Regex setup for file name scheme

[Ulfrich]

Ok these have been posted up several times and I am unfortunately unable to wrap my head around how to create these. Its unfortunate cause I have things named under several different formats. The current one Im working with looks like this for a series.

ebook - Alan Dean Foster - Spellsing 1 - Spellsinger

And this is for a none series.

ebook - Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle

Can anyone post me up a string that will remove the ebook portion and leave me with title author and series all in the right places?

Edit: I saw another format which was

SciFi - Christopher Stasheff - Warlock 2 - Spite of Himself

so I'm pretty much tryin to lop off the front end of each file name for the import

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Ulfrich

Ok these have been posted up several times and I am unfortunately unable to wrap my head around how to create these. Its unfortunate cause I have things named under several different formats. The current one Im working with looks like this for a series.

ebook - Alan Dean Foster - Spellsing 1 - Spellsinger

~~~

SciFi - Christopher Stasheff - Warlock 2 - Spite of Himself

so I'm pretty much tryin to lop off the front end of each file name for the import

You can do what I do and use something like Freecommander and bulk rename those files, easily lopping off the front end. Once this is done the following regex in Adding books should work for you. Just don't ask me to explain it.

^((?P<author>([^\-_0-9]+)(?=\s*-\s*)(?!\s*-\s*[0-9.]+)|\b))(\s*-\s*)?((?P<series>[^0-9\-]+)(\s*-\s*)?(?P<series_index>[0-9.]+)\s*-\s*)?(?P<title>[^\-_0-9]+)

[Ulfrich]

Thanks for the quick response, Ill have to check that program out. Tho I do admit Im tempted to ask to have it explained by someone who understands it and so I can ask questions, I could probably get it then.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Ulfrich

Thanks for the quick response, Ill have to check that program out. Tho I do admit Im tempted to ask to have it explained by someone who understands it and so I can ask questions, I could probably get it then.

You can start with this sticky thread An introduction to regular expressions and/or this tutorial in the manual, then ask all the questions you want. I just haven't bothered to gather the expertise to answer this question in detal.

Good Luck.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

You can do what I do and use something like Freecommander and bulk rename those files, easily lopping off the front end. Once this is done the following regex in Adding books should work for you. Just don't ask me to explain it.

^((?P<author>([^\-_0-9]+)(?=\s*-\s*)(?!\s*-\s*[0-9.]+)|\b))(\s*-\s*)?((?P<series>[^0-9\-]+)(\s*-\s*)?(?P<series_index>[0-9.]+)\s*-\s*)?(?P<title>[^\-_0-9]+)

If he's going to use a regex, the regex can lop off the front end easily, as long as the front end is consistently preceded by the space - hyphen - space form.
Just stick a non-greedy match .*? for anything followed by a space - hyphen - space in front and it matches, but ignores the stuff in front of the first space - hyphen - space.
This should do it:

^.*? - ((?P<author>([^\-_0-9]+)(?=\s*-\s*)(?!\s*-\s*[0-9.]+)|\b))(\s*-\s*)?((?P<series>[^0-9\-]+)(\s*-\s*)?(?P<series_index>[0-9.]+)\s*-\s*)?(?P<title>[^\-_0-9]+)