Hi everyone,
Is there a way to swap Firstname and Surname, shortening Firstname to obtain this result?
I have "Carlos Almada" (without quotes) and I would like to obtain "Almada C." (without quotes too).
Thank you in advance.
Ian
Try an action of the type "Format value" or Convert>Tag-Tag:
Format string: $regexp('Carlos Almada',(.).* (.*),'$2 $1.')
and see also here:
@Ian_Werich Please note that @ohrenkino's solution works perfectly for your Firstname Surname example.
But as soon as there are more than 2 names like in "A Day to remember" or "Above & Beyond" or "Jody Wisternoff & James Grant" it doesn't work as expected anymore.
I suggest that you first filter and check your list of files before applying the above solution.
Some other artists may be reduced to illegibility:
Mel C. -> C. M.
Boney M. -> M. B.
Fischer Z. -> Z. F.
Special A.K.A -> A.K.A S.
Thomas D. -> D. T.
Ph. D. -> D. P.
And the of course there are names which would become really strange:
Deep Purple -> Purple D.
Pink Floyd -> Floyd P.
Black Sabbath -> Sabbath B.
Led Zeppelin -> Zeppelin L.
Uriah Heep -> Heep U.
Backstreet Boys -> Boys B.
Level 42 -> 42 L.
All the DJs would be reduced to a simple D. ...
DJ Antoine -> Antoine D.
DJ Bobo -> Bobo D.
and so many more where the purpose is questionable.
If then the way out is to swap only some names I suspect that the benefit to find the names more easily will evaporate as you have to remember all the exceptions. It would be much simpler to use the search function in your player straightaway.
Additionally (if you still wish to do this) I'd suggest that you create a backup of your original artist tag. Even if it's only a custom tag like ARTIST_BU. That way you could restore in case the action creates nonsensical results that you wish to revert later on.
thanks to everyone for the quick response!
Regarding Ohrenkino's and Lyricslover answers and the advice regarding the possible illegibility of the names of some artists, I must point out that the modifications concerns only the real Names and Surnames of artists belonging to the world of tango, in which nicknames (e.g. Juan "Pacho" Maglio) and compound names (e.g. Maria De La Fuente) aren't widely occurring and I would evaluate on a case-by-case basis before modifying them; the names/surnames of other artists (real or fictional) associated with other musical genres (rock, pop, metal, etc.) would not be modified.
semplificare
Modifying the data would make it easier for me to read the names of the artists while using the player (virtual dj) in my tango dj evenings.
I must also point out that the following other name combinations may occur in the database to be managed:
(in the ALBUM ARTIST field)
Edmundo Rivero y Aldo Calderon ---► Rivero E., Calderon A.
Edmundo Rivero y Aldo Calderon y Lita Morales ---► Rivero E., Calderon A., Morales L.
(in the ARTIST field)
Anibal Troilo, Francisco Fiorentino y Alberto Marino ---► Troilo A., Fiorentino F., Marino A.
Edgardo Donato, Edmundo Rivero y Aldo Calderon y Lita Morales ---► Donato E., Rivero E., Calderon A, Morales A.
Anibal Troilo, Instr. ---► Troilo A., Instr.
Ian
Does the initially suggested pattern work for the initially submitted names?
Yes! Sorry for not making that clear.
Even though I find it really puzzling that tango artists' names are easier to read while other artists' names can stay as they are I wonder how you want to see artists that not only serve the single genre Tango, e.g. Grace Jones, mainly performing disco music, also has the "Libertango" in her repertoire. Will she become "Jones, G." or stay "Grace Jones"? Or will the name only be swapped for the tango tracks?
Also, I have my doubts - but that is just my opinion and you are, of course, entitled to see that differenly - that while a single swapped and abbreviated name could show the important last name earlier in the string so that I could stop reading as I see immediately who the artist is, but I do not see any benefit in speed or ease if I have to read more names: the amount of information is now the same as in the unswapped names but additionally, I have to decode the abbreviated name again.
So I wonder if it is really worth the effort (for me it wouldn't) and I would follow @Casual_Tea 's advice to save the original name(s) in a (user-defined) tag field to restore them, if necessary.
(In my collection I found a number of artists besides Grace Jones who have a tango in their repertoire but are probably no dedicated tango performers: Anne-Sophie Mutter, Al Di Meola, Angelo Branduardi, Dalbello, My Mine, Frank Zappa, In-Grid and some more)
The advice given is important, because:
You can't undo this truncation if you don't have the full original ARTIST name stored elsewhere (in another field or in the filename).
Ohrenkino, your doubts are legitimate, especially if you are not involved with tango music.
The music I use for milonga nights (the place where tango is danced) is by artists who released music in the period from the 30s to the 60s. After that period there are obviously other tango tracks, but they are mainly reinterpretations (or "covers") of tango classics that I never use in milonga.
This is the case, for example, of the version of Libertango by Grace Jones, which is sometimes used during performances by professional dancers but is not suitable for dancing in milonga (in the so-called "social dance"), on a dance floor crowded with couples of dancers.
For this reason I have separated on my PC the folders in which there are the tango for the milonga and the tango not suitable for dancing; in a third folder I have saved the music of other genres (pop, rock, ambient, country, etc.) that I do not use for milonga nights.
As for the ease of reading abbreviated names, I understand very well your point when you say that you do not see benefits in reading two or more names and the difficulty you hypothesize in decoding abbreviations, but you must consider that my now many years of practice in the console has led me to an excellent knowledge of the artists and I only need to read their surname to know if I am dealing with an artist/musician or an artist/singer.
In practice, in the ARTIST field the first name that is read is that of the ARTIST who released the track while any subsequent names are always and only singers who perform the song.
I thank you for the time you have dedicated so far to my request, but I do not want to force you to do something that you consider not very useful and that would cause a waste your time, considering the multitude of support requests that many other users send daily to the MP3Tag support page.
You can close my post without problems, my esteem for you remains unchanged.
P.S. However, I put into practice @Casual_Tea's suggestion to have a backup of the original data.
Ian
As a hint for at least the 2 artists:
$regexp('Edmundo Rivero y Aldo Calderon',(.).* (.*) y (.).* (.*),'$2 $1., $4 $3.')
For another "y" copy the part following the "y" in the pattern and add $6 $5. in the ouput part and so on for the number of artists.
For the string with "instr." try:
$regexp('Anibal Troilo, Instr. ','(.).* (.*), (.*)','$2 $1., $3')