Templates: various questions not worth their own thread

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

...

This removes the 'Culture & Regions' items from split_tags, extracts the lastmost item, and merges them back in.

However, it only works with one item. After splitting the culture_tags list with ',', how do I process each item separately?

Example: Fiction.Cultures & Regions.Canada.Western Canada, Fiction.Cultures & Regions.Metis, Fiction.Historical Fiction
Preferred result (after sorting): Historical Fiction, Metis, Western Canada
Actual result: Historical Fiction, Metis

It is hard to understand what you are trying to do. What you say the code does and what the code actually does are different.

Reading what you say and the code, it appears that:

• if a tag contains the item "Cultures & Regions" then you want the last item.
• otherwise you want all items split into individual tags.

However, the examples don't agree with this. Your code will include both the "Fiction" and "Historical Fiction" of "Fiction.Historical Fiction" while your example output does not. Which is right?

This template does one version of what you might be asking for.

program:
	tags = 'Fiction.Cultures & Regions.Canada.Western Canada, Fiction.Cultures & Regions.Metis, Fiction.Historical Fiction, Fiction.Bar.Mumble';
	new_tags = '';

	for t in tags:
		if '\.Cultures & Regions\.' in t then
			nt = list_item(t, -1, '.')
		else
			nt = re(t, '\.', ',')
		fi;
		new_tags = list_union(new_tags, nt, ',')
	rof;
	list_sort(new_tags, 0, ',')

The output is

Bar, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Metis, Mumble, Western Canada

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

It is hard to understand what you are trying to do. What you say the code does and what the code actually does are different.

Reading what you say and the code, it appears that:

• if a tag contains the item "Cultures & Regions" then you want the last item.
• otherwise you want all items split into individual tags.

However, the examples don't agree with this. Your code will include both the "Fiction" and "Historical Fiction" of "Fiction.Historical Fiction" while your example output does not. Which is right?

That's because I left out part of the template and forgot to account for it in the examples.

program:

	if 
		'^(Fiction|Nonfiction|Magazines & Publications)' in $#booktype 
	then 
## Remove 'Culture & Regions' items as they're processed differently
		split_tags = list_re_group($tags, ',', '.', '(^.*Cultures & Regions.*$)', '');
## Split tags or return an empty
		split_tags = re(split_tags, '\.', ',') 
	else
		split_tags = ''
	fi;

## Cultures & Regions - list_item with a '.' separator to get the lastmost item
	cultures_tags = list_re($tags, ',', 'Cultures & Regions', '');
	cultures_tags = list_item(cultures_tags, -1, '.');
## Re-merge this with split_tags
	split_tags = list_union(split_tags, cultures_tags, ',');

## Removing a few unwanteds and sorting
	cleaned_tags = list_sort(list_difference(
		split_tags,
		'[Cleanup], Fiction, Nonfiction, Magazines & Publications, Topics',
		','), 0, ',');

## Add 'Omnibus' if applicable
	if 
		'omnibus' 
	in 
		$#admintags 
	then 
		cleaned_tags  = 'Omnibus' & if cleaned_tags then ', ' & cleaned_tags fi
	fi;

	cleaned_tags

[ownedbycats]

What would be the best way to remove excessive whitespaces in the middle of a value? (Calibre seems to remove them at the beginnings and endings.)

I was thinking something like re checking for two or more spaces but wasn't sure if there was a better way.

[ownedbycats]

Additional question:

I have this template for listing the first letter (or 0-9 if numeric)

{title_sort:'contains(t=uppercase(re($, '^\W*(\w).*$','\1')), '\d', '0-9', t)'}

I'd like to use transliterate() to standardize the letters (currently accented characters shown separately). How would I add that?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

What would be the best way to remove excessive whitespaces in the middle of a value? (Calibre seems to remove them at the beginnings and endings.)

I was thinking something like re checking for two or more spaces but wasn't sure if there was a better way.

I would use

re(val, '\s+')

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Additional question:

I have this template for listing the first letter (or 0-9 if numeric)

{title_sort:'contains(t=uppercase(re($, '^\W*(\w).*$','\1')), '\d', '0-9', t)'}

I'd like to use transliterate() to standardize the letters (currently accented characters shown separately). How would I add that?

