Search and Replace Single Value

chicleeblair · 07-10-2023, 11:05 AM

Hi,

I’m manually sorting out my fanfiction.net fic because you can’t pull it from the site anymore. The characters are all in the tags column. I want to put them in the characters column. I don’t mind doing this one by one.

However when I use the Bulk Search/Replace regular expression it moves ALL the tags into the Characters field

eg: Search Tags for James Potter

Replace James Potter in #characters

moves James Potter, Complete, Hurt/Comfort, etc.,

I guess I could import everything and then delete the extra, but I’d rather not….

theducks · 07-10-2023, 01:15 PM

I thought this was an easy one

So I tried to set up an example. HA! FAIL I think Tags are special and my normal carve-out routine fails

My characters (and others) tags were even more problematic as they have paren:

Bren Cameron (Fictitious Character)

I tried escaping the \( pair
With and without commas (tags)
We never got as far as the When first or last in the tag list

Sorry not to be of further help.

chaley · 07-10-2023, 03:17 PM

As long as you are willing to do this one tag at a time then here is the easiest way I can think of.

First, back up your library for in case something goes wrong.

Find all books with the tag (name) of interest using search, e.g., tag:"=name"

Then assuming there is more than one book found:

Select all books (Ctrl-A on Windows)
Press E for bulk metadata edit.
Enter the tag (name) in "Tags to remove" on the basic metadata screen.
Enter the tag (name) in the #characters box on the custom metadata screen.
Press OK

Voila. The tag (name) will be removed from tags and added to #characters. Carefully check the results and restore the backup if something went bonkers.

If only one book was found then do it by hand with single metadata edit.

It is possible to do all of this in two S&R operations but it requires some template-fu that is hard to explain and easy to get wrong.

chicleeblair · 07-11-2023, 12:07 AM

forget that part of my library I had a moment while I thought I’d killed it all.

Nope. Ao3 was down. Because of course. I am taking care of the site that does squat for me and ao3 is down???? Ugh. (They are doing great at fighting it! It’s silly timing.)

07-10-2023, 11:05 AM	#1
chicleeblair Connoisseur Posts: 97 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2018 Device: iPad mini	Search and Replace Single Value Hi, I’m manually sorting out my fanfiction.net fic because you can’t pull it from the site anymore. The characters are all in the tags column. I want to put them in the characters column. I don’t mind doing this one by one. However when I use the Bulk Search/Replace regular expression it moves ALL the tags into the Characters field eg: Search Tags for James Potter Replace James Potter in #characters moves James Potter, Complete, Hurt/Comfort, etc., I guess I could import everything and then delete the extra, but I’d rather not….

07-10-2023, 03:17 PM	#3
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,447 Karma: 8012886 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	As long as you are willing to do this one tag at a time then here is the easiest way I can think of. First, back up your library for in case something goes wrong. Find all books with the tag (name) of interest using search, e.g., tag:"=name" Then assuming there is more than one book found: Select all books (Ctrl-A on Windows) Press E for bulk metadata edit. Enter the tag (name) in "Tags to remove" on the basic metadata screen. Enter the tag (name) in the #characters box on the custom metadata screen. Press OK Voila. The tag (name) will be removed from tags and added to #characters. Carefully check the results and restore the backup if something went bonkers. If only one book was found then do it by hand with single metadata edit. It is possible to do all of this in two S&R operations but it requires some template-fu that is hard to explain and easy to get wrong.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Help with search query; excluding books with a single format	ownedbycats	Calibre	5	10-11-2018 09:25 PM
Regex in search problems (NOT Search&Replace; the search bar)	lairdb	Calibre	3	03-15-2017 07:10 PM
save multiple search/replace, or search/replace multiple ebooks	user743	Editor	12	04-12-2014 02:38 AM
Trying to limit a search to a single line...	ElMiko	Sigil	10	04-12-2012 03:39 PM
search and replace - drops blanks in replace ?	cybmole	Conversion	10	03-13-2011 03:07 AM

07-10-2023, 01:15 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,062 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I thought this was an easy one So I tried to set up an example. HA! FAIL I think Tags are special and my normal carve-out routine fails My characters (and others) tags were even more problematic as they have paren: Bren Cameron (Fictitious Character) I tried escaping the \( pair With and without commas (tags) We never got as far as the When first or last in the tag list Sorry not to be of further help.

07-11-2023, 12:07 AM	#4
chicleeblair Connoisseur Posts: 97 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2018 Device: iPad mini	forget that part of my library I had a moment while I thought I’d killed it all. Nope. Ao3 was down. Because of course. I am taking care of the site that does squat for me and ao3 is down???? Ugh. (They are doing great at fighting it! It’s silly timing.)