[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Merischino

That said, when up til and including now, I go into Calibre and I add a book from Anne McCaffrey that has incorrect metadata (for example, the title is a string of useless information like "data saved 02-4-12 v.x200" when what should be in that field is the title of a book. My expectation is that when I enter the title of the book into that field, erasing that meaningless string, Calibre should from that moment forward display the "title" in the "title field" in all database results tables, and that it should no longer display that meaningless string.

Agreed. That's what it does. The only proviso is that the meaningless data in the book is still there. Calibre doesn't overwrite it. It only sets the data in its own database.

now, speaking for the author or author-sort field. Let's say "author" was entered as the title incorrectly upon import. I would like the display in lists to show the author in a Lastname, Firstname format e.g. McCaffrey, Anne. So, in the Author (not the author sort) field, I enter exactly what I want to see in the list. Whatever calibre displayed before I made that change, whatever rules it followed, it should now as a result of my entry always list this particular record's authoer as McCaffrey, Anne.

Correct

I understand that if I do nothing to correct the author-sort field, Calibre will perform a default procedure on what is in the "author" field, taking what's after the space and putting iti n the front, adding a comma, and putting whatever was before the space at the end.

No. Calibre already entered data in author_sort. Now you're editing metadata, and it won't touch author_sort unless you tell it to by checking the update author_sort box. If you check that box, Calibre does what you described (unless a tweak is set)

WITH information from me, where I do NOT check that box, and I DO enter specific data which is different from what calibre's default behavior is, namely if I enter "McCaffrey, Anne" into the author-sort box, what I expect is that then it will Sort this record in a list of authors such that it will appear in the Middle of the list in a "m" location while displaying the author's name as "McCaffrey, Anne".

Agreed. That's what mine does. I recognize you are saying yours does not. That's why this thread is very long. You are seeing something that I don't see. I just tested it.

Wat I have been explaining is that this last statement is false in all cases in my installation of calibre. I cannot make Calibre behave in this manner unless or until I install some tweak which I understand exists and which I understand is not included in default installs of Calibre.

The tweak does not affect this. Setting the tweak is not going to make it behave differently on this issue. All it will do is control how the author is field is copied into the author_sort field. That happens when the book is first added, and when you change author, and ALSO SET THE OPTION telling Calibre to reset author_sort according to what's now in author.

When I make metadata changes in my GUI and click "ok" and then go back into that record, I see my changes reflected in that record. When I quit out of calibre and come bak some time later, I do not find that my changes have in all cases remained. Speaking only for this afternoon, I can say unequivocally that the changes made to my calibre database TODAY but BEFORE i moved my calibre database to a new location per suggestions in this thread, when I shared the after-move metadata.db with you all of my changes were NOT reflected in the metadata.db that you looked at, whereas in the case of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra I can confirm that the db you looked at did NOT have my changes whereas the db i Was still using DID have that change. I cannot explain this. It makes no logical sense for this to be true, but that is the case.

I don't disbelieve you, I just have no explanation.

If this statement is true, that sorting and displaying based on a lastname-first rule for both fields, is not possible without a tweak

It's not true. Simply set the author sort to whatever you want and set the author to whatever you want. If you want lastname, firstname in both, just set them that way and don't turn on the option that tells Calibre to change author_sort. Yo will have to do this for every book you add, however.

, then I am confused why we have been goign in circles all day? It seems I need a tweak.

It makes it easier for you, as there are fewer edits needed of author_sort. It won't solve any other problems you've described.

However, elsewhere I'm told that anything I enter into those two fields should work.

It will.

In practice, I believe the statement that "calibre is not designed to do that" and not the statement that "calibre will do whatever you want to do with those two fields".

Try to understand. All that the tweak does is control what gets copied from author into author_sort. That only happens once when the book is first added, and any time you set the option during a metadata edit. That's all that it does. Calibre doesn't know which part of John Smith is the first name. It doesn't care if you put Smith, John into the author.

Please understand, I don't want to fight about it... I just want to resolve whatever I can and whatever I can't, I want to learn what calibre WILL do. not what it won't do.

I wouldn't have spent this much time with you if I didn't want you to understand what it will/won't do.

I find that this last doesn't prove true in my instance. It will sort based on something that will ultimately, somehow, prove to be somehow logical, because computers operate on rules. However, when I put lastnamefirst in display and lastnamefirst in sort never checking "autosort", it seems to corrupt the data that is in "autosort" and output some kind of mess into the metadata.db file that is not what anyone would ever intend.

There is no "autosort." That option merely controls whether Calibre will change author_sort (based on author) or not when you are editing metadata.

Example: i bulk-edit all Anne McCaffrey entries such that they follow my rules. I send you my metada.db. you look at it, and tell me that you have Anne McCaffrey all over the place in everywhich way but loose in that database. You tell me that Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in my database has an author sort which neither any human being would choose to enter, nor would Calibre's rule structure have assigned had I left it to autosort.

I did test your metadata.db with several bulk edits. They all worked as they should.

End conclusion? "Calibre isn't designed to do that" without a tweak.

Sorry, but the tweak does not affect this. It's just there so when you add a book, and Calibre first fills in the author_sort field, it will be closer to what you put into the author field - IOW, it won't take the last word in the author field and put it at the front, followed by a comma. If the tweak is set to "copy" it will put what is in the author field into author_sort, without change. If it's set to "comma" it will put what is in the author field into author_sort, without change if the name has a comma, and otherwise will do what Calibre normally does. That's it. Nothing magic. You can manually do what the tweak does, or override it and put something else in there.

Ok. Here is where I disagree, at least with your first statement. When I bulk edit 105 records for Anne McCaffrey and enter in my own data the way I want it in the Author and the Authorsort fields, not checking the autosort box, I do not ever get a consistent result.

I can't explain this. I tried it in mine - it works. I tried it in your file - it works.

What I get is some records sorting up at the top of the list along with the "a"s. Some records sorting in the middle with the "M's and some records being willy nilly all over the place not relating to either an "a" or an "m" placement, irrespective of what is displayed in the list. I am not able to consistently get "McCaffrey, Anne" to be what is DISPLAYED in the list, nor am I able to consistently get any combination of McCaffrey, Anne to sort. Meaning, they do not ALL sort on "a". they do not ALL sort on "M". they do not ALL display as McCaffrey, Anne, and they do not ALL display as Anne McCaffrey.

Again, I can't explain it.

Ok. Here you are contradicting yourself again. Either it WILL behave according to what the user-entered data is, or it WON'T. I don't think I follow both statements being true. Is Calibre designed that way? Or is Calibre not designed that way? Do I need a tweak to do this? or don't I need a tweak to do this?

I don't know what you think is a contradiction. It sorts by what you put in the author_sort field. I almost never put anything in that field. I enter the author and set the checkbox, letting Calibre fill in author_sort for me.