{title_sort:'contains(t=transliterate(uppercase(re($, '^\W*(\w).*$','\1'))), '\d', '0-9', t)'}

[estherflails]

Hello! Does switch_if have a [pattern, value] limit? When I tried to add over 20 pairs, it started returning the first value even if it was false.

This worked (it has 20 pairs):

count = raw_field('#chapters');

chapters_count = switch_if(count>=95, 95, count>=90, 90, count>=85, 85, count>=80, 80, count>=75, 75, count>=70, 70, count>=65, 65, count>=60, 60, count>=55, 55, count>=50, 50, count>=45, 45, count>=40, 40, count>=35, 35, count>=30, 30, count>=25, 25, count>=20, 20, count>=15, 15, count>=10, 10, count>=5, 5, count>=1, 1, 0);

This didn't (it has 21 pairs):

count = raw_field('#chapters');

chapters_count = switch_if(count>=100, 100, count>=95, 95, count>=90, 90, count>=85, 85, count>=80, 80, count>=75, 75, count>=70, 70, count>=65, 65, count>=60, 60, count>=55, 55, count>=50, 50, count>=45, 45, count>=40, 40, count>=35, 35, count>=30, 30, count>=25, 25, count>=20, 20, count>=15, 15, count>=10, 10, count>=5, 5, count>=1, 1, 0);

Or actually, it did work when 'count' was '1', but only then.

[ownedbycats]

When I tested your 21-pair template with #chaptercount, it produced the correct results.

[estherflails]

For some reason it doesn't work for me :/ I even updated Calibre to the newest version but it didn't help. Any idea what the problem could be?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

When I tested your 21-pair template with #chaptercount, it produced the correct results.

Originally Posted by estherflails

For some reason it doesn't work for me :/ I even updated Calibre to the newest version but it didn't help. Any idea what the problem could be?

The problem is you are using text relational operators ('>=') to compare numeric values. With a text compare, 100 is less than 4 because it does a lexical comparison. You must use numeric relationals, as in '>=#'. See "Relational operators" section in The calibre template language.

Here is your template, corrected.

count = raw_field('#chapters');

chapters_count = switch_if(
    count >=# 100, 100, count >=# 95, 95, count >=# 90, 90, 
    count >=# 85, 85, count >=# 80, 80, count >=# 75, 75, 
    count >=# 70, 70, count >=# 65, 65, count >=# 60, 60, 
    count >=# 55, 55, count >=# 50, 50, count >=# 45, 45, 
    count >=# 40, 40, count >=# 35, 35, count >=# 30, 30, 
    count >=# 25, 25, count >=# 20, 20, count >=# 15, 15, 
    count >=# 10, 10, count >=# 5, 5, count >=# 1, 1, 0);

[estherflails]

Originally Posted by chaley

The problem is you are using text relational operators ('>=') to compare numeric values. With a text compare, 100 is less than 4 because it does a lexical comparison. You must use numeric relationals, as in '>=#'. See "Relational operators" section in The calibre template language.

Thank you, I had no idea this was a thing. Learned something new today

[ownedbycats]

I'm still curious as to why it worked as expected for me but not estherflails.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I'm still curious as to why it worked as expected for me but not estherflails.

Probably because of the choice of input values. Using lexical compares, the only values that fail are ones that are not 2 digits: '100' and '1'-'9'.

You could make it work lexically by formatting the test value with leading zeros.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by estherflails

Thank you, I had no idea this was a thing. Learned something new today

This is a consequence of the template language being untyped, or perhaps better said typed only as string. Because it doesn't know the difference between a string and a number, you must tell it what to do by using different operators.

[ownedbycats]

I have a template that produces a list of dates all formatted the same (e.g. '2020-04-16, 2023-07-10').

How do I apply format_date() to these?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I have a template that produces a list of dates all formatted the same (e.g. '2020-04-16, 2023-07-10').

How do I apply format_date() to these?

Best would be to do it when you first build the list.

To do it after the fact, use something like this template:

program:
	date_list = '2020-04-16, 2023-07-10';
	formatted_list = '';
	for date in date_list:
		formatted_list = list_join(', ', formatted_list, ', ', format_date(date, 'dd-MMM-yyyy'), ', ')
	rof;
	formatted_list

Given your example input, it produces

16-Apr-2020, 10-Jul-2023