Is possible nested sublist?

[davidam2]

Good Morning.

When I send to disk (or device), I need to change the name:
- If contains many authors, only select first:
> authors:sublist(0,1,&)
- Select the surname of author (last word):
> authors:sublist(-1,0, )

Both sentences works fine, but I dont know how to combine them.

My Save Template is:
{authors:sublist(0,1,&)} - {series:|| }{series_index:0>2s|[|] - }{title} ({pubdate:sublist(-1,0,\,)})

AUTOR (only first) - SERIE [n] (if exists) - TITLE (YEAR)


Thanks!!

[chaley]

You must use either general program mode (GPL) or template program mode. Which you choose depends on where the complexity is. In your case, determining in the template that there is more than one author might be a challenge, which would push me to GPL.

Here is a guess about what you might want expressed in GPL.

program:
	a=field('author');
	first_author =  sublist(a, 0, 1, '&');
	last_author=cmp(count(a, '&'), 1, '', '', strcat(' / ', sublist(a, -1, 0, '&')));
	authors = strcat(first_author, last_author);
	rest = template('{series:|| }{series_index:0>2s|[|] - }{title} ({pubdate:sublist(-1,0,\,)})');
	strcat(authors, ' - ',rest)

[unboggling]

I use this for sending to device: {author_sort:sublist(0,1,&)}

That lists the first or only author in author_sort whether there are more than one or not. The lastname is listed first in author_sort. For me distinguishing between one or two or three or too many (authors in author_sort) is too much trouble for not absolutely important information on the device. But I keep only a few books on device at a time.

For saving to disk, I use {authors} which I have as firstname lastname

[davidam2]

Thanks chaley and unboggling.

I try how chaley says. I need to undestand GPL mode or Template Program mode. I will read the links and I will try.

I will respond if I have success... or not

I dont understand your code yet, but maybe I not explain correctly:
I need ONLY ONE AUTHOR AND ONLY HIS/HER SURNAME.
Chaley, your code make this? (I try to undestand it) THANKS!!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by davidam2

I dont understand your code yet, but maybe I not explain correctly:
I need ONLY ONE AUTHOR AND ONLY HIS/HER SURNAME.
Chaley, your code make this? (I try to undestand it) THANKS!!

No, my code does not do that. Your example implied that you wanted the first author, and if there is more than one author then the last author as well.

If you want only the surname of the first author then we can probably use author_sort to get it easily. Something like the following in TPM

{author_sort:'re($, '^([^,]*).*', '\1')'} - {series:|| }{series_index:0>2s|[|] - }{title} ({pubdate:sublist(-1,0,\,)})

[eschwartz]

chaley, I understood the OP to be asking about first author's lastname.
Anyway, I would've used an author_sort sublist split on the "," -- it is more readable than a regex.
No need for TPM.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

chaley, I understood the OP to be asking about first author's lastname.
Anyway, I would've used an author_sort sublist split on the "," -- it is more readable than a regex.
No need for TPM.

I used "re" because it has much higher performance than sublist, something that would matter if a similar template was used in a composite column. I also think that functions in single function mode are hard to read because of the lack of spacing. But of course, YMMV.

[eschwartz]

Well, obviously it is harder to read, but so is TPM. That is why I prefer GPM, but neither of us used that.
(post #2 doesn't count)

Good point about performance.

[davidam2]

Thanks Chaley!!! Thanks Eschwartz too!

I don't know because I didnt think to use author_sort with a sublist split on the ",".
I will use your regex code (higher performance).