How to search for last book in series?

[Square]

How to search for the last book in a series?

I have a custom column where I mark if a series is still releasing new books, however over the years I've let this data get completely out of date.

Is there a search expression to find the last book released in a series, so I can sort by date and mark the ones that are older than a few years as a completed series?

[kovidgoyal]

Sort by the series column and use a search expression to restrict the results to books with a date older than X years ago

[Square]

How to limit the search to books that are the LAST in any series?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Square

How to limit the search to books that are the LAST in any series?

Kovid created Calibre, so he should know.

You can't.
Searches look at a Single record at a time. They have no concept of any other record. They simply add the found to the results view. You can sort on Series. That groups by order. Note there is no restriction on having multiples of the same Index. I use 0 for when there is no series placement ORDER specified (just a story within the series). In this case , there is no 'last'

The closest PI that includes a report on series index is:
Quality check: Check metadata: check series gaps <then view Log>

[theducks]

Correction:
Quality check Plugins log does report Last

Series: Desert Called Peace - Author: Tom Kratman - Last: #5 
    Missing#: 4

[bluefish2020]

I do something close to that using an Action Chain similar to this code:

from calibre_plugins.action_chains.actions.base import ChainAction

class MarkLastBookInSeriesAction(ChainAction):
    name = 'Mark Last Book In Series'

    def run(self, gui, settings, chain):
        db = gui.current_db
        api = gui.current_db.new_api

        book_ids = {}
        series_names = api.all_field_names('series')

        for series_name in series_names:
            series_id = api.get_item_id('series', series_name)
            books_in_series = api.books_for_field('series', series_id)
            print(f"loaded {len(books_in_series)} books in series {series_name}")
            book_id = self.last_book_in_series(api, books_in_series)
            mark = 'last_book' if len(books_in_series) > 1 else 'only_book'
            if book_id:
                book_ids.update({book_id: mark})

        db.set_marked_ids(book_ids)
        # in practice setting the search likely belongs in its own link of the chain but this makes it less complicated to explain
        gui.search.setEditText('marked:true')
        gui.search.do_search()

    def last_book_in_series(self, api, books_in_series):       
        indexes = api.all_field_for("series_index", books_in_series, None)

        # primary works vs short stories...
        # if 11.0 and 11.1 exist, do we really want the 11.1? probably not.
        # also, ignore anything under 1. omnibus and prequels etc.
        last_primary_work = None
        last_minor_work = None
        any_work = None

        for book_id, i in sorted(indexes.items(), key=lambda kv: (kv[1], kv[0]), reverse=True):
            if any_work is None:
                any_work = book_id
            if i < 1.0:
                continue
            if i.is_integer():
                if last_primary_work is None:
                    last_primary_work = book_id  # it would be safe to just return this now
            else:
                if last_minor_work is None:
                    last_minor_work = book_id

        return last_primary_work or last_minor_work or any_work

[dunhill]

Once this topic has been discussed, please check this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...65&postcount=3