Reg Ex Help - Copy to Series Field

[nynaevelan]

Hi:

Please forgive my ignorance, I have searched the help file and the forum but I cannot seem to find help with what I need. I have the following data in my Title field, but I would like to move the series information from the series field and into the series field, is this possible with Regex? If so, can someone help me set it up? This is what the field looks like:

Dead Silence (The Body Finder, #4)

[BeccaPrice]

If you go to the help file, and look under Tweaks, there's an entry for adding series information to the book title. I think this is what you're after? it gives the exact code, so you can copy from the help file and paste it into the appropriate field on the Metadata Plugboards screen.

eta: oh, wait - I think you're wanting to do the opposite than what I'm suggesting. You want to move data from the title into the series fields on the Edit Metadata screen, yes? i think this has to be done by hand for each book. If there is a better way to do it, as soon as someone with more knowledge than I have posts the solution, I'll amend the help file to add that.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

Hi:

Please forgive my ignorance, I have searched the help file and the forum but I cannot seem to find help with what I need. I have the following data in my Title field, but I would like to move the series information from the series field and into the series field, is this possible with Regex? If so, can someone help me set it up? This is what the field looks like:

Dead Silence (The Body Finder, #4)

Nyna
this is a bit of a pain to do (3 steps, because series and series index are 2 different fields and AFAIK the form only allows 1 field at a time)

1) capture the series NAME and put it into the Series field (This will leave this in the title)
2) capture the series Index (number and put iyt into the series_index field
3)Now capture the series, series index and just let it be removed

[nynaevelan]

If I have to do it in three steps I do not mind. I just started using Kiwidude's Import List plugin and I want to import my Goodreads Listopia Lists into my database as wishlist items. However, if possible I do not want to have to fix the Titles manually. So if this could be done in the Add Books section or the Search and Replace section with regex expressions that would be great.

[Gunnerp245]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

If I have to do it in three steps I do not mind. I just started using Kiwidude's Import List plugin and I want to import my Goodreads Listopia Lists into my database as wishlist items. However, if possible I do not want to have to fix the Titles manually. So if this could be done in the Add Books section or the Search and Replace section with regex expressions that would be great.

Woould this thread be of help: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=187951

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by Gunnerp245

Woould this thread be of help: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=187951

That is real close, but I do not know what to select to change it from the example to what I have. I tried reading the instructions but I am just comprehending what it is telling me to do.

[kiwidude]

@Nyn - the Import list plugin has the ability to strip series info from the titles, in fact I thought I had that function already setup with the predefined setting for Listopia in the plugin? Do you have an example URL where it is not working for you? Or have you turned that stripping off hoping to scrape it into the series column as a post step instead?

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@Nyn - the Import list plugin has the ability to strip series info from the titles, in fact I thought I had that function already setup with the predefined setting for Listopia in the plugin? Do you have an example URL where it is not working for you? Or have you turned that stripping off hoping to scrape it into the series column as a post step instead?

No I didn't turn anything off that I am aware of. I just changed the url on the predefined setting that was included on the installation. Though looking on the webpage section of the predefined one doesn't have any info in the series field. I am using the Goodreads:Listopia:Best Books Ever predefined setting.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

That is real close, but I do not know what to select to change it from the example to what I have. I tried reading the instructions but I am just comprehending what it is telling me to do.

It is all about identifying patterns you can latch onto as triggers.
Using your sample

Dead Silence (The Body Finder, #4)

first: series info is delineated by the ( and )
second: the series_index value is DIGITS after a , # (comma space hash)

so now we know where series starts and ends and where the number is
We also see there are some special REGEX reserved characters that will need special treatment (I have split onto many lines to explain ONLY)

Dead Silence (The Body Finder, #4)

(.+) \( capture #1 the Title and eliminates the space (
(.+)\,\s\# capture #2 the series name and eliminates the comma space hash
(\d+)\) capture #3 grabs the series_index and eliminates the closing )

All together:

(.+) \((.+)\,\s\#(\d+)\)

A replace of: \1 (\2, #\3)
would put it all back together

[unboggling]

@theducks. What does the hash before series index do in the replacement expression?

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by theducks

It is all about identifying patterns you can latch onto as triggers.
Using your sample

Dead Silence (The Body Finder, #4)

first: series info is delineated by the ( and )
second: the series_index value is DIGITS after a , # (comma space hash)

so now we know where series starts and ends and where the number is
We also see there are some special REGEX reserved characters that will need special treatment (I have split onto many lines to explain ONLY)

Dead Silence (The Body Finder, #4)

(.+) \( capture #1 the Title and eliminates the space (
(.+)\,\s\# capture #2 the series name and eliminates the comma space hash
(\d+)\) capture #3 grabs the series_index and eliminates the closing )

All together:

(.+) \((.+)\,\s\#(\d+)\)

A replace of: \1 (\2, #\3)
would put it all back together

Thank you for the REGEX and for the explanation. And yes that made sense to me. I appreciate the help of everyone.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by unboggling

@theducks. What does the hash before series index do in the replacement expression?

The hash was a un-captured trigger (in the original)
My example just put it back,appending the series index

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by theducks

The hash was a un-captured trigger (in the original)
My example just put it back,appending the series index

Thanks. When I asked earlier, I'd misunderstood the last part of your explanation, missed the "would put it back together".

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

No I didn't turn anything off that I am aware of. I just changed the url on the predefined setting that was included on the installation. Though looking on the webpage section of the predefined one doesn't have any info in the series field. I am using the Goodreads:Listopia:Best Books Ever predefined setting.

Hmmm... looks like I "forgot" something in my predefined Goodreads settings (it was there but got lost in some refactoring). If you want to avoid any mucking around yourself later in your library, do this. Choose that Goodreads:Listopia:Best Books Ever setting, but click on "Edit" instead of "Preview", which will take you to the "Web Page" tab of the plugin. Then at the bottom left, change "Strip:" by clicking on the little script button to the right of the dropdown, and choose the "(...)" option, this will strip everything in brackets off the titles. Or if you want to be more precise you can use a regex from this thread. You can then save that as a personal user setting on the last page of the wizard for future re-use.

I will make sure that those Goodreads settings have that as the default behaviour in a future version (that is assuming I don't make other changes to scrape that data into the actual series column for the plugin).

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Hmmm... looks like I "forgot" something in my predefined Goodreads settings (it was there but got lost in some refactoring). If you want to avoid any mucking around yourself later in your library, do this. Choose that Goodreads:Listopia:Best Books Ever setting, but click on "Edit" instead of "Preview", which will take you to the "Web Page" tab of the plugin. Then at the bottom left, change "Strip:" by clicking on the little script button to the right of the dropdown, and choose the "(...)" option, this will strip everything in brackets off the titles. Or if you want to be more precise you can use a regex from this thread. You can then save that as a personal user setting on the last page of the wizard for future re-use.

I will make sure that those Goodreads settings have that as the default behaviour in a future version (that is assuming I don't make other changes to scrape that data into the actual series column for the plugin).

Ok, just so I understand, by changing this setting it just removes that extra data from the title field. Does it put the series info in the series and index fields?? If not, I will stick with the regex expressions, because those will move the series info to the appropriate fields.

And let me point out that I am loving this plugin. I have been playing with adding wishlist entries to my db since it came out.