How to search Author column for "The " or "A "

Inferno · 07-21-2014, 01:37 PM

I am trying to search my Author(s) column for "The " or "A ". When I search for "The " I get a great number of results including Theo etc.

What I am trying to do is find those books that have the author and title reversed. I can't see how to use regex to search the author column.

I don't want to search and replace. Just to find these books so I can "eyeball" them.

theducks · 07-21-2014, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inferno

I am trying to search my Author(s) column for "The " or "A ". When I search for "The " I get a great number of results including Theo etc.

What I am trying to do is find those books that have the author and title reversed. I can't see how to use regex to search the author column.

I don't want to search and replace. Just to find these books so I can "eyeball" them.

Try the Quality Check Plugin
It has all sorts of metadata checks (but not the A or The)

Code:

title:="~^The"

should find those that Start with 'The'

Inferno · 07-21-2014, 03:08 PM

What option? and wouldn't that code get titles with the?

I look at Quality Check and see that Search ePubs searches inside the epub (not what I want). I only want to check the author field.

I am looking for those books that have the title and author switched or the author not filled in correctly.

It seems that the quality check needs to look inside the epub to find this information. I just want to be able to search the author field for "the " or "A "

Is there no way to search for "the" followed by whitespace just in the Author column without having to go through every file.

I started running the quality check but it will take hours for the entire library. Longer than searching individually

eschwartz · 07-21-2014, 03:28 PM

Using "~" at the beginning of a search match activates regex mode.

"^" is the regex symbol for beginning-of-string.

"~^The" matches the word "The", using regex to only match at the beginning of the field.

Inferno · 07-21-2014, 04:44 PM

Thank you. I had somehow missed using the tilde. I finally got what I needed from "~The\s"

theducks · 07-21-2014, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inferno

What option? and wouldn't that code get titles with the?

I look at Quality Check and see that Search ePubs searches inside the epub (not what I want). I only want to check the author field.

I am looking for those books that have the title and author switched or the author not filled in correctly.

It seems that the quality check needs to look inside the epub to find this information. I just want to be able to search the author field for "the " or "A "

Is there no way to search for "the" followed by whitespace just in the Author column without having to go through every file.

I started running the quality check but it will take hours for the entire library. Longer than searching individually

Most of the QC metadata checks work on the DB, not the books.
A MD check on 5K books takes less than 5min on a lowly P4 running XP

There are also many Book checks, and yes, those do take time, but not hours.

eschwartz · 07-21-2014, 05:40 PM

ha, the space. Yeah, of course. "^The" matches There|They|(others) ...

Inferno · 07-21-2014, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

ha, the space. Yeah, of course. "^The" matches There|They|(others) ...

More troublesome are Katherine, Theresa etc lol.

Inferno · 07-21-2014, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Most of the QC metadata checks work on the DB, not the books.
A MD check on 5K books takes less than 5min on a lowly P4 running XP

There are also many Book checks, and yes, those do take time, but not hours.

I have almost 90K books in this library so it was going to take quite a while in comparison to doing a regex search when I just wanted to check for Authors with "The" in them as that gives a fairly high chance that it is a case of title/author being switched.

My problem was finding how to use regex to check and narrow it down. I use the Quality check plugin for other things like once in a while to check the author search field, formatting author initials etc.

Inferno · 07-25-2014, 04:38 PM

Thank you for the help. I have been able to find most what I need with using "~\ssearchtext\s" however I am having problems figuring how to search for ( or ) with regex. I tried escaping them with \( but it didn't work. Any suggestions?

chaley · 07-25-2014, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inferno

Thank you for the help. I have been able to find most what I need with using "~\ssearchtext\s" however I am having problems figuring how to search for ( or ) with regex. I tried escaping them with \( but it didn't work. Any suggestions?

When you search in calibre you are talking to two processors, calibre and regular expression parsing. If you are trying to escape regular expression metacharacters use two backslashes. The first will be eaten by the calibre parser, and the second by the regular expression parser.

Inferno · 07-28-2014, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaley

When you search in calibre you are talking to two processors, calibre and regular expression parsing. If you are trying to escape regular expression metacharacters use two backslashes. The first will be eaten by the calibre parser, and the second by the regular expression parser.

Thank you. That helps a lot!

07-21-2014, 01:37 PM	#1
Inferno Connoisseur Posts: 60 Karma: 2016606 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: android tablets	How to search Author column for "The " or "A " I am trying to search my Author(s) column for "The " or "A ". When I search for "The " I get a great number of results including Theo etc. What I am trying to do is find those books that have the author and title reversed. I can't see how to use regex to search the author column. I don't want to search and replace. Just to find these books so I can "eyeball" them.

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07-21-2014, 03:08 PM	#3
Inferno Connoisseur Posts: 60 Karma: 2016606 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: android tablets	What option? and wouldn't that code get titles with the? I look at Quality Check and see that Search ePubs searches inside the epub (not what I want). I only want to check the author field. I am looking for those books that have the title and author switched or the author not filled in correctly. It seems that the quality check needs to look inside the epub to find this information. I just want to be able to search the author field for "the " or "A " Is there no way to search for "the" followed by whitespace just in the Author column without having to go through every file. I started running the quality check but it will take hours for the entire library. Longer than searching individually

07-21-2014, 03:28 PM	#4
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	Using "~" at the beginning of a search match activates regex mode. "^" is the regex symbol for beginning-of-string. "~^The" matches the word "The", using regex to only match at the beginning of the field.

07-21-2014, 04:44 PM	#5
Inferno Connoisseur Posts: 60 Karma: 2016606 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: android tablets	Thank you. I had somehow missed using the tilde. I finally got what I needed from "~The\s"

07-21-2014, 05:40 PM	#7
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	ha, the space. Yeah, of course. "^The" matches There\|They\|(others) ...

07-25-2014, 04:38 PM	#10
Inferno Connoisseur Posts: 60 Karma: 2016606 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: android tablets	Thank you for the help. I have been able to find most what I need with using "~\ssearchtext\s" however I am having problems figuring how to search for ( or ) with regex. I tried escaping them with \( but it didn't work. Any suggestions?

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