Case sensitive compare in the template language?

[chaley]

In this post @un_pogaz mentioned that he needed a case sensitive string compare. He solved it with a custom python template function.

This raises a question: is there a general need for this? It would be easy to add case sensitive compare operators, e.g., ==!, >!, <! etc. (the ! converts the operator to case sensitive), but if they aren't useful then why take the cognitive space for them.

Opinions?

[un_pogaz]

And a srtcase() method.
I don't know how the operator implementation works, but a buit-in method would be a nice touch.

The cases are rare, and the default behavior of Calibre does the coffee very well. If it is insensitive case, okay, fine, it works the same 90% of the time.
But sometimes, when you are the kind of person who is very rigorous on the content of the DB, is useful.
When I see that authors:"Isaac Asimov" and Calibre tells me author_sort:"ASIMOV, Isaac" is valid, No! Click "Manage authors" > set author_sort:"Asimov, Isaac". And that's when I noticed it, who knows how many others have screwed up like that (well, I have plenty of functions to check that now).
Yes, Calibre is case insensitive, so it won't change anything, but now my DB is clean.

[chaley]

Given that no one other than @un_pogaz has expressed interest in this and given that @un_pogaz has a working solution, I am not going to make the changes.

[un_pogaz]

Meh, too bad, but predictable.
For information, here is my code for the strcase function (more consistent with Calibre standards)

strcase(x, y, lt, eq, gt)

def evaluate(self, formatter, kwargs, mi, locals, x, y, lt, eq, gt):
    from calibre.utils.icu import case_sensitive_strcmp as strcmp
    v = strcmp(x, y)
    if v < 0:
        return lt
    if v == 0:
        return eq
    return gt

strcase(x, y, lt, eq, gt) -- does a case-sensitive comparison of x and y as strings. Returns lt if x < y. Returns eq if x == y. Otherwise returns gt.

Note, I'm thinking if I commit this to Calibre. Literals operator are unnecessary for a such marginal case, but providing a build-in function would be useful, so you don't have to look up how to do it if you ever need it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Note, I'm thinking if I commit this to Calibre. Literals operator are unnecessary for a such marginal case, but providing a build-in function would be useful, so you don't have to look up how to do it if you ever need it.

Reasonable, but I am 99.9% certain that Kovid will require adding the documentation of the function to ".../manual/template_lang.rst" before he accepts the PR.

[un_pogaz]

The request for the doc is reasonable
Finally, I will use strcmpcase() as a name, to avoid confusion.
Now it's about not doing anything stupid and doing it properly. It's nice to push micro bug fixes, but a documented and "official" feature... caution (especially with my crappy English). But off-topic.
Have a nice day.