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Author Topic: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field  (Read 2527 times)

FenceFurniture

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Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« on: August 02, 2020, 02:38:02 am »

Referring to the attached screenshot, the bottom 8 lines had no entries for Soloists or Instrument, so I selected them along with the line above them (4th line down), pressed F2 to edit the 4th line and pressed enter as I usually do. These are of course protected fields where no changes to the data type can be made, "List (semicolon delimited), Not Relational, Edit type "List"

What has happened is the the spaces after the ";" have no disappeared, and I much prefer them to be there for clarity. This has happened numerous times today - is it because of a recent update? I have manually entered the spaces, but they get deleted upon pressing enter.
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EnglishTiger

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2020, 04:42:32 am »

Can't remember which version of MC26 it was introduced in but MC now removes spaces from all ; delimited fields/tags however we have been promised that in a "future version" those ; delimited fields will have spaces added to them for legibility/readability purposes when presented "on screen".
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marko

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2020, 05:07:24 am »

In the meantime, if you can't wait, an expression column using this expression will insert the spaces you desire:

Replace([soloists,0],;,;/ )

For files still showing spaces in the soloists field, an 'update library from tags' will remove those spaces, bringing uniformity to the field.

lepa

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2020, 05:41:28 am »

In the meantime, if you can't wait, an expression column using this expression will insert the spaces you desire:

Replace([soloists,0],;,;/ )

For files still showing spaces in the soloists field, an 'update library from tags' will remove those spaces, bringing uniformity to the field.
Maybe it is better to use
Code: [Select]
ListFormat([Soloist],0)https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/List_Manipulation_Functions#ListFormat

If there are spaces left in data Replace would add space also for "; " and make it ";  ". ListFormat shows both cases correctly

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marko

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2020, 05:55:50 am »

Indeed. Good thinking.
My OCD was off the chart with this, and, some of my base expressions were breaking, so I ran an update from tags over everything to restore conformity.

You have to be sure that library and tags are in sync before doing this though, otherwise any old out of date info in the file tags will replace the current library info, and you wouldn't want that, for sure :)

FenceFurniture

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2020, 07:27:17 am »

Thank you for your responses.

You have to be sure that library and tags are in sync before doing this though, otherwise any old out of date info in the file tags will replace the current library info, and you wouldn't want that, for sure :)
I only just very recently did an update of the tags from library (2 weeks ago?), after some heavy duty changes were made, and have done little work since then, until today. However, anything I have done today (a fair bit) will have already updated the tags I think - they are set to "store the data in the tags if possible".
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MusicBringer

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2020, 11:45:33 am »

MC now removes spaces
Maybe it is better to use
Code: [Select]
ListFormat([Soloist],0)
@lepa, that is wonderful. Thank you soo much. That new-fangled display IS impossible to read. 👴
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FenceFurniture

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2020, 10:09:07 pm »

Yes, the listformat brings it back to what it was....so I got to thinking....

What about combining Marko's Replace and Listformat because even "; " makes for a pretty clunky looking list to read. I'm a fan of En and Em spaces and dashes. Dashes can be typed using Alt, but spaces have to be copied from something like Excel.

En dash – is Alt 0150
Em dash — is Alt 0151
A normal space is between the two colons here : :
En space is like a double space between the two colons here : :
Em space is like a triple space between the two colons here : :
(and you can copy those En and Em spaces from there, btw)

So, my expression became
Replace(ListFormat([Soloists],0),; ,; ) and that's with an Em space just before the closing ")"

However, super-annoyingly, the Em space (or any other trailing space) is truncated, which took it right back to square one of my original post. ::)
The only way I can get the Em space to show is by putting something after it, like a 1, which just looks ridiculous. Hmmpf!
Nor can I lead with a space (to eliminate the ; altogether).

Using The Tokyo String Quartet as an example:
Kikuei Ikeda;Martin Beaver;Kazuhide Isomura;Clive Greensmith  is how MC wants to display it
Kikuei Ikeda; Martin Beaver; Kazuhide Isomura; Clive Greensmith  is how lepa's Listformat displays it
Kikuei Ikeda; Martin Beaver; Kazuhide Isomura; Clive Greensmith  is how I want to display it
or even better (with commas)
Kikuei Ikeda, Martin Beaver, Kazuhide Isomura, Clive Greensmith  
or just Em spaced out (a bit like me....)
Kikuei Ikeda Martin Beaver Kazuhide Isomura Clive Greensmith  this actually looks the best I think

Any of the last 3 options are much more readable, IMO, but how to achieve it? Seems to me that commas can't be put in place of semi-colons, and the leading and trailing spaces get truncated.

Even with Em dashes looks better than semi-colon space "; "
Kikuei Ikeda—Martin Beaver—Kazuhide Isomura—Clive Greensmith  
or a Horizontal Elipsis … (Alt 0133)
Kikuei Ikeda…Martin Beaver…Kazuhide Isomura…Clive Greensmith  (looks a bit ordinary)

Any thoughts? Can a leading and/or trailing space be achieved?
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FenceFurniture

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2020, 10:31:51 pm »

AHA! Got it.

Replace(ListFormat([Soloists],0),; ,/ / )
there's an Em space between the //
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FenceFurniture

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2020, 11:09:39 pm »

And fleshing that out to the different formats I will use for a couple of different panes:

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JimH

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2020, 07:57:52 am »

Spaces after semi-colon should re-appear in the next build available.
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marko

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2020, 11:20:46 am »

Well they still be saved without spaces, but displayed with spaces, or are we rolling back to saving all with spaces again?

Hendrik

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2020, 11:48:19 am »

Only display is changing.
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marko

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2020, 12:12:35 pm »

That's a relief. Thanks for confirming Hendrik.

Matt

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #14 on: November 20, 2020, 07:25:57 am »

Hi everyone.

I just wanted to bring this to the top in case anyone thinks we have more work to do.

The history was that we originally switched to not storing spaces around the delimiter.  Then we made it so we still show spaces even though they're not stored.

If there's more to do, please let us know.  Thanks.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

EnglishTiger

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #15 on: November 20, 2020, 07:46:08 am »

The spaces are not being added to ;Delimited List Fields/Tags when they are used in the Player and the Status Bar
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Matt

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #16 on: November 20, 2020, 07:52:51 am »

The spaces are not being added to ;Delimited List Fields/Tags when they are used in the Player and the Status Bar

No, only the lists format them with extra spaces.
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JimH

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #17 on: November 20, 2020, 08:33:16 am »

The spaces are not being added to ;Delimited List Fields/Tags when they are used in the Player and the Status Bar
How about posting a screenshot?
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MusicBringer

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Re: Inconsistent behaviour in a Semi-Colon delimited field
« Reply #18 on: February 23, 2021, 07:36:14 am »

Replace(ListFormat([Soloists],0),; ,/ / )
there's an Em space between the //

Only just seen this.
I am now using it for my field I call - Involved People
It tells me Who plays What.
Much neater.
thanks,
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