hledger/hledger-lib/doc/hledger_timedot.5.m4.md
2016-05-28 23:31:44 -07:00

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# NAME
Timedot - hledger's human-friendly time logging format
# DESCRIPTION
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Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised quantities (eg time), supported by hledger.
It is convenient for approximate and retroactive time logging,
eg when the real-time clock-in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise or too interruptive.
It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a glance where time was spent.
Though called "timedot", the format does not specify the commodity being logged, so could represent other dated, quantifiable things.
Eg you could record a single-entry journal of financial transactions, perhaps slightly more conveniently than with hledger_journal(5) format.
# FILE FORMAT
A timedot file contains a series of day entries.
A day entry begins with a date, and is followed by category/quantity pairs, one per line.
Dates are hledger-style [simple dates](#simple-dates) (see hledger_journal(5)).
Categories are hledger-style account names, optionally indented.
There must be at least two spaces between the category and the quantity.
Quantities can be written in two ways:
1. a series of dots (period characters).
Each dot represents "a quarter" - eg, a quarter hour.
Spaces can be used to group dots into hours, for easier counting.
2. a number (integer or decimal), representing "units" - eg, hours.
A good alternative when dots are cumbersome.
(A number also can record negative quantities.)
Blank lines and lines beginning with #, ; or * are ignored.
An example:
```timedot
# on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc.
2016/2/1
inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... ....
fos:haskell .... ..
biz:research .
2016/2/2
inc:client1 .... ....
biz:research .
```
Or with numbers:
```timedot
2016/2/3
inc:client1 4
fos:hledger 3
biz:research 1
```
Reporting:
```shell
$ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2
2016/02/02 *
(inc:client1) 2.00
2016/02/02 *
(biz:research) 0.25
```
```shell
$ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree
Balance changes in 2016/02/01-2016/02/03:
|| 2016/02/01d 2016/02/02d 2016/02/03d
============++========================================
biz || 0.25 0.25 1.00
research || 0.25 0.25 1.00
fos || 1.50 0 3.00
haskell || 1.50 0 0
hledger || 0 0 3.00
inc || 6.00 2.00 4.00
client1 || 6.00 2.00 4.00
------------++----------------------------------------
|| 7.75 2.25 8.00
```
I prefer to use period for separating account components.
We can make this work with an [account alias](#account-aliases):
```timedot
2016/2/4
fos.hledger.timedot 4
fos.ledger ..
```
```shell
$ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal date:2016/2/4
4.50 fos
4.00 hledger:timedot
0.50 ledger
--------------------
4.50
```
Here is a
[sample.timedot](https://raw.github.com/simonmichael/hledger/master/data/sample.timedot).
<!-- to download and some queries to try: -->
<!-- ```shell -->
<!-- $ hledger -f sample.timedot balance # current time balances -->
<!-- $ hledger -f sample.timedot register -p 2009/3 # sessions in march 2009 -->
<!-- $ hledger -f sample.timedot register -p weekly --depth 1 --empty # time summary by week -->
<!-- ``` -->