Questions about Tags and sorting

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by chaley

I submitted a change that sorts the tags in case-insensitive alpha order when they are read from the database. Assuming the change is accepted, tags columns will sort as they visually appear. Note that this is a string sort, meaning that numbers will sort by their characters. Example: the tags 1, 2, 10 will sort 1, 10, 2.

Cool. Thanks, Chaley. I can live with that kind of sort order since I've had other programs do that to me too. I can just change it to 01, 02, etc if it really matters.

[peaceridge]

What I would like is an option NOT to sort within the tag name at all - leave it just like I enter it. For example, I would like to have a value that says: "Health, Diet" and one that says "Heath, Vitamins", so that when I sort on the tag column all the Health are together instead of "Diet, Health" coming before "Health, Vitamins" or "Health, Diet" coming before "Vitamins, Health" - depending on whether it is ascending or descending. I've tried creating my own column, but got things like [1] at the end of the values.

UPDATE: As I was writing this, I had an idea that works perfectly - use a ":", so that I enter "Health: Vitamins" and "Health: Diet", sorts great and looks just like I entered them. I'm going to go ahead and post this (even though I have my answer) just in case someone else is looking through this thread for this kind of problem. Hopefully, using a colon won't cause some other problem in the database.

Originally Posted by chaley

I submitted a change that sorts the tags in case-insensitive alpha order when they are read from the database. Assuming the change is accepted, tags columns will sort as they visually appear. Note that this is a string sort, meaning that numbers will sort by their characters. Example: the tags 1, 2, 10 will sort 1, 10, 2.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

What I would like is an option NOT to sort within the tag name at all - leave it just like I enter it.

Not going to happen. The required information is not in the database.

For example, I would like to have a value that says: "Health, Diet" and one that says "Heath, Vitamins", so that when I sort on the tag column all the Health are together instead of "Diet, Health" coming before "Health, Vitamins" or "Health, Diet" coming before "Vitamins, Health" - depending on whether it is ascending or descending. I've tried creating my own column, but got things like [1] at the end of the values.

Why did you use a series column? A text or enumeration column would have worked better. Or a text-tags-like if there are more than one Health:... applied to a book

UPDATE: As I was writing this, I had an idea that works perfectly - use a ":", so that I enter "Health: Vitamins" and "Health: Diet", sorts great and looks just like I entered them. I'm going to go ahead and post this (even though I have my answer) just in case someone else is looking through this thread for this kind of problem. Hopefully, using a colon won't cause some other problem in the database.

Other than suggesting that you don't put the space after the colon, this should work fine. Colons have no special meaning to calibre. Note, though, that if you try to use this field in a file template, and if you use Windows (and possibly the others), the colon will be turned into an underscore. Colons are illegal in windows file names.

[peaceridge]

"Why did you use a series column? A text or enumeration column would have worked better. Or a text-tags-like if there are more than one Health:... applied to a book - "

I think that is what I was using when I got the [1] at the end of the text.

"Other than suggesting that you don't put the space after the colon, this should work fine. Colons have no special meaning to calibre. "

Great - thanks for that - I'll remove the space after the colon.

"Note, though, that if you try to use this field in a file template, and if you use Windows (and possibly the others), the colon will be turned into an underscore. Colons are illegal in windows file names."

I don't think I would use it as a file template, but one never knows. So, I'll use a dash instead.

I'm just now starting to put my non-fiction on calibre, so, it is good to get these organizational aspects clarified up front.

Thanks for the feedback.