Suggestion: Sum and Average in Column header options

[BetterRed]

Add an option to the Column Header context menu (press 'H' on a cell) for integers and floats that calculates the Sum and Average of the column for the selected books and shows the results in a copy-able popup.

BR

[chaley]

Here is an action chain that computes what you want. Install it and give it a keyboard shortcut.

To use it, select a cell then extend the selection over the books you want.

Edit: added support for ratings columns

[ownedbycats]

There's also a Sum Column plugin that works on both ints and floats for selected books.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There's also a Sum Column plugin that works on both ints and floats for selected books.

Too bad it isn't in the plugin index. I actually looked to see if something already did the job. Perhaps because the plugin is no longer supported.

One difference: this action chain version doesn't require you to predefine the column to be summed. It works on the selected column. However, it doesn't work on ratings, but that isn't a hard change to make.

Edit: the action chain in the second post now supports ratings columns

[ownedbycats]

I think the developer abandoned it, though there's a fixed version for Py3 on the last page.

[Lys]

Originally Posted by chaley

Here is an action chain that computes what you want. Install it and give it a keyboard shortcut.

To use it, select a cell then extend the selection over the books you want.

Thanks, chaley

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Here is an action chain that computes what you want. Install it and give it a keyboard shortcut.

To use it, select a cell then extend the selection over the books you want.

I tried that a few months ago, but I don't think it I twigged that it's select cell and then select books - I think I assumed it iterated over all the books shown in the list - I'll reinstall AC and give it another go.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I tried that a few months ago, but I don't think it I twigged that it's select cell and then select books - I think I assumed it iterated over all the books shown in the list - I'll reinstall AC and give it another go.

BR

It probably didn't work. This chain uses a bespoke python template that "talks" directly to the calibre GUI to get the selected column then the selected books. I don't know how to do the same thing with standard action chain selection modifiers.

Bottom line: action chains can be used to run more-or-less arbitrary GUI processes using python templates. For me, this is preferable to building things into the GUI, because I avoid all sorts of maintenance and compatibility headaches. On the other hand, we might want to keep an index of this sort of thing, perhaps including template searches, so they are discoverable. At the moment, how to do that efficiently is a mystery.

[BetterRed]

I don't know where I found your chain originally, must have been in a drive-by thread

I wouldn't use the sum_selected… chain often enough to warrant a shortcut, and given I don't have any other use for the AC plugin I think I'll stick to pumping a catalogue into Excel. Which has the advantage that I can save an xlsx in the source physical/virtual library.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I don't know where I found your chain originally, must have been in a drive-by thread

You couldn't have found it before. I wrote it today.

Using excel is a fine alternative.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

You couldn't have found it before. I wrote it today.

Using excel is a fine alternative.

Perhaps it was the plugin owb mentioned, whatever it was, it didn't work for me, so I let it go through to the 'keeper. My suggestion yesterday was prompted by the wish to beat several people around the head with:

"Stop whinging about there being no 'Detail' and do what I did, read the 700,000+ words in these 1,000+ pages ==>> a.pdf, b.pdf, c.pdf…"

The .pdfs include Joint Select Committee and Hansard reports

[ownedbycats]

Sum Column silently fails if there's zero books selected. Otherwise you get a dialog:



You need to pre-select the columns in the config.

[ownedbycats]

On the topic, I was mildly interested to see that the action chain works on a custom ratings column (though sum and median aren't very useful in this case):

Column name: Ratings (#ratings)
Column type: rating
Count of selected books: 635
Count of books with a non-empty value: 635
Sum: 2110.500
Average: 3.324
Median: 3.500

EDIT: Line 9 specifically accounts for this:

	if fm['datatype'] not in ('int', 'float', 'rating'):

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

On the topic, I was mildly interested to see that the action chain works on a custom ratings column (though sum and median aren't very useful in this case):

Column name: Ratings (#ratings)
Column type: rating
Count of selected books: 635
Count of books with a non-empty value: 635
Sum: 2110.500
Average: 3.324
Median: 3.500

EDIT: Line 9 specifically accounts for this:

	if fm['datatype'] not in ('int', 'float', 'rating'):

FWIW: it is more complicated than that because ratings are multiplied by 2, ranging from 0 to 10. Doing computations on them requires accounting for that, usually dividing by 2. You can see this in a GPM template using raw_field().

[ownedbycats]

interesting, using field instead of raw_field (or $ instead of $$) fixes that.