Another help with regular expressions

[encapuchado]

Well, following Starsons advice in another thread [use regexp to get info from the file name], I'm close to get the authors listed by <last-name, first-name>.

I found that the default regexp, found in the "Preferences ->Adding Books" menu is almost what I need.

(?P<title>.+) - (?P<author>[^_]+)

Thus, for a file named "SuchandSuch - Azimov_Isaac.epub" I got title="SuchandSuch", author="Asimov Isaac".

However, I would like to get author="Asimov, Isaac". Now, AFAIK regexps are for pattern matching, not for string processing. So, my question is if there is a way to get that extra comma between the last name and the first name.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by encapuchado

Well, following Starsons advice in another thread [use regexp to get info from the file name], I'm close to get the authors listed by <last-name, first-name>.

I found that the default regexp, found in the "Preferences ->Adding Books" menu is almost what I need.

(?P<title>.+) - (?P<author>[^_]+)

Thus, for a file named "SuchandSuch - Azimov_Isaac.epub" I got title="SuchandSuch", author="Asimov Isaac".

However, I would like to get author="Asimov, Isaac". Now, AFAIK regexps are for pattern matching, not for string processing. So, my question is if there is a way to get that extra comma between the last name and the first name.

There is a tick box for that (swap Author Firstname with Lastname)
in the Adding books preference

[kiwidude]

@theducks - that won't directly do what they want. They don't want to swap first and last name, they just want a comma inserted. So "Asimov Isaac" becomes "Asimov, Isaac".

Other than changing it manually or using search/replace, your other option is to do a metadata download with the authors box checked. This should overwrite the author in the format you prefer.

[encapuchado]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@theducks - that won't directly do what they want. They don't want to swap first and last name, they just want a comma inserted. So "Asimov Isaac" becomes "Asimov, Isaac".

Yes, that is exactly what I want. I was hoping there was some kind of replace function added to the basic regexp processing.

[kiwidude]

No there isn't (in the adding process - you can do it post process but that would be messy). If you want such functionality, the best way would be to use a bulk renaming tool outside of Calibre to insert the comma.

[encapuchado]

Finally, following the advices given by the fine patrons of this sub-forum, I got what I wanted, see the authors listed as <LN, FN> and sorted by LN.

In case somebody else wants to do the same, this was my procedure:

1. Using the free Bulk Rename Utility (just google it), I renamed the file to "title - lastname, firstname.epub"
2. Open Calibre.
3. In menu "Preferences->Tweak->Author sort name algorithm" I put author_sort_copy_method = 'copy'
4. In menu "Preferences->Adding books" I unchecked all three options and I left the default regular expression alone.
5. Close and open Calibre.
6. Add the books to Calibre library and voila!

Thanks to all

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by encapuchado

Finally, following the advices given by the fine patrons of this sub-forum, I got what I wanted,

Great!