Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Please Apple... Give me boolean logic in iTunes

A

aoe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 7, 2007
3
0
The #1 feature I want to see in itunes is the ability to use boolean logic to search. How hard can this be? Am I the only one that considers this extremely useful?

For example, I'm too lazy to make a playlist but I want to shuffle through songs by the rolling stones and the beatles. Wouldn't it be easy to just type in stones AND beatles and have the results display?

Please Apple
 
You can use the browser.

Click on The Beatles and then Apple+Click on The Rolling Stones and it will then allow you to shuffle those.
 
Command-N: makes new playlist, type "TEMP" or something
Double click the TEMP playlist to open in new window
Go to your library and type the name of the band, drag result to playlist.
Repeat
Go to TEMP playlist, hit shuffle.

Takes less than 30 seconds to set up
 
Consultant said:
Command-N: makes new playlist, type "TEMP" or something
Double click the TEMP playlist to open in new window
Go to your library and type the name of the band, drag result to playlist.
Repeat
Go to TEMP playlist, hit shuffle.

Takes less than 30 seconds to set up
Click to expand...

I think you missed the point. THAT example took 30 seconds. It didn't address the problem though, of a live updating playlist.

What you need to do now to get a live updating one is create 2 playlists, one for each band, and then a 3rd to combine the 2 together.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I think you missed the point. THAT example took 30 seconds. It didn't address the problem though, of a live updating playlist.

What you need to do now to get a live updating one is create 2 playlists, one for each band, and then a 3rd to combine the 2 together.
Click to expand...
I guess what you are missing is "OR" function, as "AND" already exists. Do I understand you accurately?
 
I do think it's more complicated to make a playlist yes. But unless Apple brings Boolean search in Leopard, I don't see it happening. And while you wait for eternity, you might as well create a playlist; drag in the bands you might want; play it and enjoy. And don't dismiss the smart playlists either. If you check all the rules you can implement, you can come up with some pretty creative playlists, which update dynamically, and far out-perform anything you could achieve with a search. Something you're describing would be pretty easy, I think.
 
option+cmd+N

match ANY of the following rules
artist contains beatles
artist contains stones

4 seconds.
 
Before I discovered Quicksilver I was irritated by iTunes' search...now all is well :)
 
jnagel said:
option+cmd+N

match ANY of the following rules
artist contains beatles
artist contains stones

4 seconds.
Click to expand...


Exactly, does Clicking on Beatles and then :apple:+Clicking on Rolling Stones take more time than typing those two bands in a search? What if I want to click on ten bands, that would most definitely be less time than typing ten band names into a search....

much better the way it is.

But Boolean....that just sounds cool, so i wish it was there too
 
aoe said:
The #1 feature I want to see in itunes is the ability to use boolean logic to search. How hard can this be? Am I the only one that considers this extremely useful?

For example, I'm too lazy to make a playlist but I want to shuffle through songs by the rolling stones and the beatles. Wouldn't it be easy to just type in stones AND beatles and have the results display?

Please Apple
Click to expand...

lol.. using boolean logic that actually wouldn't work unless the Beatles and Stones were in the same song...

You would want The Beatles OR Rolling Stones.

Typing Beatles Stones in iTunes would automatically add the 'AND' in between them.
 
People are just saying there are ways to make a playlist with both artists, by using the option to match ANY instead of match ALL in the smart playlist. But there is no way to do somthing like 1) is a podcast 2) playcount = 0 and 3) is NPR or CNN. Something like that isn't possible as it is now.
 
agreed

smart playlists are a great feature... but having a simple OR (or.. || and &&) operator in the search would be hugely useful for instantly playing a select group of songs. additional operators like NOT (!) or the in "fieldname:" operator, similar to "site:" on google. would also be really useful..
 
Yeah, this is something I'd want too.

The search ability is very effective, but being able to search for two things at once would be really cool.
 
ok, so i am using intelligent playlists,

is there any way to define a boolean search such as

where comment contains (A OR B OR C) and does NOT contain (D or E)

as far as i can see that is not possible with the itunes "logic".... (if there was no E it would work...


thankx in advance

ps: i am using http://www.last.fm/group/Last.fm+Web+Services/forum/21604/_/285676/2#f8888877 which i am also working on to get tags for songs from last.fm. u might want to check it out
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back