Hole Hunter Help

[Fred Slota]

I'm looking for some interesting search and meta-search techniques to help identify holes, and by holes I mean unowned issues of interest in titles for which I currently have issues.

Is there a way to identify, in search terms, titles that have issues?  Is it possible to Mark the Titles or set a Title Custom Check on Titles after I do a search for owned issues?

Is there a way to search for the first owned issue of each title?  The last owned issue of each title? 

Is there a way to search for the first (smallest) regular issue # of each title? the last (largest) regular issue # of each title? 

[Steven L. Dasinger]

There used to be a program someone (Adam Sternberg, I believe) that would find holes in series. I am not sure where it disappeared to when we went to the new forums. It should still work on the new database. If he still has the program, he could post it to this forum under Downloads/ComicBase Tools and Add-Ons.

1) Is there a way to identify, in search terms, titles that have issues?
Yes.
If you just want only the Title names:
Find, Title Field select Title, use Greater Than and type a single space in the search box. Make sure the List Only Titles In Stock check box is checked.
If you want Titles and Item #'s (issues) do the same steps as above but use the Item Field for Title.

2) Is it possible to Mark the Titles or set a Title Custom Check on Titles after I do a search for owned issues?
I don't believe there is any way to change Title information (Marked or Custom Fields) all at once.  Needs to be done individually.

3) Is there a way to search for the first owned issue of each title?  The last owned issue of each title?
No.

4) Is there a way to search for the first (smallest) regular issue # of each title? the last (largest) regular issue # of each title?
No.

For #3 & #4, you can try Advanced Find but the 'stream-lined' version of query in CB doesn't really allow this to be done (would need a Max and Min function with a Group By which is impossible in the CB design).
The Advanced Find is a Item Field only search (with a little bit of finessing, I can get some Title Fields in the Where but I've had 30 years of Database experience that lets me deconstruct the query but it isn't easy.)
For #4, you get into problems trying to define 'Regular' Issue. This could be Issue 1 or Issue 1/A (or 1/HC, Bk 1, etc.)
Just an FYI, if you don't know, but the Item # is a composite of Type, Number, Variation, and Printing. So, instead of doing a Find on Item #, you could do a Find on just the Number part of it. But, you will get multiple items # returned if you have 1, 1/A, HC/1 and Bk 1.
Also, you would have to 'hard-code' the 1 in the Where to get the minimum Item (you would miss any with 0 as an Item #). There would be no real way to hard-code the largest number.

Having said all this if you want to export the data and put it in a real database, you could do #3 & #4 with a little work.

[Adam Sternberg]

@Steven L. Dasinger, good memory!  That was indeed me, and I do still have it.  @Fred Slota, it's been several years since I worked on it, so it may need some tweaking and recompiling, but I think it still good.  Caveat emptor, your mileage may vary, etc., etc., but if you're willing to be a little patient and give me about a week, I'll work on cleaning it up and posting it.

 

(I didn't realize we had a downloads section in the new forums, or I'd have done this sooner!)

[Gregory Hecht]

23 hours ago, Fred Slota said:

I'm looking for some interesting search and meta-search techniques to help identify holes, and by holes I mean unowned issues of interest in titles for which I currently have issues.

Have you tried doing a "missing issue" report?  If you check off the boxes for "titles in stock" and "missing issues", that should get you the info you want... *and* it can be saved to the web which will make it accessible to your ComicBase Mobile app.  

[Adam Sternberg]

Well, THAT only took almost a year instead of "a week or so".  Unfortunately, there were some changes to the exported reports used as input data that requered some redesign, and it took waaaaaaaay longer than expected.  Shows what shrinking free time will get you...

 

@Fred Slota, I've uploaded the fixed version here: 

Thanks for your patience, and I hope it fits your needs.

Adam

[Fred Slota]

Saw a couple days ago, but forgot to reply.

 

Thank you, and after a little cleanup on my end I'll give it a try.

[Adam Sternberg]

Terrific!  I'm glad to see someone using it!

[Fred Slota]

Finished my cleanups and went to use the Hole Finder....

 

I found my first hole.

 

The .zip file is empty.

[Doug MedicAR]

Doesn't the Collection Overview Report do all of this?  It displays "Owned" and "Missing" issues within a given title so that every issue of the series is accounted for, whether owned or not. 

Edited February 3, 2022 by Douglas W. McCratic
typo

[Fred Slota]

Yes, but that's overkill.  I've not used it before, but I think this is a little more selective, being selective in size of holes and types of issues.  I think...

[Adam Sternberg]

On 1/31/2022 at 6:47 AM, Fred Slota said:

The .zip file is empty.

@Fred Slota, my apologies.  I don't know what happened there.  I tried downloading and saw that it was 0 bytes as well.  However, on the link page itself, it says the page is the file size is 49 kB, which matches what I have locally.  @Steven L. Dasinger, do you know if there's someone I can contact to troubleshoot this?  For example, can someone check the zip file on the server?

[Steven L. Dasinger]

I am not sure who manages the forums but I sent Pete a message on Slack about it.

[Adam Sternberg]

@Fred Slota, I never received an answer on why the file was download from the forum servers as 0 bytes.  Would you like me to try to get you the files directly?  Do you have a Dropbox or Google Drive I should upload the file to?