Sorting Authors by Name is wrong in 6.4

[igorius]

Sorting has a regression in v6.4... Sorting is same as Authors_sort which is clearly wrong.
See attached pic:

[chaley]

That is the way calibre has always behaved. The authors column is sorted by author_sort.

To get what you want set author_sort to author.

[igorius]

Nope, sorting by Authors is wrong!
To be more clear:
I want to get sorted Authors by:

Forname Lastname from A to Z or
Forname Lastname from Z to A

Sorting is right here:
Author_sort upwards ---> Adams, Ben to Zygowski, Tom
Author_sort downwards --> Zygowski, Tom to Adams, Ben

Sorting is wrong here:
Authors upwards -->Ben Adams to Tom Zygowsky
Authors downwards --> Tom Zygowsky to Ben Adams

Sorting is wrong, it shoud be:
Authors upwards --> Aaron Maier to Zyske Terence
Authors downwards --> Zyske Terence to Aaron Maier

See the attached pics: I have changed sorting to "Author_sort"

[chaley]

Originally Posted by igorius

Nope, sorting by Authors is wrong!
To be more clear:
I want to get sorted Authors by
Forname Lastname from A to Z or
Forname Lastname from Z to A

Author_sort upwards ---> Adams, Ben to Zygowski, Tom
Author_sort downwards --> Zygowski, Tom to Adams, Ben

Authors upwards -->Ben Adams to Tom Zygowsky
Authors downwards --> Tom Zygowsky to Ben Adams

It shoud be:
Authors upwards --> Aaron Maier to Zyske Terence
Authors downwards --> Zyske Terence to Aaron Maier

See the attached pics:

I say it again: in calibre, by design the authors column is always sorted by author_sort. It has done this since at least 2010, and will not change.

If you don't like the results then you have two choices:

1. Copy author to author_sort. You can do this in the Manage Authors dialog available by right-clicking the authors column in tag browser.
2. Create a composite column (Type "column built from other columns" that doesn't "behave like tags") with the template {authors} and sort/search column by Text. This column will sort using its own contents, not author_sort.

[igorius]

And it still sorts wrong!
End of discussion!

[un_pogaz]

Originally Posted by igorius

And it still sorts wrong!
End of discussion!

Not the best position.

Author sorting in Calibre has always been a bit "treacherous". It makes sense and is consistentit, but it's took me a while to get used to it and to make sure it works properly:
1) it doesn't exactly use the value "authors", but a close friend and invisible one "author_sort"
2) this "author_sort" value can be wrong individually for each book (red border around the field "Author sort")

If you think there is really a mistake, send a list of authors with their "author_sort" values as saved in Calibre.
Send the order given by Calibre, and then the order you expected. In detail (10-20 lines).

To correct the incorrect "author_sort" of the books, Selecte all books, launched a "Bulk editing metadata" and checked only "Automatically set author sort".

But that's just one step. All of this is mixed into several options and features scattered throughout Calibre.
To get the result you want, you will have to go very slowly, step by step.

[BetterRed]

@igorius

See this tweak:



And if you want different options on different libraries, there's a per library tweak in the JobSpy plugin:



Both assume the author names are entered in a consistent manner:

BR

[theducks]

And the Fix section of the Quality check plugin has a few quick adjustment to SELECTED books.
(It also has checks that can find thoe, simply select all (the results) and apply the fix.

The las is a way to override specific authors: In the Tag browser: Authors: right click, Manage Authors. This allows adjustment for when the typical (tweaks) can't handle a condition.

[igorius]

Maybe there is a big misunderstanding:
Authors is sorting wrong, not Author_sort! Authors is a native column, this one is storing Authors in the manner of "First Name" "Last Name". But sorting is made in the manner of "Last Name" "First Name", which is definitely wrong (Its the sorting of author_sort).

I understand what you all say about author_sort! I have set calibres setting to set the author_sort automatically when an Author is entered when importing a book. I always have a look at this because publishers tend to set these names often the wrong way, say (with single Authors) sometimes the names are right set like Sam Spade, sometimes its set like Spade, Sam or Spade Sam. And when a book has more than one author, things get more funny! Mostly they set names like Sam Spade, & Mike Tool, (note the , after Spade and Tool), so sorting fails -> and i get new authors "Sam Spade," and "Mike Tool,".
But here in my case the name is set right, Authors_sort is right too:

Here you see how Authors should sort the right way!

"Author"......................."Author_sort"
"Aaron Miller"................"Miller, Aaron"
"Ben Cartwright"............"Cartwright, Ben"
"Caesar Burner"............."Burner, Caesar"

This is the way calibre sorts Authors: (Sort from A to Z)

"Author"..........................."Author_sor t"
"Caesar Burner"................."Burner, Caesar"
"Ben Cartwright"................"Cartwright, Ben"
"Aaron Miller"...................."Miller, Aaron"

All times speaking of Authors, a native column! The database stores the names exactly the same way! The Books are stored physically the same way on the harddisk.

