Help needed for searching all complete series

[Henning]

Hallo

I would like to ask for some help how to perform a search to configure a virtual library containing complete series - or - let's say series with at least number the first three books available.

If [series] is of datatype "list" I would say:
I'm looking for ALL series which have at least three values in the field [series] AND the [series_index] has "1" and "2" and "3"

EXAMPLE: Serie: Carl Morck, available are part 1-6 of the series ==> the series would be included

EXAMPLE: Serie: Carl Morck, available are part 1,2,4-6 of the series ==> the series would not be included


I thought I could do the trick by looking for all series with at least three values (for book title) AND with the values "1", "2" and "3" for [series_index]:
The search failed - and - I don't know how to change the syntaxes.

I startet with:
series:#>3 .... fails
series:true series_index:"1" .... all series with book01 from that series - not the complete series - only book01
series: true series_index:#1 .... strange result and search field has a red line around
series:=series_index:... ... all fails

QUESTION: can I use a syntax similar to the syntax for [identifiers]?
see manual: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/gui.html#id23


Thanks for your help.

[capink]

I don't totally understand what you want to do but I will point out two things:

• The notion of complete series is/cannot be well defined. What if you only have parts 1,2,3 of a 5 parts series. No way to detect you are missing the last two.
• A more practical thing, is to look for series gaps. That can be done using the quality check plugin. (check metadata > check series gaps). The plugin will mark books with series gap as 'series_gaps' and show them using the search:
  

  marked:series_gaps

  If you want to show series with no gaps, you can use this search instead:
  

  series:true and not marked:series_gaps

  You can now use this search to make a virtual library. Note that as soon as you close or restart calibre, the marks will be cleared. So you will have to run the check series gap again.

[theducks]

Nothing is going to auto-show the missing tail end of a series.
Another tool (other that the Quality Check), is Quickview (Q), which is built in.
Simply put (click) the cursor on the Series Name and hit 'Q'.
like most lists in Calibre, you can sort the view by clicking the column title

Eyeball Mk I will probably all you need from there

[JSWolf]

I understand what's wanted. What's wanted is to make sure you have the at least the first 3 books in a series. But, your search also needs to take into account the novellas that get labaled as .5 and if there's another that follows, it's .6. So how would you take those sorts of book into account with your search? You can't.

The solution (IMHO) is to create a new library based on the existing library. Sort on the series column. Then you can manually have a look at what books in a series you have. When you have what fits your criteria you can then copy to the new library.

[theducks]

Another (Mostly Manual in that you run per Author)
run the Import List Plugin, and have it create 'Empty Books'
(Select a Red entry on the Left: right click:Match Empty Book

Now you have a 'place holder' that can be found by searching: formats:false

[Henning]

Thanks for this amazing feedback.

I played a little with "series:true and not marked:series_gaps" - still not "perfect" but a good start. Based on the search I generated a list of series "to read". Which was interesting as some series came up who I else would have probably overlooked.

I guess it would be a "nice to have" if a USER could simply grab a series and drop it onto a virtual library - or - second best - to have a drop-down to add series to a selection (with is the virtual library)


Thanks again!

[capink]

If what you want is to select books where the series have the first three books, you can achieve this using the Action Chains plugin. The chain to do so is attached in this post. You just import it (Action Chains > Customize Plugin > Right click table > import > choose the attached zip file), and should have a menu entry in the action chains plugin titled "Mark series with parts 1,2,3".

This chain uses the following two templates:

• First template runs once and stores series with the first three books in a variable called series_ok:
  

  program:
      all_series = category_items('series');
      res = '';
      for series in all_series separator ':::':
          indices = from_search('series_index', strcat('series:"=', series, '"'));
          intersection = list_intersection(indices, '1.0,2.0,3.0', ',');
          if count(intersection, ',') == 3 then
              res = list_union(res, series, ' ::: ')
          fi
      rof;
      res

• Second template runs for all books that are part of series, and if the book series is in the variable series_ok (created by the first template), it will mark the book with 'complete_series'
  

  program:
      series_ok = globals(series_ok);
      series = field('series');
      if series then
          if list_intersection(series_ok, series, ':::') == series then
              'complete_series'
          else
              'missing_series'
          fi    
      fi

Note that for this to work, you need the latest version of both calibre (5.12) and Action Chains plugin (1.3.1)