How to Display Word Counts in Thousands and Millions in Calibre?

[Far_Pen_6884]

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to display word counts from FanFicFare in Calibre with both "K" for thousands and "M" for millions (e.g., 1500 as 1.5K, 34267 as 34.3K, 1234567 as 1.2M). I've seen solutions for thousands, but I'm not sure how to extend this to millions. Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for any help!

Here are a couple of solutions I found for displaying word counts in thousands:

#### Reddit Solution

From [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/com...ers/mf54thv/):

1. **Create a usual integer custom column** (e.g., named `wordcount`) to store the raw word count numbers filled by FanFicFare.
2. **Don't display this raw word count column** directly.
3. **Create a second custom column of type "Column built from other columns"** to format the display.

Use this composite template to show the word count simplified as thousands with one decimal and a "K" appended:

```plaintext
program: format_number(divide(field('#wordcount'), 1000), '{:.1f}K')
```

Explanation:
- `field('#wordcount')` reads the value from the column named `wordcount`.
- `divide(..., 1000)` divides the value by 1000 to convert to thousands.
- `format_number(..., '{:.1f}K')` formats the number with one decimal place and then appends "K".

For better sorting by number, instead of including "K" in the formatted string, use:

```plaintext
program: format_number(divide(field('#wordcount'), 1000), '{:.1f}')
```

and in the column settings, set **"Sort/search column by" -> "Number"**. This preserves numeric sorting by thousands. You can name this column "Length" or "Word Count (K)".

#### MobileRead Solution

From [MobileRead](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...php?t=340393):

A related example from MobileRead shows a simple template solution for 1.5k format using Calibre's program template syntax to do calculations manually:

```plaintext
program:
before = round($$#words/1000);
after = round(($$#words - (before*1000))/100)*0.1;
complete = before + after
```

[chaley]

Use switch_if() or first_matching_cmp().

Edit: the human_readable() function might do what you want

[Far_Pen_6884]

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/_mo...nHumanReadable

human_readable() function does pretty much what I want except it returns the value in KB, GB, MB, etc. I've decided to go with that until I find a better solution.

[Far_Pen_6884]

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/gen...human-readable

Maybe something like:

program: re_group(human_readable(field('#wordcount')), '([0-9.]+)([KMGTPEZY]?)', '\1\2')

or using the switch_if():

program:
switch_if(
field('#wordcount') >= 1000000, format_number(divide(field('#wordcount'),1000000), '{:.1f}M'),
field('#wordcount') >= 1000, format_number(divide(field('#wordcount'),1000), '{:.1f}K'),
field('#wordcount')
)

[chaley]

You could use substr() to chop off the last character.

[Far_Pen_6884]

To display word counts in Calibre using "K" for thousands and "M" for millions (like 1,500 as 1.5K, 34,267 as 34.3K, and 1,234,567 as 1.2M), you can leverage Calibre’s template language and its built-in functions.

### Recommended Approach: `human_readable()` Function

Calibre provides a built-in template function called `human_readable()` that takes a number and returns a string with an appropriate suffix (KB, MB, GB, etc.). You can use the `substr()` function to remove the 'B' at the end.

#### How to Set It Up

1. **Create a Custom Column** for your word count (if not already present), for example, `#wordcount`.
2. **Add a “Column built from other columns”** (a composite/custom column).
3. **Use this template in the column’s template field:**

```plaintext
program: substr(human_readable(field('#wordcount')), 0, -1)
```

- This will display:
- 1,234 → 1.2K
- 12,345 → 12.3K
- 1,234,567 → 1.2M

#### Explanation

- `field('#wordcount')` pulls the value from your custom word count column.
- `human_readable(...)` converts the number to a compact format using "KB" for thousand, "MB" for million, and so on.
- `substr(..., 0, -1)` removes the last character ('B') from the resulting string.

### Alternate: Manual Formatting Using Conditional Logic

If you want to tweak the display further or the built-in function doesn’t behave exactly how you prefer, you can use `switch_if()` to implement your own logic:

```plaintext
program:
switch_if(
field('#wordcount') >= 1000000, format_number(divide(field('#wordcount'),1000000), '{:.1f}M'),
field('#wordcount') >= 1000, format_number(divide(field('#wordcount'),1000), '{:.1f}K'),
field('#wordcount')
)
```

- Displays the count in “M” if it’s ≥1,000,000, in “K” if ≥1,000, and as the raw number otherwise.