[Assets:Checking] $0 = $700"
> (that is, make it $100 off) I get this error:
>
> While parsing file "/home/mythmon/tmp/foo.ledger", line 18:
> While parsing posting:
> [Assets:Checking] $0 = $700
>
> Error: Balance assertion off by $-100 (expected to see $800)
>
> This shows me both the value I said it should be ($700), the value Ledger
> says it should be ($800), and the difference ($-100). All of these end up
> being very useful at different times.
>
> I leave these in my ledger files. This gives me both a history of
> balances,
> and also a sort of test suite. If I change the organization of my files,
> change rules, or do other refactoring, these assertions give me
> confidence
> that I didn't break anything.
>
> -Michael Cooper
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 3:43 PM John Lee wrote:
>
> > An example that currently has me puzzled: the first assert below passes,
> > and the second fails. I'm interested both in learning why in this
> > particular case, and more important, learning how to use ledger to debug
> > problems like this in general.
> >
> > 2017-10-01 * Opening Balance
> > Assets:CurrentAccount $1000
> > Equity:OpeningBalance
> >
> > 2017-10-02 * Savings
> > Assets:CurrentAccount:Savings $100
> > Assets:CurrentAccount
> >
> > assert account("Assets:CurrentAccount").total == $1000
> >
> > 2017-10-03 * Savings
> > Assets:CurrentAccount:Savings $100
> > Assets:CurrentAccount
> >
> > assert account("Assets:CurrentAccount").total == $1000
> >
> >
> > This surprises me because if I comment that last assert out and run
> > ledger b '^Assets:CurrentAccount$' I get $800, and ledger b
> > '^Assets:CurrentAccount:Savings$' prints $200 -- which adds to $1000,
> > and indeed ledger b '^Assets:CurrentAccount' prints $1000. Bug?? How
> > can I see what ledger *thinks* the total is when it evaluates the
> > assert?
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 19 Oct 2017, at 23:13, John Lee wrote:
> > > Sometimes the assert expressions I'm adding to my ledger file fail and I
> > > don't immediately know why. If I have something like this:
> > >
> > > assert account("Assets:CurrentAccount").total == $123.45
> > >
> > > and I'm wrong about the total, then I'll just be told that I'm wrong,
> > > and not what the c
