Is there a way to sort the playlist by path, and than by date of the albums?
%PATH% - %DATE% doesn't do the trick...

%PATH% includes the filename with the extension. I guess you want only the path of the directory containing the audio files. The best way to do this is to remove the filename and extension from the path of the individual files:

The asterisk ("*") anchors the replacement at the end of the path; it is merely a safeguard in case the path should include the filename with the extension.

Hello,
while activity seems increasing and album list is gaining popularity as a part of the main window as addition to sorting would it be possible to reconsider sorting in reverse order. Or is this already possible?

Uhm, this doesn't change anything. The output is the same as %PATH%.
Maybe I'll be more specific:

I keep all my music on drive E:\
In there there are folders with artist names
In those folders are albums. The problems is that those ain't sorted by date.
Example:


I would like foobar to sort those chronologically in the playlist, NOT like they are sorted in the folder.

Sorry for my english I hope that I explained it right

You have to put it the other way around: %date% - %path%.

Nope, that just sorts it by date, and than by folders, but the first files are those without the %DATE% tag.
Still not the thing I want.

The latest version of foo_utils adds a function that allows sorting in descending order, see the announcement in the foo_utils thread for details. The feature is still in beta, and the usability is not yet as good as I would like.


Perhaps you could give an example how you want the entries sorted to help us understand. Please include the path and date of each item.

Hm...ok
Simple Example:

Path: E:\(HED) P.E



The folders in windows explorer are sorted by name as you can see

foobar with 'Sort by: %PATH%' sorts them the same in the playlist

The goal is to foobar sort those albums by their DATE, but first by the PATH, so that the order of the ARTIST folders will be the same as in windows explorer:

, but the folders inside containing the ALBUMS will be sorted by the DATE of the album.
Sorry, I can't write it clearer. English is not my native language.

Do you actually mean edit\sort\by fields... ? It looks as a nice GUI for sort by.. with an additional ability to sort in descending order. I was hoping for an ability to be able to sort incoming files in reverse order (some function placeable into sort incoming files by combobox under preferences->general)
or optionally to be able to create albumlist view with a pattern which sorts this way.
Heh or perhaps I have just misunderstood and I am looking to the wrong dialog.

%DATE% is the tag-field, which is preserved to keep the album/compilation-DATE/YEAR (release, market).
If you want to sort your files by file-dates in the meaning of last-modification-date, data modifikacij, you have to use %LASTMODIFIED%.

The problem with your order is, that you want to use %PATH% for the 1st depth (means, only a part of the path has to be valued, here E:\..1st..\...) and %LASTMODIFIED% for any next depth (here E:\..1st..\..whatever..). Some $if() & $replace() might do the trick, if possible at all.

edit: phrase

That is exactly what i want.

The "Sort by fields" was exactly what I meant. I was not quite aware that you were trying to sort incoming files.

Was trying to figure out my sorting problem, but no luck. Just ca't get it working. It seams that when the sorting is specified by %PATH% u can't add anything else. I could sort it manually but...its to many albums...

Here's a hint as to why using %path% won't work: Unless you've got duplicate files in your playlist, each entry will already have a unique %path%, so once you've sorted by that, there's no more sorting that can be done.

It sounds like what you want to do is sort by %artist% - %date% - %album% (See Edit -> Sort -> Sort by...)

Uhm Problem is, that i want something like: Directory Structure > Date.
When sorting by %artist% - %date% - %album% the playlist is a mess in my case.

You could look at the $directory function to sort on instead of the full path. Maybe something like $directory(%path%) - %date% - %filename%

Try the following sorting string:


This will put tracks in C:\music\abc before tracks in C:\music\xyz with tracks in C:\music following at the end. Tracks within the same directory will be sorted by date.

You can visualize the sort order in the playlist by using the following custom grouping scheme (lets call it "Containing Directory"):