Selecting first names from strings like A B/Q R

[vargr]

Hello, can anyone help with a template I'm trying to make for cover generation? I want it to take a text field that's a series of 2+ names separated by slashes, and return just the first word of each name, retaining the slashes.

i.e., so that "John Doe/Jim Smith" would show as "John/Jim" on the generated cover.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by vargr

Hello, can anyone help with a template I'm trying to make for cover generation? I want it to take a text field that's a series of 2+ names separated by slashes, and return just the first word of each name, retaining the slashes.

i.e., so that "John Doe/Jim Smith" would show as "John/Jim" on the generated cover.

One of these should do it. Using general program mode:

program: list_re(field('#text'), '/', '^(.*)\b.*$', '\1')

Using template program mode:

{#text:'list_re($, '/', '^(.*)\b.*$', '\1')'}

Change #text to be the lookup name of your text column.

The above also handles single names. For example "John Doe/Fred/Jim Smith" produces "/John/Fred/Jim". If you don't want that then change the \b to a space character.

[vargr]

Originally Posted by chaley

One of these should do it. Using general program mode:

program: list_re(field('#text'), '/', '^(.*)\b.*$', '\1')

Using template program mode:

{#text:'list_re($, '/', '^(.*)\b.*$', '\1')'}

thanks for the quick reply! unfortunately both of these are giving me the full names still...

[chaley]

Originally Posted by vargr

thanks for the quick reply! unfortunately both of these are giving me the full names still...

Oops. That will teach me to "improve" the regex without testing it.

The correct templates are

program: list_re(field('#text'), '/', '^(..*?)\b.*$', '\1')

and

{#text:'list_re($, '/', '^(..*?)\b.*$', '\1')'}

[vargr]

perfect, thank you so much!

[vargr]

After testing a few files with this, I have some more questions...

1) Is it possible to return the shortened form for both when there's more than one pair of names in the field separated by a comma?

2) Can it account for " & " in place of "/", i.e., "John Doe & Jim Smith" to "John & Jim"? (This isn't as big a deal, but I do have some fields like that.)

[chaley]

Moderator Notice
Moved from the sticky recipes thread

[chaley]

Originally Posted by vargr

After testing a few files with this, I have some more questions...

1) Is it possible to return the shortened form for both when there's more than one pair of names in the field separated by a comma?

This turns commas into slashes then computes the list of first names.

program: list_re(re(field('#text'), ',', '/'), '/', '^(..*?)\b.*$', '\1')

2) Can it account for " & " in place of "/", i.e., "John Doe & Jim Smith" to "John & Jim"? (This isn't as big a deal, but I do have some fields like that.)[/QUOTE]I assume that the spaces are around the names in the source and that you want them in the result. The second parameter to list_re is the separator. Change '/' to ' & '.

program: list_re(field('authors'), ' & ', '^(..*?)\b.*$', '\1')

[vargr]

Thanks again! I ended up making a second custom column for the pairs separated by & so my covers can show both shortened forms when both are present. (This probably sounds overcomplicated, but in fanfiction tagging, / and & are semantically different, and sometimes a story includes both with different pairs of names, so...)