Issue sorting numbered titles (1, 10, 11, 2, 20, etc.)

[ReaderGuy42]

I have numbered a series of books, as they're in a long series (The Legend of Drizzt with upwards of 40 books), so I can tell which order they go in.

However, now when I sort them by title, they appear numbered like shown in the title, e.g.
1, 10, 11, 12 . . . 2, 20, 21, 22, and so on.

I'm not sure if this is a Linux issue because I was recently having similar issues in my Linux Mint file explorer. Or is there a way to have the numbers be sorted correctly?

Thanks

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by ReaderGuy42

I'm not sure if this is a Linux issue because I was recently having similar issues in my Linux Mint file explorer. Or is there a way to have the numbers be sorted correctly?

Use 01, 02, 03...etc.

[chaley]

Assuming you are asking about what you see in calibre, not on a reader or in a file explorer:

See Preferences / Behavior / Recognize numbers inside text when sorting.

Question: why put the series information in the title? Why not use the series column?

[ReaderGuy42]

Originally Posted by chaley

Assuming you are asking about what you see in calibre, not on a reader or in a file explorer:

See Preferences / Behavior / Recognize numbers inside text when sorting.

Question: why put the series information in the title? Why not use the series column?

Perfect, thank you!
a) I didn't think of using another column. I haven't been using Calibre that long/that much, so I forgot you could do that.
b) I'd like the sort order to be used on my reading device too, since I find navigating to be a little more difficult there.

But that setting worked, thank you!!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ReaderGuy42

I have numbered a series of books, as they're in a long series (The Legend of Drizzt with upwards of 40 books), so I can tell which order they go in.

However, now when I sort them by title, they appear numbered like shown in the title, e.g.
1, 10, 11, 12 . . . 2, 20, 21, 22, and so on.

I'm not sure if this is a Linux issue because I was recently having similar issues in my Linux Mint file explorer. Or is there a way to have the numbers be sorted correctly?

Thanks

Keyword: Alphasort

The sort is by CHARACTER weight (position in the ASCII table),
not the numeric value of digits included in the string.

The common way to make strings sort is to pad the leading places (as needed to make the highest number sort).
eg.
highest number
500 then pad 00 for single digit, 000 if 0
20 then a single 0 pad

You could use a space (ASCII%20), but those are really hard to see if you counted right, on most screens.
FWIW I commonly steer folder sorts by using a leading number:0First (or force to the end:zMakethislast) lowercase sorts AFTER uppercase

[ReaderGuy42]

Originally Posted by theducks

Keyword: Alphasort

The sort is by CHARACTER weight (position in the ASCII table),
not the numeric value of digits included in the string.

The common way to make strings sort is to pad the leading places (as needed to make the highest number sort).
eg.
highest number
500 then pad 00 for single digit, 000 if 0
20 then a single 0 pad

You could use a space (ASCII%20), but those are really hard to see if you counted right, on most screens.
FWIW I commonly steer folder sorts by using a leading number:0First (or force to the end:zMakethislast) lowercase sorts AFTER uppercase

Thanks That's interesting, I use the same thing with 0's and Z's too. Any idea how in this system to have a x.5 be sorted correctly after x instead of before? So like 2.5 should come AFTER 2. In my Linux Mint file explorer (nemo) this is an issue.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ReaderGuy42

Thanks That's interesting, I use the same thing with 0's and Z's too. Any idea how in this system to have a x.5 be sorted correctly after x instead of before? So like 2.5 should come AFTER 2. In my Linux Mint file explorer (nemo) this is an issue.

don't use the trailing period by itself
You need to maintain the most number of positions always
02
.
5

This is my Kindle METADATA Plugboard entry (I put the series name into collections as I have a K4, where that still works)

{series_index:0>5.2f|| - }{title}

02.50 - titlehere

[ReaderGuy42]

Originally Posted by theducks

don't use the trailing period by itself
You need to maintain the most number of positions always
02
.
5

This is my Kindle METADATA Plugboard entry (I put the series name into collections as I have a K4, where that still works)

{series_index:0>5.2f|| - }{title}

02.50 - titlehere

Thanks

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ReaderGuy42

b) I'd like the sort order to be used on my reading device too, since I find navigating to be a little more difficult there.

It's possible to set up calibre so that the name of a book transferred to your device is generated from both the book name and the series name and number

[Edit: I think it's the metadata plugboard -- already mentioned by theducks]