Subtitle Template

[WillE]

I was trying to organize my library and wanted a column for book subtitles (there isn't one built in already). How do I use custom template functions in the custom column (built from other columns) to take everything after the last colon and space as the output? I have tried several different things to no avail.
For example, the title column "Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" would feed into a separate subtitle column that just says "An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones".

Thanks in advance for any help!

[ownedbycats]

Any reason to not just use a regular text column for this?

[theducks]

I Move that (sub title) to a custom Text column using the Metadata Editors (bulk mode) Search and Replace.

(.+?)\:(.+?)
Basically a Copy, \2 to #subtitle
followed by a delete (from Title)
\1 to Title

AFAIK this does not hurt Get Metadata searches

[WillE]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Any reason to not just use a regular text column for this?

Only that I didn't want to have to copy and paste manually, but I didn't think of using the search & replace as suggested by theducks.

[WillE]

Originally Posted by theducks

I Move that (sub title) to a custom Text column using the Metadata Editors (bulk mode) Search and Replace.

(.+?)\.+?)
Basically a Copy, \2 to #subtitle
followed by a delete (from Title)
\1 to Title

AFAIK this does not hurt Get Metadata searches

Hopefully, this doesn't appear twice. I thought I hit submit, but I don't see it.
This worked for me! I don't know how to delete the subtitle out of the title column though (without doing it manually).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by WillE

Hopefully, this doesn't appear twice. I thought I hit submit, but I don't see it.
This worked for me! I don't know how to delete the subtitle out of the title column though (without doing it manually).

The second Replace: \1 using the same search as before, but this time the destination is Title
What that does is drops the : and second capture piece

[isarl]

I think this template might do what you're after, if you're still interested in a template-based solution:

{title:'sublist($,-1,0,': ')'}

If you wanted another template for the title without the subtitle, you could use:

{title:'sublist($,0,-1,': ')'}

I included the space following the colon, but I don't think it's actually needed. I'm fairly sure that the sublist() function will trim each each entry after splitting them. Removing the space may result in a more permissive template if it's at all possible that some of your books might have a Title:Subtitle with no separating space.

After testing, the Title one will turn up empty if a title has no colon. Probably fine for the subtitle, but not the title. So I offer this refinement:

{title:'ifempty(sublist($,0, -1,': '), $)'}

[isarl]

(A word of caution – in my own library, some books use a format of Title—Subtitle, or even Title, or Subtitle. Good luck!)

[Wiggo]

I once got this from chaley for the KTE Driver and subtitles after colon. Maybe this will help someone.

 program:
	v_1 = '';
	list_split($title, ':', 'v');
# Enter v_0 for the text before the colon, v_1 for the text after the colon
# This doesn't work if the title or subtitle part contains extra colons
# v_1 is empty if there are no colons at all
	v_1

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=2828

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

I once got this from chaley for the KTE Driver and subtitles after colon. Maybe this will help someone.

 program:
	v_1 = '';
	list_split($title, ':', 'v');
# Enter v_0 for the text before the colon, v_1 for the text after the colon
# This doesn't work if the title or subtitle part contains extra colons
# v_1 is empty if there are no colons at all
	v_1

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=2828

This template will split on EVERY colon and return the second part, which might not be the last part like OP was seeking. From the template docs for list_split:

split(‘one:two:foo’, ‘:’, ‘var’) is equivalent to var_0 = ‘one’; var_1 = ‘two’; var_2 = ‘foo’

[Wiggo]

Ok. I missed that he had maybe more than one colon.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Ok. I missed that he had maybe more than one colon.

I missed that also

[Wiggo]

I looked at his example again.

In "Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" I would replace the first colon with an emdash, as I think it belongs even more to the title.

This way you can avoid several colons, which in my eyes are also not nice

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

I looked at his example again.

In "Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" I would replace the first colon with an emdash, as I think it belongs even more to the title.

This way you can avoid several colons, which in my eyes are also not nice

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔

Besides, that would be a horrific filename and even worse when file system shorten rules kick in