Plugboard for series numbering (decimals & no decimals)

[lina.w]

Hello all!

Before I begin, I just want to let you guys know I'm fairly new to calibre, so please be patient with me.

I have a bunch of books in series where there are novellas. I've been trying to look for a solution to get the numbering to appear as [01.5] if on the 'Series' column in calibre it appears as 1.50.

As of right now, this is what I have on my plugboard now is:
{series}{series_index:0>2s| [|] }{title}
which works just fine if the series numbering has no decimals.

So what if the series does have novellas and I want to use decimals? How would I have to change the plugboard so it changes to the way I want it to? (My guess is I would need to use an 'if statement' & 'regex', but I'm not sure 100% sure.)

Just an example of how I want the books to show up on my Kindle:
SeriesName [01] Title A
SeriesName [01.5] Title B
SeriesName [02] Title C
SeriesName [02.5] Title D
SeriesName [03] Title E

By the way, if I changed my mind and don't want a leading zero, do I just take out '0>2s'?

Thanks in advance!

[eschwartz]

Use the formatting operator: "4.1f" -- four characters, 2 leading, one decimal, one following the decimal.

0> -- indicates the filler symbol, and that it gets added to the > front.

[lina.w]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Use the formatting operator: "4.1f" -- four characters, 2 leading, one decimal, one following the decimal.

0> -- indicates the filler symbol, and that it gets added to the > front.

Thanks for the reply! I like the way it formats the series when there are decimal numbers

But would you happen to know how I would change it so that it only formats that way if I have decimal numbers? So numbers like 2.50 would change to 2.5, but numbers like 1, 2, 3, etc. stay like 01, 02, 03?

Sorry if I'm not providing a clear explanation!

[eschwartz]

I guess you could then regex the number to strip trailing zeroes and periods. But that might require raising the complexity to a General Program Mode template -- I believe formatting comes after functions.

So:

program:

formatted_series = finish_formatting(
    field('series_index'),
    '4.1f',
    '',
    ''
);
stripped_series = re(
    formatted_series,
    '^ \[(.*)[.0]+\]$',
    ' [\1] '
);

# Add together the final result
strcat(
    field('series'),
    stripped_series,
    field('title')
);

[lina.w]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I guess you could then regex the number to strip trailing zeroes and periods. But that might require raising the complexity to a General Program Mode template -- I believe formatting comes after functions.

So:

program:

formatted_series = finish_formatting(
    field('series_index'),
    '4.1f',
    '',
    ''
);
stripped_series = re(
    formatted_series,
    '^ \[(.*)[.0]+\]$',
    ' [\1] '
);

# Add together the final result
strcat(
    field('series'),
    stripped_series,
    field('title')
);

Good thing I've learned regex last semester so I can understand what is going on! Hmmm...I've pretty much copied and pasted the code you provided to the template, but this still doesn't change [01.0] to [01].

Do you mind explaining to me what '^ ' and '$' from '^ \[(.*)[.0]+\]$' does? If I remember correctly, ^ means negate? I'm not quite sure what the $ at the end does though.

Also, do we not need to escape the brackets from ' [\1] '?

Sorry for asking so many questions!

[Terisa de morgan]

^ out of an expression means beginning of text and $ the end of the text.

[chaley]

@eschwartz: the following fragment detects float vs integer. It might eliminate the need to regexp?

program:
	dex=field('series_index');
	i=format_number(dex, "{:02d}");
	f=format_number(dex, "{:04.1f}");
	isInt=cmp(f, i, '', 'yes', '');
	result=test(isInt, i, f)

[eschwartz]

chaley -- good idea! I haven't really used cmp before, in case you couldn't tell.


lina.w -- pretend I didn't write that. Tested this time.

program:

formatted_series = finish_formatting(
    field('series_index'),
    '0>4.1f',      #fixed
    ' [',          #fixed
    '] '           #fixed
);
stripped_series = re(
    formatted_series,
    '\.0+',        #fixed
    ''
);

# Add together the final result
strcat(
    field('series'),
    stripped_series,
    field('title')
);

Or as chaley said, because it is semantically correct as opposed to a filthy regex kludge.

program:

sidx=field('series_index');
i=format_number(sidx, "{:02d}");
f=format_number(sidx, "{:04.1f}");
isInt=cmp(f, i, '', 'yes', '');
final_sidx=finish_formatting(
    test(isInt, i, f),
    '',
    ' [',
    '] '
);

# Add together the final result
strcat(
    field('series'),
    final_sidx,
    field('title')
);

[eschwartz]

As for your questions about regex, they are fine. As Terisa said, the "^$" are beginning and ending anchors.

