
<ARTICLE ID="XACC-LOCATINGTXNS">
<ARTHEADER>
<TITLE>Locating transactions with the "Find Transactions" dialog</TITLE>
</ARTHEADER>
<PARA>Bill Gribble &lt;grib@billgribble.com&gt;</PARA>
<ANCHOR ID="FINDOVERVIEW">
<sect1>
<TITLE>Overview</TITLE>
<PARA>    
    </PARA>
<PARA>The Find Transactions dialog allows you to search for
transactions which match criteria that you specify, including:
<ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Account(s) affected by the transaction, </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Value of the transaction,</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>  Date </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Memo field</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Transaction  description</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST></PARA>
<PARA> etc.  

<ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> You may bring up the <EMPHASIS> Find Transactions </EMPHASIS>
dialog by clicking on the "Find" button in the main GnuCash window or
any register display window.

</PARA>
<PARA> The results of your search will be shown in a register display
similar to the ones used to display your accounts, with the window
title "Search Results".

    </PARA>
<PARA>Clicking the "Find" button again within a Search Results
register window allows you to add additional terms to the query whose
results are displayed in that window.  </PARA>
<PARA> By combining multiple searches,
you may construct rather sophisticated queries to display exactly the
subset of your transactions that you want to see.</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>      
    <ANCHOR ID="HOW-TO-FIND"></PARA>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<TITLE>How to use the Find Transactions dialog</TITLE>
<PARA>    </PARA>
<PARA>The Find Transactions dialog has two main parts.  

<ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> The upper
part of the dialog is a Notebook with tabs that allow you to specify
the conditions of your search.  </PARA>
<PARA> See <LINK LINKEND="SETUP">Setting up a
search</LINK> for details on each search type. 

</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>The lower part of the
dialog is a selector which allows you to specify how the results of
the search are to be combined with any previous search.</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>

    </PARA>
<PARA>If you get the Find Transactions dialog by clicking the Find
button in the main GnuCash window or any normal account display
register, the only option available will be "New Search".  If you
select Find from within a Search Results register the other options
will be available; see <LINK LINKEND="MODIFY">Modifying your search</LINK> for
details.

    </PARA>
<PARA>Most simple queries can be directly handled by a single
invocation of the Find Transactions dialog.  The dialog has nine tabs,
each of which represents a particular field of the transaction (or
split) that you can search on.  If you specify conditions on multiple
fields (for example, selecting one or more accounts in the Accounts
tab and also entering a date range in the Date tab), a transaction
must match all the conditions you specify in order to be displayed.

    </PARA>
<PARA>If simple searches are not specific enough, you can combine
them by clicking the Find button in a search results window and
selecting any "Type of Search" except "New search".

      <ANCHOR ID="SETUP"></PARA>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<TITLE>Setting up a search</TITLE>
<PARA>    </PARA>
<PARA>You can find transactions by any or all of the following 
criteria.  Each one has a tab in the dialog where you may enter 
the match value(s) and comparison method. 
    <ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Accounts affected by the transaction
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Date the transaction took place
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> The string in the Description field
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> The string in the Number field
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Amount of the transaction's splits
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> The string in the Memo field
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Number of shares in a stock transaction
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> Share price in a stock transaction
      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> The string in the Action field
    </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>

    </PARA>
<PARA>If you specify multiple criteria in the search, all of the 
criteria must be true for the transaction to be displayed.

    <ANCHOR ID="ACCOUNTSEARCH"></PARA>
<sect2>
<TITLE>Account searches</TITLE>
<PARA>In the Account tab, select any accounts of interest and then
choose whether transactions affecting Any, All, or None of these
accounts is to be displayed.
      
    </PARA>
<PARA>If you select "All" accounts from the picker at the top of the
tab, the only transactions that will be show are those which affect
all the selected accounts.  </PARA>
<PARA> For example, if you select <EMPHASIS>My
Checking Account</EMPHASIS> and <EMPHASIS> My VISA Account</EMPHASIS> and then choose <EMPHASIS>All</EMPHASIS>, only transfers from Checking to Visa will be shown.

    </PARA>
<PARA>If you select "Any" from the picker, transactions affecting any
selected amount will be shown.  For example, if you select "My
Checking Account" and "My VISA Account" and then choose "Any", your
entire checking account and your entire Visa account will be shown
together in the Search Results window.
      
    </PARA>
</sect2>
<sect2 ID="DATE">
<TITLE>Date searches</TITLE>
<PARA>In the Date tab, you can specify a date range for the
transactions you wish to find.  The year, month, and day fields are in
the order you specify in <GUIMENU> Preferences:International:Date Format</GUIMENU>.

    </PARA>
<PARA>If you want to locate any transaction before a certain date,
specify your date in the second date entry and put a distant date in
the past in the first date entry.  The default date is January 1,
1900, which should be distant enough for most peoples' purposes.  </PARA>
<PARA>Similarly, if you want to find any transaction after a certain date,
put the date in the first date entry and put a date after your last
transaction in the second entry.

      <ANCHOR ID="AMOUNT"></PARA>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<TITLE>Amount searches</TITLE>
<PARA>The searches in the Amount, Shares, and Price tabs allow you to
search for particular quantities in various transaction fields.  You
need to enter both the amount (in the entry box) and the type of
comparison (with the option menu to the left of the entry box).  The
amount in the entry box is always positive.

    </PARA>
<PARA>For the Amount tab, you need to indicate whether you are
interested in debits, credits, or both.

      <ANCHOR ID="STRING"></PARA>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<TITLE>String searches</TITLE>
<PARA>In the Description, Number, Memo, and Action tabs, you can
specify a string which is matched against the respective fields of
splits and transactions.  <ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> By default, the match used is a
case-insensitive substring match. </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA> If you select the "Case sensitive"
toggle button, the search is a case-sensitive substring match.  </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>If the
"Regular expression" button is selected, the match interprets the
string you enter as a POSIX extended regular expression; case
sensitivity is still determined by the "Case sensitive" button.</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>
      
    <ANCHOR ID="MODIFY"></PARA>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<TITLE>Modifying your search</TITLE>
<PARA>    </PARA>
<PARA>Clicking the "Find" button within a Search Results window allows
you to modify or replace the search criteria used within that window.
The search functionality is the same, but you have new options for
how to use the results of the search.

    <ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA><EMPHASIS>New Search.</EMPHASIS> If you select "New Search", the current
search will be replaced with the one you specify, and the results will
be shown in the existing Search Results window.

</PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>
      
  </PARA>
</sect1>
</ARTICLE>

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