Templates: various questions not worth their own thread

[ownedbycats]

list_filter() would definitely be more intuitive and ist_add() also being faster would be an advantage.

[ownedbycats]

Arithmetic - how do I apply a format to the results?

e.g. program: divide($$#purchasecost, 1.15) returns 7.9913043478260875 when I just need 7.99. ({0:,.2f})

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Arithmetic - how do I apply a format to the results?

e.g. program: divide($$#purchasecost, 1.15) returns 7.9913043478260875 when I just need 7.99. ({0:,.2f})

Use format_number(x, '.2f') or perhaps finish_formatting() if you want a prefix and/or a suffix.

Also, $$#purchasecost/1.15 is faster than using the divide() function.

[ownedbycats]

Another question: After deleting an integer column (was converting it to a composite), I noticed that a template that checked the integer still worked, but treated everything as a '0'. Is this intentional?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Another question: After deleting an integer column (was converting it to a composite), I noticed that a template that checked the integer still worked, but treated everything as a '0'. Is this intentional?

Yes, assuming you are using raw_field() or $$ to fetch the value. It returns None for columns that don't exist. None is interpreted as zero in an arithmetic context. Using field() or $ will throw an error

[ownedbycats]

A composite column #timesread calls field_list_count().

A second composite column then uses $$#timesread (previously it was integer column) as a check. Would using field_list_count() directly in that composite increase performance?

[correoparaappzz]

elif $series == "" && $#audiobook != ""
	then "Stand-Alone with AB"

what can i add to exclude books with the tag #Collection/Box Set?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by correoparaappzz

elif $series == "" && $#audiobook != ""
	then "Stand-Alone with AB"

what can i add to exclude books with the tag #Collection/Box Set?

try

	elif 
		$series == "" 
		&& $#audiobook != "" 
		&& !"#Collection/Box Set" inlist $tags
	then 
		"Stand-Alone with AB"

[correoparaappzz]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

try

	elif 
		$series == "" 
		&& $#audiobook != "" 
		&& !"#Collection/Box Set" inlist $tags
	then 
		"Stand-Alone with AB"

works perfectly,

[ownedbycats]

you should also be able to replace $#audiobook != "" with just !$#audiobook

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

A composite column #timesread calls field_list_count().

A second composite column then uses $$#timesread (previously it was integer column) as a check. Would using field_list_count() directly in that composite increase performance?

I'm not sure what you are asking.

If you are asking if it would be faster to use field_list_count() instead of $$#timesread then the answer is yes. In the best case where $$#timesread has already been evaluated for the book then the performance improvement will be around 2 times. If $$#timesread hasn't yet been evaluated for the book then the performance improvement is at least 10 times.

If you are using $#timesread (not raw_field()) then the performance improvement of using field_list_count() directly is probably 10 to 100 times.

[1ily]

Hello! I'm using a template that uses the word count column to assign a book's tags.

I have tags for Comics, Novellas, Novels, and Long. Ideally, anything under 2k words will be a Comic, under 40k is a Novella, 150k is a Novel, and anything above that is Long.

It turns out that books with 100k and higher have the "Novel"/"Long" and the "comic" tags, books with 50k-100k words have the correct tags. Books less than 1k are not being given the "comic" tag and books over 188k are not being given any tags at all.

What am I doing wrong?


Example:

program:	

words = $$#words;
pages = $$#pages;

new_colls = strcat(
if (words < 1500000 && words > 150000) then 'Long,' fi,
if (words < 150000 && words > 50000) then 'Novel,' fi,
if (words < 40000 && words > 2000) then 'Novella,' fi,
if (words < 2000 && words > 0 && pages > 0) then 'Comic,' fi
)

new_colls

[chaley]

Originally Posted by 1ily

Hello! I'm using a template that uses the word count column to assign a book's tags.

I have tags for Comics, Novellas, Novels, and Long. Ideally, anything under 2k words will be a Comic, under 40k is a Novella, 150k is a Novel, and anything above that is Long.

It turns out that books with 100k and higher have the "Novel"/"Long" and the "comic" tags, books with 50k-100k words have the correct tags. Books less than 1k are not being given the "comic" tag and books over 188k are not being given any tags at all.

What am I doing wrong?


Example:

program:	

words = $$#words;
pages = $$#pages;

new_colls = strcat(
if (words < 1500000 && words > 150000) then 'Long,' fi,
if (words < 150000 && words > 50000) then 'Novel,' fi,
if (words < 40000 && words > 2000) then 'Novella,' fi,
if (words < 2000 && words > 0 && pages > 0) then 'Comic,' fi
)

new_colls

You are using the string (lexical) comparison operator (<) instead of the numeric comparison operator (<#).

As said in the template language manual, which is your friend:

Relational operators

Relational operators return '1' if the comparison is true, otherwise the empty string (‘’).

There are two forms of relational operators: string comparisons and numeric comparisons.

String comparisons do case-insensitive string comparison using lexical order. The supported string comparison operators are ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=, in, and inlist. For the in operator, the result of the left hand expression is interpreted as a regular expression pattern. The in operator is True if the value of left-hand regular expression matches the value of the right hand expression. The inlist operator is true if the left hand regular expression matches any one of the items in the right hand list where the items in the list are separated by commas. The matches are case-insensitive.

The numeric comparison operators are ==#, !=#, <#, <=#, >#, >=#. The left and right expressions must evaluate to numeric values with two exceptions: both the string value “None” (undefined field) and the empty string evaluate to the value zero.

BTW: the first_matching_cmp() or the switch_if() functions seem to satisfy your needs and are faster than a series of if statements.

BTW2: it seems you should be using >=# in the second relational clause of the if statements. Otherwise you are skipping exact matches.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

I'm not sure what you are asking.

If you are asking if it would be faster to use field_list_count() instead of $$#timesread then the answer is yes. In the best case where $$#timesread has already been evaluated for the book then the performance improvement will be around 2 times. If $$#timesread hasn't yet been evaluated for the book then the performance improvement is at least 10 times.

If you are using $#timesread (not raw_field()) then the performance improvement of using field_list_count() directly is probably 10 to 100 times.

Yes, specifically line three here:

program:
	status = readstatus();
	times = field_list_count('#datesread');
	readgoal = strcat('readinggoal:', format_date(today(), 'yyyy')) in $#admintags;

	switch_if(
		status=='read', 'Read',
		status=='didnotfinish', 'Did Not Finish',
		status=='currentlyreading', 
			if times >#0 then 'Currently Rereading' 
			else 'Currently Reading' fi,
		status=='toberead', 'To Be Read',
		status=='unread', 
			if readgoal && $$#lastread != 'None' then 'To Be Read' 
			elif readgoal then 'Backlog' 
			else 'Unread' fi,
		''
	)

When #timesread column used to be an integer, I used that for 'times.' Now that it's a composite, I switched to using field_list_count() directly.

I just realized I could probably speed up this template a nudge by turning those nested if-thens into switch_ifs.

[ownedbycats]

program:

	readgoal = strcat('readinggoal:', format_date(today(), 'yyyy'));
	challenge =	strcat('rgchallenges:purchases', format_date(today(), 'yyyy'));

	if
		format_date($date, 'yyyy') == format_date(today(), 'yyyy')
		&& readgoal in $#admintags
		&& $#purchasesource
		&& $#cost !='0.00'

	then
		list_union(challenge, $#admintags, ',')
	else
		$#admintags
	fi

Line 7 I'm trying to check whether the book's timestamp/date is set to this year. Is this the best method to do so?