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/CAK21%2BhMGoCaGnfYFYn6G1LM3VPJXarq7MAY6s8r1Vda%3Dhg5UsA%40mail.gmail.com.