Certain characters like [] are reserved in regex and need to be escaped, but only in the pattern match, not the replacement text. Because we cannot replace with a pattern or character set.

[lina.w]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

chaley -- good idea! I haven't really used cmp before, in case you couldn't tell.


lina.w -- pretend I didn't write that. Tested this time.

program:

formatted_series = finish_formatting(
    field('series_index'),
    '0>4.1f',      #fixed
    ' [',          #fixed
    '] '           #fixed
);
stripped_series = re(
    formatted_series,
    '\.0+',        #fixed
    ''
);

# Add together the final result
strcat(
    field('series'),
    stripped_series,
    field('title')
);

Or as chaley said, because it is semantically correct as opposed to a filthy regex kludge.

program:

sidx=field('series_index');
i=format_number(sidx, "{:02d}");
f=format_number(sidx, "{:04.1f}");
isInt=cmp(f, i, '', 'yes', '');
final_sidx=finish_formatting(
    test(isInt, i, f),
    '',
    ' [',
    '] '
);

# Add together the final result
strcat(
    field('series'),
    final_sidx,
    field('title')
);

It worked, eschwartz!! Thank you for being so patient with me and for all your help! You are the best!!

And thank you Terisa de morgan & chaley for helping out & answering my questions too. You guys are awesome!

* * e d i t e d * *

this is just a minor problem, but now that I've got the formatting the way I want to, I'm just wondering why [01.5] appears before [01]? Say if I have a series with books with the following numberings [01], [02], and [03]. If I have a novella that goes between each, it should be in this order: [01], [01.5], [02], [02.5], [03], but the current order is [01.5], [01], [02.5], [02], [03]. I'm guessing there is no way to work around fixing this, so would my only option to getting the ordering right be going back to the previous formatting method?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by lina.w

this is just a minor problem, but now that I've got the formatting the way I want to, I'm just wondering why [01.5] appears before [01]?

Because period comes before right bracket in the standard character sort order. You can see the sort order here.

I'm guessing there is no way to work around fixing this, so would my only option to getting the ordering right be going back to the previous formatting method?

Try putting a space before the closing bracket. The space character sorts before the period. For consistency you might put a space after the opening bracket.

[PapaJohn]

I have been following this thread and am totally confused.
Where and how do I input the above mentioned code into Calibre?
Sorry for sounding dumb, but I don't have a clue about programming.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[eschwartz]

copy-paste it into a template definition.
custom column or Metadata plugboard, they all use the same language and parser.

If you right-click an input box in the plugboards definitions, it will allow you to open the Template Editor.

[Morrigu]

Originally Posted by chaley

Because period comes before right bracket in the standard character sort order. You can see the sort order here.

Try putting a space before the closing bracket. The space character sorts before the period. For consistency you might put a space after the opening bracket.

Hello,

Sorry to be dense, I know nothing of programming. I was interested in doing the same thing that the OP but can't figure out where exactly to add the spaces. I've copied the following code into the editor and have tried spaces in different spots but to no avail. (I did break it a couple of times though

To add a space would it also be ' ' ? I didn't want the [ ] that the OP used and wanted a # and I figured out how to do that. Just stuck on this bit.

Thanks for any help!

Code that I inserted:

program:

sidx=field('series_index');
i=format_number(sidx, "{:02d}");
f=format_number(sidx, "{:04.1f}");
isInt=cmp(f, i, '', 'yes', '');
final_sidx=finish_formatting(
test(isInt, i, f),
'',
' #',
' '
);

# Add together the final result
strcat(
field('series'),
final_sidx,
field('title')
);

[fogice]

This thread is exactly what I was looking for, thank you everyone. But I am stuck in the same place others were; getting the display order correct.

Originally Posted by lina.w

this is just a minor problem, but now that I've got the formatting the way I want to, I'm just wondering why [01.5] appears before [01]?

Originally Posted by chaley

Because period comes before right bracket in the standard character sort order. You can see the sort order here.
Try putting a space before the closing bracket. The space character sorts before the period. For consistency you might put a space after the opening bracket.

I have tried using ASCII characters that should sort earlier (space, comma, parenthesis) and after (colon, equals, tilde), and the sort order remains the same and incorrect. (I know that I am in a sorted view, because if I change some of the index numbers, the book positions change.)

Has anyone found a way to get them to sort properly?

(I'm using an up-to-date Kindle Voyage, if that makes a difference.)