So you see the mistake of calibres sorting? Its sorting the same way as in Author_sort.
When i set Author_sort to sort from A to Z, the sorting like this second way is correct!
(I now look at the harddisk to control the authors due to the right sorting)

I hope, the last examples gives the idea, even the pics i uploaded show the same problem!
Sorting of Authors is done by the wrong column Author_sort, not the column Authors!

So in my opinion the sorting of authors is clearly wrong.
If i sort title from A to Z, titles are sorted the right way too:
Adam and the bee
Berta sells flowers
Caesar burns rome
...
Zacharias swims far away

PS: Added 2 pics, one is harddisk, second is the metadata db, sort authors by name ascending.

[BetterRed]

If I go to my local library to borrow this book:



I'd look for it in the shelves marked T, hoping to find it between Hone Tuwhare's Year of the Dog and Nick Twinamatsiko's The Chwezi Code.

BR

[un_pogaz]

Ah
And this is the trap you have to understand:
When you ask Calibre to sort the "Authors" column, Calibre will always, always, use the "Author_sort" value.
You have to see "Authors" as a visual value only in the GUI, but not the "real" one that will be used in the sorting, hence the existence of "Author_sort". Calibre works like that. It is not possible to "correctly" sort the "Authors" column with a different "Author_sort" value. Point. (else, I miss a Tweaks)

If you want to sort strictly the "Authors" column as you would expect from its visual, you will have to copy the "Authors" value into "Author_sort". You have to go to Preference>Tweaks>Author sort name algorithm, then set the value to author_sort_copy_method = 'copy'. After the restart, right click on the "Authors" in the Tag browser and select Manage authors, then click on Recalculate all author sort values (it will take a little while).
And then, when you ask Calibre to sort the column "Authors", this will be the result you expect.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

If you want to sort strictly the "Authors" column as you would expect from its visual, you will have to copy the "Authors" value into "Author_sort". You have to go to Preference>Tweaks>Author sort name algorithm then set the value to author_sort_copy_method = 'copy'. After the restart, right click on the "Authors" in the Tag browser and select Manage authors then click on Recalculate all author sort values (it will take a little while).

Alternatively and as I said in post 4, make a custom column "Built from other columns" (not like tags) with the template {authors}. This will sort by what you see, not author sort. As a side benefit it preserves the existing author_sort values.

[un_pogaz]

Here, as we are in something close:
Is it possible/Tweaks to partition the authors tag browser with the first letter of "authors" instead of "author_sort"? (not like the image)
Or the same, it will always use the "author_sort" value and I do with it?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Here, as we are in something close:
Is it possible/Tweaks to partition the authors tag browser with the first letter of "authors" instead of "author_sort"? (not like the image)
Or the same, it will always use the "author_sort" value and I do with it?

Authors in the tag browser are always sorted by the author's "author_sort" value stored in the authors table. As such, first letter partitioning will also use the same author_sort value.

There is a tweak that changes what is *displayed* in the tag browser, "Use author sort in Tag browser (ID: categories_use_field_for_author_name)". This tweak has no effect on how the list is sorted.

Set which author field to display in the Tag browser (the list of authors, series, publishers etc on the left hand side). The choices are author and author_sort. This tweak affects only what is displayed under the authors category in the Tag browser and Content server. Please note that if you set this to author_sort, it is very possible to see duplicate names in the list because although it is guaranteed that author names are unique, there is no such guarantee for author_sort values. Showing duplicates won't break anything, but it could lead to some confusion. When using 'author_sort', the tooltip will show the author's name.

By default the tag browser displays 'author'.

If you make a custom column as described above then first letter processing would be on the value, giving you what you are asking for.

NB: The 'title' and 'series' columns also use an underlying sort value. In the 'title' case it is 'title_sort'. In the 'series' case it is computed on use with the default being the same processing as 'title'.

[igorius]

@un_pogaz: So what a strange thing: I have to have 2 columns, Authors and Author_sort, which have both the same value in and a third column with author_sort inside, if i need both values (Authors and Authors_sort).
So sorry, but who had this strange idea? It seems extremely far away from real life! And imagine the big possibility of getting strange things with that 3 columns. I see only problems with this and no positive use.
Its like shooting to the sky to kill a mouse...
Why not make sorting the easy way? Why complicated? And therefore senseless (in my opinion). Or do you have a good explanation for that strange thing? Why can i "sort" the Authors column when i cannot sort like any other column?
What if i delete the column author_sort? Then sorting is impossible?