MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Escaping '.' in hierarchical browser tags

kjdavies · 10-07-2020, 12:02 AM

Hi All,

I have some custom fields I display in the tag browser. These fields have their values presented hierarchically (love this feature), but some of the the strings in the hierarchy contain periods. For instance, I might have something like "Software.GIMP 2.8.3"

Periods, of course, are used as the level delimiters in the tag hierarchy. As a result, I get

Software
- GIMP 2
  - 8
    - 3

This is mostly not horrible, but does not suit my purpose ideally. Is there a way to escape the '.' so it is not treated as a delimiter, or to change the delimiter character to something else?

I did try a few obvious options.

Doubling up the '.': "Software.GIMP 2..8..3" makes the parser unhappy and the entire thing is presented non-hierarchically (i.e. exactly as written).
Escaping with '\': "Software.GIMP 2\.8\.3" does parse reasonably, and gets presented with levels "Software", "GIMP 2\", "8\", "3".
Wrapping the entire string or substrings with '"' or "'" or various sorts of braces and brackets... all are treated as normal characters and they show up in the (parsed and hierarchical) strings.

10-07-2020, 12:02 AM	#1
kjdavies Zealot Posts: 112 Karma: 53342 Join Date: Jun 2013 Device: Sony PRS-600	Escaping '.' in hierarchical browser tags Hi All, I have some custom fields I display in the tag browser. These fields have their values presented hierarchically (love this feature), but some of the the strings in the hierarchy contain periods. For instance, I might have something like "Software.GIMP 2.8.3" Periods, of course, are used as the level delimiters in the tag hierarchy. As a result, I get Software GIMP 2 8 3 This is mostly not horrible, but does not suit my purpose ideally. Is there a way to escape the '.' so it is not treated as a delimiter, or to change the delimiter character to something else? I did try a few obvious options. Doubling up the '.': "Software.GIMP 2..8..3" makes the parser unhappy and the entire thing is presented non-hierarchically (i.e. exactly as written). Escaping with '\': "Software.GIMP 2\.8\.3" does parse reasonably, and gets presented with levels "Software", "GIMP 2\", "8\", "3". Wrapping the entire string or substrings with '"' or "'" or various sorts of braces and brackets... all are treated as normal characters and they show up in the (parsed and hierarchical) strings.