Some regex help to clean up authors

[LadyKate]

I am looking for a way to search for double initials in the author field.

I use [A-Z]\.[A-Z]\. to search for names like F.I. Jones but [A-Z][A-Z] matches almost everything.

I can't seem to figure out how to look for FI Jones or AA Jones or AI Jones etc.

My understanding from the manual was that [A-Z] searched only for capitals but in practice it seems to match either upper or lower case. I tested this by searching for [a-z][A-Z][a-z] on a library in the author field and almost all authors were displayed.

Any ideas would be of help. I prefer to have all my author's initials displayes as I. I. Name or First I. Name etc. It makes author management easier.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

I am looking for a way to search for double initials in the author field.

I use [A-Z]\.[A-Z]\. to search for names like F.I. Jones but [A-Z][A-Z] matches almost everything.

I can't seem to figure out how to look for FI Jones or AA Jones or AI Jones etc.

My understanding from the manual was that [A-Z] searched only for capitals but in practice it seems to match either upper or lower case. I tested this by searching for [a-z][A-Z][a-z] on a library in the author field and almost all authors were displayed.

Any ideas would be of help. I prefer to have all my author's initials displayes as I. I. Name or First I. Name etc. It makes author management easier.

Quality Check PI: Check Metadata: Author Initials
quality check PI: Fix Author Initials:<selected format> is there to FIX

[LadyKate]

Thank you for the quick find for most initials problems.

I am still trying to figure out how regex in calibre search works as I use regular expressions a lot when editing html and it is logical to clean up titles and authors using it.

For Instance, I really want to search for the case of "Aa " in authors as it occurs frequently enough that the second initial is mistakenly in lower case. I just am having a bit of a time getting the regex to match "Aa " versus darn near everything.

For instance. How do I use regex to search for AA Name? If I use [A-Z][A-Z] [A-Z]. which I expect to match to AA Name it matches "Orbit Various Authors" and "Various Author" as well as the expected "AA Name".

As two uppercase characters followed by a space, an uppercase character and then anything is how I translate the search string the results confuses me.

I guess I'm looking for a lot more info about how regex works inside calibre as compared to in say edit pad pro.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

Thank you for the quick find for most initials problems.

I am still trying to figure out how regex in calibre search works as I use regular expressions a lot when editing html and it is logical to clean up titles and authors using it.

For Instance, I really want to search for the case of "Aa " in authors as it occurs frequently enough that the second initial is mistakenly in lower case. I just am having a bit of a time getting the regex to match "Aa " versus darn near everything.

For instance. How do I use regex to search for AA Name? If I use [A-Z][A-Z] [A-Z]. which I expect to match to AA Name it matches "Orbit Various Authors" and "Various Author" as well as the expected "AA Name".

As two uppercase characters followed by a space, an uppercase character and then anything is how I translate the search string the results confuses me.

I guess I'm looking for a lot more info about how regex works inside calibre as compared to in say edit pad pro.

did you remember to precede your search term with the REGEX flag "~
(there are examples on the Help:GUI Search & Sort section

[chaley]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

For instance. How do I use regex to search for AA Name? If I use [A-Z][A-Z] [A-Z]. which I expect to match to AA Name it matches "Orbit Various Authors" and "Various Author" as well as the expected "AA Name".

Use

^[A-Z][A-Z] [A-Z]

As you wrote it, the expression would find any name that has any two characters at the end of a word, then a space, then a character. Adding the leading anchor (^) tells it that it must match two characters at the beginning of the name, then a space, then a character.

Note that the meaning of ^ is different when used inside [ ] characters. In that context it means "invert the set". For example, [^AB] means everything except A and B.