Regular Expression Help

[TreborPugly]

Originally Posted by Starson17

Try this:

^((?P<author>([^\_0-9]+)(?=\s*-\s*)(?!\s*-\s*[0-9.]+)|\b))(\s*-\s*)?((?P<series>[^0-9\-]+) ([-#] ?)?(?P<series_index>[0-9.]+)?\s*-\s*)?(?P<title>[^(]+)

It excludes the open paren from the title.

Thank you muchly. That does the trick.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by TreborPugly

Thank you muchly. That does the trick.

You're welcome. Studying the other parts of that regex is instructive, if you're interested - particularly the positive and negative look-ahead assertions (?= and ?!) and the or construct (|) you asked about.

[Mythlandia]

In trying to experiment with regex for the file name, I wiped my default string.
I am now just trying to get back to "author - title" but, on the OSX 0.7.4 Calibre I can't get any regex to pass the test nor to actually work with real file names. I have tried lots of examples from this thread and cannot get a single one with parse anything.
Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Mythlandia

I can't get any regex to pass the test nor to actually work with real file names. I have tried lots of examples from this thread and cannot get a single one with parse anything.

I seem to recall hearing someone say they needed the file extension in the test string, .epub or .pdf to get the test to work.

[Mythlandia]

Thanks - that was the magic info I needed!

Phil

[Barak]

Hello All. I could use some help. I'm very new to Regular Expressions...

I have file names in one of three formats:

Orson Scott Card - Alvin Maker, Book #01 - Seventh Son.txt
Orson Scott Card - Alvin Maker 01 - Seventh Son.txt
Orson Scott Card - Seventh Son.txt

Is there a way to extract the relevant information from all three formats with one RegExp?

Thanks for any help!

Barak

[capidamonte]

(?P<author>.*?)(\s\-\s)((?P<series>.*?)(\,\s)?(Book \#)?(?P<seriesindex>\d\d)(\s\-\s)(?P<title>.*?))|(?P<title>.*?)(\.txt)

Should pull it, but try it on some test cases first... it might fail on titles with numbers in them.

[Barak]

Thanks for the try... unfortunately Calibre complainis that that is an invalid RexEx...

"ERROR: Invalid regular expression: redefinition of group name u'title' as group 10; was group 9"

EDIT: The following matches my first two formats, but bombs on the simple "Author Name - Book Title.ext" format.

(?P<author>[^_]+) - (?P<series>.+)( |(, Book #))(?P<series_index>[0-9]+) - (?P<title>.+)

2nd EDIT: Re-reading the entire thread I found GinoAMelone's post and added to it the specific bit I need to sort out the ",Book #" part and now it does everything I need it to!

^((?P<author>([^\-_0-9]+)(?=\s*-\s*)(?!\s*-\s*[0-9.]+)|\b))(\s*-\s*)?((?P<series>[^0-9\-]+)(\s*-\s*)?( |(, Book #))(?P<series_index>[0-9.]+)\s*-\s*)?(?P<title>[^\-_0-9]+)

Which matches the following:
Series Name 1 - Book Title.txt
Author - Series Name 1 - Book Title.txt
Author - Series Name, Book #1 - Book Title.txt
Author - Series Name - 1 - Book Title.txt
Author - Book Title.txt
Series Name - 1 - Book Title.txt

[capidamonte]

Guess the "or" function doesn't exclude one of the two <title>s.

Glad you figured it out.

[pckopp]

This regular expression:

[[](?P<series>.+)[]] (?P<title>.+) - (?P<author>[^_]+)

tests perfectly against this filename:

[Instrumentality Of Mankind] Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh! - Cordwainer Smith.epub

title = Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh!
author = Cordwainer Smith
series = Instrumentality Of Mankind

but when adding the file, it creates

title = [Instrumentality Of Mankind] Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh!
author = Cordwainer Smith
series = Instrumentality Of Mankind

Appreciate any help. Thanks!

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by pckopp

This regular expression:

[[](?P<series>.+)[]] (?P<title>.+) - (?P<author>[^_]+)

tests perfectly against this filename:

[Instrumentality Of Mankind] Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh! - Cordwainer Smith.epub

title = Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh!
author = Cordwainer Smith
series = Instrumentality Of Mankind

but when adding the file, it creates

title = [Instrumentality Of Mankind] Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh!
author = Cordwainer Smith
series = Instrumentality Of Mankind

Appreciate any help. Thanks!

It works for me. Turn off Preferences|Import/Export|Adding|"Read metadata from file contents rather than file name"

[pckopp]

Originally Posted by Starson17

It works for me. Turn off Preferences|Import/Export|Adding|"Read metadata from file contents rather than file name"

Thank you! Works for me, now.

So many buttons!

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by pckopp

Thank you! Works for me, now.

So many buttons!

Yes!
FYI: Metadata during an Add Book operation comes from:
1) First Calibre looks for an .opf file with the same name as the format being added. It grabs that in preference to other settings.
2) Then it goes for internal or regex/filename metadata according to the setting Preferences|Import/Export|Adding|"Read metadata from file contents rather than file name"
3) Finally, if it fails in #2 , it creates its own according to the filename and a default regex.

[flamelily]

Hi everyone! LOVE this software, absolutely brilliant!
My brain is flawed though, really struggling to find and work out some incredibly basic info.
I am trying to remove (xx) where xx is various numbers up to several hundred. (In the Title field).
so I am just using a basic bulk edit search and replace. My issue is trying to wildcard the numbers - I am missing some very basic bit of knowledge as to how to do it.
I have tried:
(**), (??), ([0-9][0-9])
etcetc!
As you can see I am just blindly flailing around chucking anything in there!

Really sorry for the basic basic question, if anyone has two minutes to let me know I would hugely appreciate it. Call me any names you wish

Cheers
Lily

[itimpi]

An easier way to do this is to use '\d*' to match a number of any length. Another useful one along these lines is '\s*' to match any number of white space characters.