Two questions

[darkmonk]

Originally Posted by darkmonk

Hey guys, I got into ebooks a while ago, and have just discovered the wonderful software that is Calibre. I'd like to add my collection, which is sorted in folders with the author's name. The files are named as "author - series # - title" i.e., "Cornelia Funke - Ink 2 - Inkspell.pdf"

However, not all files have a series, and I am not particularly adept at coding, so I am unsure what I should put as the regular expression for metadata guessing.

If anyone could suggest a line, or a way to take the series only when there are more then one dash, please tell me.

I should have know people would have forgotten

[kovidgoyal]

You can make part of a regular expression optional by appending a question mark to it

[darkmonk]

OK, thanks, but when I make a part optional, when is it used? Is it used when there is more data left after the other parts have been filled?

I try "(?P<author>.+) - (?P<series>.+)? - (?P<title>[^_]+)" but the series part is not bypassed when there are fewer then two dashes in the name. Consequently, the title becomes "Al Sarrantonio - Pumpkin Head", instead of what I want it to be.