semicolons swapped with commas in tags?

Autumn Corvus · 02-26-2011, 01:12 AM

Hi, I was curious why in the metadata tags a semicolon is used where it would seem a comma is more appropriate, e.g. 'biography, philosophy, Wittgenstein; Ludwig'. Is there a reason why it needs to be this way, and if not is there an easy way to bulk reverse them?

Thanks to anyone who can clarify this. Calibre's an amazing program!

itimpi · 02-26-2011, 02:06 AM

In the tags field, a comma is used as the tag seperaor.

DoctorOhh · 02-26-2011, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Autumn Corvus

Hi, I was curious why in the metadata tags a semicolon is used where it would seem a comma is more appropriate, e.g. 'biography, philosophy, Wittgenstein; Ludwig'.

The are three reasons a semicolon would be in a tag:

1. The metadata downloaded had a semicolon in its tag.
2. The book purchased had the tag with a semicolon in it.
3. The user placed the semicolon in the tag when adding when adding a tag to calibre.

Calibre has nothing to do with the semicolons being there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Autumn Corvus

Is there a reason why it needs to be this way, and if not is there an easy way to bulk reverse them?

There is no reason any tag requires a semicolon. Personal preference is the only reason to use them. I'm betting you can use the bulk metadata editor search and replace feature, but my skill set doesn't extend to writing the solution for this problem.

chaley · 02-26-2011, 06:18 AM

Calibre replaces commas in a tag with semicolons because as itimpi said, the comma is the character that separates one tag from another. If calibre did not, then the tag 'biography, philosophy, Wittgenstein; Ludwig' would end up as three separate tags, 'biography', 'philosophy', and 'Wittgenstein; Ludwig'

DoctorOhh · 02-26-2011, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaley

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Calibre has nothing to do with the semicolons being there.

Calibre replaces commas in a tag with semicolons because as itimpi said, the comma is the character that separates one tag from another.

Learn something new every day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaley

If calibre did not, then the tag 'biography, philosophy, Wittgenstein; Ludwig' would end up as three separate tags, 'biography', 'philosophy', and 'Wittgenstein; Ludwig'

I thought that was the point of swapping a comma with a semicolon. To make sure "Wittgenstein, Ludwig" is treated as one tag as "Wittgenstein; Ludwig".

chaley · 02-26-2011, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I thought that was the point of swapping a comma with a semicolon. To make sure "Wittgenstein, Ludwig" is treated as one tag as "Wittgenstein; Ludwig".

"Wittgenstein; Ludwig" was never at risk.

The OP wants *one* tag containing all of "biography, philosophy, Wittgenstein; Ludwig'". Calibre cannot store a tag with internal commas, so calibre changes them to semicolons. I suppose it could just as easily change them to the word THERE_WAS_A_COMMA_HERE, but I suspect that would be less useful.

Autumn Corvus · 02-26-2011, 11:45 AM

No in the hypothetical situation there's three separate tags, I just don't understand why it isn't 'biography; philosophy; Wittgenstein, Ludwig' instead of the other way around, doesn't look right to me. It's not a big deal though, if that's how the ereaders read the tags I'll have to live with it, I was just curious if it's necessarily so or can be changed without breaking tag functionality.

02-26-2011, 01:12 AM	#1
Autumn Corvus Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: none yet	semicolons swapped with commas in tags? Hi, I was curious why in the metadata tags a semicolon is used where it would seem a comma is more appropriate, e.g. 'biography, philosophy, Wittgenstein; Ludwig'. Is there a reason why it needs to be this way, and if not is there an easy way to bulk reverse them? Thanks to anyone who can clarify this. Calibre's an amazing program!

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02-26-2011, 02:06 AM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	In the tags field, a comma is used as the tag seperaor.

02-26-2011, 06:18 AM	#4
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,741 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	Calibre replaces commas in a tag with semicolons because as itimpi said, the comma is the character that separates one tag from another. If calibre did not, then the tag 'biography, philosophy, Wittgenstein; Ludwig' would end up as three separate tags, 'biography', 'philosophy', and 'Wittgenstein; Ludwig'

02-26-2011, 11:45 AM	#7
Autumn Corvus Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: none yet	No in the hypothetical situation there's three separate tags, I just don't understand why it isn't 'biography; philosophy; Wittgenstein, Ludwig' instead of the other way around, doesn't look right to me. It's not a big deal though, if that's how the ereaders read the tags I'll have to live with it, I was just curious if it's necessarily so or can be changed without breaking tag functionality.