Templates: various questions not worth their own thread

[1ily]

Originally Posted by chaley

You are using the string (lexical) comparison operator (<) instead of the numeric comparison operator (<#).

As said in the template language manual, which is your friend:


BTW: the first_matching_cmp() or the switch_if() functions seem to satisfy your needs and are faster than a series of if statements.

BTW2: it seems you should be using >=# in the second relational clause of the if statements. Otherwise you are skipping exact matches.

Thank you for your help. I added switch_if() statements and updated the relational clauses as recommended. This fixed it, and it works flawlessly!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

program:

	readgoal = strcat('readinggoal:', format_date(today(), 'yyyy'));
	challenge =	strcat('rgchallenges:purchases', format_date(today(), 'yyyy'));

	if
		format_date($date, 'yyyy') == format_date(today(), 'yyyy')
		&& readgoal in $#admintags
		&& $#purchasesource
		&& $#cost !='0.00'

	then
		list_union(challenge, $#admintags, ',')
	else
		$#admintags
	fi

Line 7 I'm trying to check whether the book's timestamp/date is set to this year. Is this the best method to do so?

I can't think offhand of a better way without using a python stored template. That said, changing format_date($date, 'yyyy') to format_date_field($date, 'yyyy') will be faster.

EDIT: For consistency with field_list_count() and the new operator field_inlist (addition submitted to Kovid) I submitted a change to rename format_date_field() to field_format_date(). The old name format_date_field() is an alias and will continue to work. My intention is that any new functions and operators that work on fields will be prefixed with 'field_'.

EDIT2: I might reverse the naming convention and put the _field at the end, changing field_list_count() to list_count_field(). The new operator would be inlist_field instead of field_inlist. In this case the format_date_field() wouldn't be renamed. Still thinking ...

[ownedbycats]

Regarding format_date_field, something odd happened: I had a book today that matched all the criteria (added today, had the readinggoal tag, had a purchasesource and a non-0 cost).

However, when I used format_date_field() it didn't add the challenge tag. Changing it back to format_date() worked.

I tested with both $date and $$date.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Regarding format_date_field, something odd happened: I had a book today that matched all the criteria (added today, had the readinggoal tag, had a purchasesource and a non-0 cost).

However, when I used format_date_field() it didn't add the challenge tag. Changing it back to format_date() worked.

I tested with both $date and $$date.

format_date_field() takes the name of the field, not the value. So use format_date_field('date').

EDIT: until today's change is incorporated you must use format_date_field('timestamp') instead of 'date'.

[ownedbycats]

ah, the timestamp/date thing. Why does that column have two separate lookups anyways?

EDIT: Looks like the pull request has already been merged in.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

ah, the timestamp/date thing. Why does that column have two separate lookups anyways?

EDIT: Looks like the pull request has already been merged in.

Yes it has. One consequence: field_list_count() is now list_count_field(). You must change to the new name wherever you used the old one.

[ownedbycats]

Yeah, I noticed my columns errored when I updated from source. Got it fixed.

[Wiggo]

I have a column #series authors (thx chaley)

Spoiler:

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
    if book.series is None:
        return ''
    db = context.db.new_api
    ans = set()
    # Get the list of books in the series
    ids = db.search(f'series:"={book.series}"', '')
    if ids:
        # Get all the author_sort values for the books in the series
        author_sorts = (v for v in db.all_field_for('author_sort', ids).values())
        # Add the names to the result set, removing duplicates
        for aus in author_sorts:
            ans.update(v.strip() for v in aus.split('&'))
    # Make a sorted comma-separated string from the result set
    return ', '.join(v.replace(',', ';') for v in sorted(ans))

And I have a column symbol for more than one series author

program:
	if list_count($#series_authors, ',') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

I wanted to replace list_count by list_count_field but I get an error

program:
	if list_count_field('#series_authors') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

I installed Calibre 7.20.100 but as always, I have no idea.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

I have a column #series authors (thx chaley)

Spoiler:

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
    if book.series is None:
        return ''
    db = context.db.new_api
    ans = set()
    # Get the list of books in the series
    ids = db.search(f'series:"={book.series}"', '')
    if ids:
        # Get all the author_sort values for the books in the series
        author_sorts = (v for v in db.all_field_for('author_sort', ids).values())
        # Add the names to the result set, removing duplicates
        for aus in author_sorts:
            ans.update(v.strip() for v in aus.split('&'))
    # Make a sorted comma-separated string from the result set
    return ', '.join(v.replace(',', ';') for v in sorted(ans))

And I have a column symbol for more than one series author

program:
	if list_count($#series_authors, ',') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

I wanted to replace list_count by list_count_field but I get an error

program:
	if list_count_field('#series_authors') > 1 then
		'series_authors.png'
	fi

Attachment 211650

I installed Calibre 7.20.100 but as always, I have no idea.

Composite columns are strings, not multi-valued lists. list_count_field() would be slower than list_count(), so the it doesn't try. Doing further error checking would slow it down even more.

[Wiggo]

Learning never stops - thank you!