Bulk Meta Edit (regex troubles)

jrkotrla · 12-05-2015, 02:20 PM

Hey guys,

I'm trying to edit some bulk data using regex and I'm having trouble matching groups. I wasn't paying attention when importing, so now I have author fields that can include author, author and series, or author, series, and series number.

I'm trying to match series and seriesnum out of the author field and send them to the appropriate places using the bulk meta edit tool. the expression I'm using right now is:
([a-zA-Z.\ ]+) (\-) ([\ \w]*) (\d+)
which matches "A. J. Author - Series of Books 01"

I can then use \3 to send "Series of Books" to series and \4 to send "01" to seriesnum.

The problem is when it finds an author field with just an author and no series number or series (i.e. "A. J. Author"). In that case \3 and \4 also match "A.J. Author" though it seems they should be blank instead since they shouldn't exist.

Can anyone help me figure this out?

fidvo · 12-05-2015, 05:10 PM

Maybe filter the books in the main window first to include only books with a "-" in the author, then run the regex on only that set?

eschwartz · 12-05-2015, 08:50 PM

Why are you escaping the dashes and spaces?

As for your mysterious problem, calibre replaces one field with another, after trying the regex replacement.

Since the replacement failed, the fields are copied over as-is.

This has tripped me up too.

chaley · 12-06-2015, 07:00 AM

@eschwartz: FWIW (which isn't much) the way I mentally handle this problem is to remind myself that a replacement only occurs if the entire search pattern successfully matches against the source, and that in that case only the matched segment of the source is replaced. I often find myself sticking anchors and .*s in odd places to be sure that the pattern matches the entire source.

12-05-2015, 02:20 PM	#1
jrkotrla Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Sony PRS-500, Treo 755p, REB 1100, eBookman 911	Bulk Meta Edit (regex troubles) Hey guys, I'm trying to edit some bulk data using regex and I'm having trouble matching groups. I wasn't paying attention when importing, so now I have author fields that can include author, author and series, or author, series, and series number. I'm trying to match series and seriesnum out of the author field and send them to the appropriate places using the bulk meta edit tool. the expression I'm using right now is: ([a-zA-Z.\ ]+) (\-) ([\ \w]*) (\d+) which matches "A. J. Author - Series of Books 01" I can then use \3 to send "Series of Books" to series and \4 to send "01" to seriesnum. The problem is when it finds an author field with just an author and no series number or series (i.e. "A. J. Author"). In that case \3 and \4 also match "A.J. Author" though it seems they should be blank instead since they shouldn't exist. Can anyone help me figure this out?

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12-05-2015, 05:10 PM	#2
fidvo Addict Posts: 315 Karma: 1645952 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: none	Maybe filter the books in the main window first to include only books with a "-" in the author, then run the regex on only that set?

12-05-2015, 08:50 PM	#3
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)	Why are you escaping the dashes and spaces? As for your mysterious problem, calibre replaces one field with another, after trying the regex replacement. Since the replacement failed, the fields are copied over as-is. This has tripped me up too.

12-06-2015, 07:00 AM	#4
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,525 Karma: 8065948 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	@eschwartz: FWIW (which isn't much) the way I mentally handle this problem is to remind myself that a replacement only occurs if the entire search pattern successfully matches against the source, and that in that case only the matched segment of the source is replaced. I often find myself sticking anchors and .*s in odd places to be sure that the pattern matches the entire source.