Templates: various questions not worth their own thread

[1ily]

Originally Posted by chaley

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:


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.

Thank you for your help. I added switch_if() statements and updated the relational clauses as recommended. This fixed it, and it works flawlessly!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by 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?

I can't think offhand of a better way without using a python stored template. That said, changing format_date($date, 'yyyy') to format_date_field($date, 'yyyy') will be faster.

EDIT: For consistency with field_list_count() and the new operator field_inlist (addition submitted to Kovid) I submitted a change to rename format_date_field() to field_format_date(). The old name format_date_field() is an alias and will continue to work. My intention is that any new functions and operators that work on fields will be prefixed with 'field_'.

EDIT2: I might reverse the naming convention and put the _field at the end, changing field_list_count() to list_count_field(). The new operator would be inlist_field instead of field_inlist. In this case the format_date_field() wouldn't be renamed. Still thinking ...

[ownedbycats]

Regarding format_date_field, something odd happened: I had a book today that matched all the criteria (added today, had the readinggoal tag, had a purchasesource and a non-0 cost).

However, when I used format_date_field() it didn't add the challenge tag. Changing it back to format_date() worked.

I tested with both $date and $$date.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Regarding format_date_field, something odd happened: I had a book today that matched all the criteria (added today, had the readinggoal tag, had a purchasesource and a non-0 cost).

However, when I used format_date_field() it didn't add the challenge tag. Changing it back to format_date() worked.

I tested with both $date and $$date.

format_date_field() takes the name of the field, not the value. So use format_date_field('date').

EDIT: until today's change is incorporated you must use format_date_field('timestamp') instead of 'date'.

[ownedbycats]

ah, the timestamp/date thing. Why does that column have two separate lookups anyways?

EDIT: Looks like the pull request has already been merged in.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

ah, the timestamp/date thing. Why does that column have two separate lookups anyways?

EDIT: Looks like the pull request has already been merged in.

Yes it has. One consequence: field_list_count() is now list_count_field(). You must change to the new name wherever you used the old one.

[ownedbycats]

Yeah, I noticed my columns errored when I updated from source. Got it fixed.

[Wiggo]

I have a column #series authors (thx chaley)

Spoiler:

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
    if book.series is None:
        return ''
    db = context.db.new_api
    ans = set()
    # Get the list of books in the series
    ids = db.search(f'series:"={book.series}"', '')
    if ids:
        # Get all the author_sort values for the books in the series
        author_sorts = (v for v in db.all_field_for('author_sort', ids).values())
        # Add the names to the result set, removing duplicates
        for aus in author_sorts:
            ans.update(v.strip() for v in aus.split('&'))
    # Make a sorted comma-separated string from the result set
    return ', '.join(v.replace(',', ';') for v in sorted(ans))

And I have a column symbol for more than one series author

program:
	if list_count($#series_authors, ',') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

I wanted to replace list_count by list_count_field but I get an error

program:
	if list_count_field('#series_authors') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

I installed Calibre 7.20.100 but as always, I have no idea.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

I have a column #series authors (thx chaley)

Spoiler:

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
    if book.series is None:
        return ''
    db = context.db.new_api
    ans = set()
    # Get the list of books in the series
    ids = db.search(f'series:"={book.series}"', '')
    if ids:
        # Get all the author_sort values for the books in the series
        author_sorts = (v for v in db.all_field_for('author_sort', ids).values())
        # Add the names to the result set, removing duplicates
        for aus in author_sorts:
            ans.update(v.strip() for v in aus.split('&'))
    # Make a sorted comma-separated string from the result set
    return ', '.join(v.replace(',', ';') for v in sorted(ans))

And I have a column symbol for more than one series author

program:
	if list_count($#series_authors, ',') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

I wanted to replace list_count by list_count_field but I get an error

program:
	if list_count_field('#series_authors') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

Attachment 211650

I installed Calibre 7.20.100 but as always, I have no idea.

Composite columns are strings, not multi-valued lists. list_count_field() would be slower than list_count(), so the it doesn't try. Doing further error checking would slow it down even more.

[Wiggo]

Learning never stops - thank you!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by major4579

I'm trying to figure out how to jump to the next Marked book in my library (for various reasons). I want to see the UnMarked books surrounding the Marked book.
[...]

Moderator Notice
Please don't double post. Your other post is sufficient. I deleted the post in this thread.

[ownedbycats]

Question: I have a stored template, colours_daysbetween(), formatted as colours_daysbetween($#lastread, '#00aaff', '#69cfff', '#9bdeff').

program:

	arguments(date, colourA, colourB, colourC);
	now = format_date(today(), 'yyyy-MM-dd');

	if days_between(now,date) <#1 then colourA
	elif days_between(now,date) <=# 14 then colourB
	elif days_between(now,date) <=# 30 then colourC 
	fi

I don't remember where I got this (I possibly wrote it myself) but is there any particular reason to use a format_date() instead of just 'today()'? The template works when tested with the latter.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Question: I have a stored template, colours_daysbetween(), formatted as colours_daysbetween($#lastread, '#00aaff', '#69cfff', '#9bdeff').

program:

	arguments(date, colourA, colourB, colourC);
	now = format_date(today(), 'yyyy-MM-dd');

	if days_between(now,date) <#1 then colourA
	elif days_between(now,date) <=# 14 then colourB
	elif days_between(now,date) <=# 30 then colourC 
	fi

I don't remember where I got this (I possibly wrote it myself) but is there any particular reason to use a format_date() instead of just 'today()'? The template works when tested with the latter.

Using format_date() ensures that the hours, minutes, and seconds are removed from the date, setting it to midnight. That makes the days_between() calculation more predictable in the face of differing times of day. That might not be important here, in which case using today() directly will be be faster.

[ownedbycats]

Ah yeah, I think that's what I was trying to do.

As long as I use $(field) instead of $$(raw_field) in the date argument, would that make it line up to midnight (assuming a datetime column)?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Ah yeah, I think that's what I was trying to do.

As long as I use $(field) instead of $$(raw_field) in the date argument, would that make it line up to midnight (assuming a datetime column)?

Depends on how 'field' is formatted. If it is formatted without time information then yes unless some part of the conversion chain does rounding. You do need to decide what to do with fractional days. Said another way, exactly what is a day? Is it 24 hours or a change of the calendar? Should 00:01 - 23:59 be one day, which is what will happen if comparing calendar days instead of durations.

I also must ask: why is this precision so important? Why not let a day be 24 hours, making everything easier?