composite columns only effect part of data

[Jade Aislin]

I have a custom column (#characters) that I want to add another custom column (#fandom) data to the beginning of.

ie. if the character column has Xander, Yusuke, and the fandoms are BtVS, YYH, I want to see BtVS.Xander and YYH.Yusuke. I would settle for BtVS.YYH.Xander, BtVS.YYH.Yusuke, as calibre won't know which character belongs to which fandom and I can edit to the correct fandom later.

I thought that I could create a composite column to get the BtVS.YYH.Xander result and then copy it to the character column. However, it is not giving me the result I expected.

I used the template:

{#fandom}.{#characters}

But the results I got were:
BtVS, YYH.Xander, Yusuke

I'm not sure why it's only changing some of the data. Is there something I can do to get the results I want?

[chaley]

The template you used appends one column to another. What you want is more complicated, appending each value in column 2 (#characters) to a processed version of column 1 (#fandom}.

This template does what I think you are asking for. The first code line generates the new prefix from the fandom column by replacing all commas-followed-by-spaces with a period. "BtVS, YYH" becomes "BtVS.YYH". The second code line adds that prefix to each item in the #character list, separated by a period.

program:
	fd = re(field('#fandom'), ', *','.');
	list_re(field('#characters'), ',', '(.*)', strcat(fd, '.', '\1'))

You end up with "BtVS.YYH.Xander, BtVS.YYH.Yusuke".

[Jade Aislin]

Originally Posted by chaley

The template you used appends one column to another. What you want is more complicated, appending each value in column 2 (#characters) to a processed version of column 1 (#fandom}.

This template does what I think you are asking for. The first code line generates the new prefix from the fandom column by replacing all commas-followed-by-spaces with a period. The second code line adds that prefix to each item in the #character list, separated by a period.

I had the feeling that it would be more complicated, but I wasn't sure how to do it. I had looked at 'list' functions, but I couldn't figure which one to use or how to use it.

Your code worked. Thank you.