Viewing records with a specific TYPE

[Richard Blake]

Hi

There are a number of structure types that can take a TYPE as a subordinate (e.g. REFN, FACT, EVEN). I would like to be able to select a particular TYPE for a structure in the display in GEDitCOM II. For example, I make extensive use of the REFN tag for individual details in other genealogy systems. Like this:

1 REFN YYYY-XXX

2 TYPE FamilySearch ID

1 REFN Blake-11111

2 TYPE WikiTree ID

1 REFN Keyword1; Keyword2

2 TYPE Keyword(s)

I would like to display a specific one of these in a column but if I use REFN, it will show the first one. I know I can use a .i suffix to choose another but I cannot guarantee the order.

Is there any way of achieving what I am looking for?

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks, Richard

[John Nairn, Developer]

I am not totally clear on what you want for the end result? Do you mean you want it in a column of the index window such as a column to show the REFN that has TYPE "WikiTree ID"? I can't think of method know, but write back if I get any ideas.

John Nairn 

[Richard Blake]

Hi John

That's what I am looking for but I'm also not sure of how it can be achieved. It's not critical, just checking that I wasn't missing a way of doing it that I hadn't seen.

Thanks

Richard

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[John Nairn, Developer]

You are not missing anything. Index columns can only use an "expression" and can modify that on some conditional. I think I considered a work around once, but can't find and notes and how it could be done.

Two options are

1. Write a script to insert REFN into each record and to sort them to a fixed order. You can  than using the .i suffix reliably

2. Instead of REFN, use custom tags (would take some work to make then usable in the "Default Format:, but not too hard)

John

[Richard Blake]

Hi John

I did think about the first option that you mentioned below, but that would only work for the REFN case as the various reference numbers would likely appear in most records. This would not work however for other cases where the TYPE is used for example as a sub-structure to IDNO. I use this for military IDs as below 

1 IDNO 99999

2 TYPE Military Service Number

Or the EVEN tag which I use for Arrival and Departure events.

1 EVEN

2 TYPE Arrival

1 EVEN

2 TYPE Departure

In either of these cases I would not want to these to every individual record.

I did start by going along the lines of your second suggestion but I have a personal goal to make my GEDCOM as standard as possible so I prefer not to create custom tags. Just my preference :-)

As I say, I'm not overly concerned about this so I wouldn't spend any more time investigating it unless you have a eureka moment :-)

Thanks

Richard

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[John Nairn, Developer]

I put it on my list for future with idea to attach a mini script to a column that could do much more than can be done with an single expression.

The other TYPEs you mentioned however should not be a problem with hacks I suggested because that are at level 2 and therefore new column expression would need INDO.TYPE or EVEN.TYPE and the presence of those TYPES would confuse a column with REFN.TYPE or REFN.i.2.TYPE. These would find  TYPE line subordinate to first or second REFN line regardless of any other level 2 TYPE lines.

Also note that an change made in GEDCOM 5.5.1 allows generic events to move TYPE line to the EVEN line, so your file could be changed to

1 EVEN Arrival

1 EVEN Departure

If you have lots of generic events in records, you can use the "Copy TYPE lines to EVEN lines for GEDCOM 5.5.1" option in the "Miscellaneous Tasks" extension. If for some reason you need to export to GEDCOM 5.5, GEDitCOM II will automatically move the them back to TYPE lines for the export process only.

Finally, I agree good to keep things to standard GEDCOM tags. Custom tags, however, are actually standard GEDCOM provided the first character is an underscore (some annoying commercial software uses custom tags without an underscore and that violates the standard). The drawback of custom tags is that if you import to other software, they will not understand them (and most will just delete them). Custom tags are best for personal use. I used them in GEDitCOM II to create things like Log Records and Book Style records. These records only work in GEDitCOM II files.

John Nairn

[Jim Eggert]

I wonder if you can do this already with a search, at least kinda sorta. Try doing a search with terms
<GEDCOM Text> <matches regex> 1 REFN .*\n2 TYPE FamilySearch ID
or
<GEDCOM Text> <matches regex> 1 REFN .*\n2 TYPE WikiTree ID
or, if you want both,
<GEDCOM Text> <matches regex> 1 REFN .*\n2 TYPE (FamilySearch|WikiTree) ID

The First Match column here doesn’t show the whole regex match, as it would have two lines. But I think it does what you were asking for.


By the way, I’m of the opinion that the Search results window should be improved.

Currently, the Search results window has two columns, one of the found records, the second of the first match, meaning the match to the first criterion of the search.

I think the functionality could be generally improved by having the Search results window have one column for each of the search terms, plus of course the first column for the found records.

=Jim

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