Just to add a bit more info to this thread - - - - -

It turns out that

- MM can create AutoPlaylists based only on certain library/tag fields

- Magic Nodes standard filters can be based only on certain database/tag fields

- BUT, Magic Nodes SQL filters can be based on ANY database field. I had forgotten that. So I guess I can filter the database by "Track Number" after all. [The MM database stores Track Number info in its Songs.SongOrder field. It subtracts 1 from each value. So Track Number 3 becomes SongOrder 2. One more little quirk to remember when writing the query.]

Nevertheless, all the pointers I got from people in this thread will be helpful to me, either in this particular instance, or in others. I have written them down in my little MM notebook, and I thank everyone for the responses.

Thanks, greggw!

Excellent!

It's looking more and more like moving my "month" data is going to be necessary. If I do so, your method looks like it could save me a ton of time, and pretty much ensure accuracy.

I sure appreciate your pointing this out to me.

Like I said earlier - - one of the best things about MM is the great user community.

Here's a method for quickly copying your month data from the Track # field to another field:

1. Click on the "Title" node.
2. Make sure the Track # column is visible. Click on the Track # column header to sort by Track #.
3. Select all of the tracks with the same Track #. (In other words, the same value for month that you've placed in the Track # field.)
4. Press <Shift> + <Enter> to bring up the properties box for the selected tracks.
5. Enter the month value in the new field you've chosen.
6. Click "OK" to close the box.
7. Select the Track#s representing the next group of month values and repeat the procedure.

By performing the above procedure twelve times, you can copy all of the month values from Track # to another field of your choice.

If you decided to store the year and month together, you could use a variation of this procedure by sorting first by Year [left-click], then by Track # (month) [<Ctrl> + left-click]. Because there are many combinations of Years and months, you would have many entries to make. At least you won't have to update every track individually.

Thanks to both kdo and greggw for your ideas. I'm going to have to try these out. If I succeed in learning how to move my month values to a new field, a can try out the text-field idea.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

Maybe I'll also put in a request to the MM team and the Magic Nodes writer to include more tag fields in the allowable search criteria

If you are forced to use a text field to store a numeric value for the month, you could add a leading zero for the months before October. That way, you would be able to sort by month properly. For example, February could be stored in a text field as "02", March as "03", and so on.

One possible advantage of using a text field is that you could store the year as well. For example, you could store "2004-08" for a track peaking in August of 2004. The advantage would be that you could sort by the date by using a single field instead of a combination of a year field and a month field.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll certainly look into the solutions you suggested.

I store lots of data in my ID3 tags. I want the data in the tags, so they are attached to the files themselves. That way, they'll be available no matter what software I am using to play or manipulate my files in the future.

I try to use numeric fields, whenever possible, for storing numbers - - so that the numbers sort properly. If I want to sort on month, for example, I want the months in order 1, 2, 3, 4, .... 9, 10, 11, 12

In many programs, if you sort numbers in a TEXT field, you get this instead:
1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, .... because text fields sort on the first character first, then on the second, and so on. To be honest with you, I can't recall which way MM does it; but I've had problems with other programs in the past.

Too bad there are so few numeric fields in ID3 v2.3 tags. I could create my own user-designed fields in ID3, but those often run into problems because many programs don't allow you to interpret user-defined fields.

Perhaps you could try first copying the tracknumber to another tag field (to a custom field or some other unused text field) and then use Autoplaylists based on that field.

To copy tracknumbers use one of the scripts. The old script by Steegy - I think you would have to edit it a little to suit your needs. And there is one more newer script which might do it out of the box, can't remember.

Is there any reason not to store month number in a normal text tag field?
Does it really need to be in tracknumer?

I use the Track Number field in the ID3 v2.3 tags of my mp3 files to store a month value (1-12) for when each song peaked on the pop charts. [I use the Track Number field because I don't need it for track number info, and this field is one of the few numerical integer fields available in ID3 v2.3.] I want to make playlists based on year/month (for example June 1968).

The last time I checked, MediaMonkey Gold does not permit building AutoPlaylists based on the Track Number field. So I can't use AutoPlaylists.

So I turned to Magic Nodes. I can create playlists by writing SQL queries to a Magic Node, selecting everything in the node, and copying it to a playlist. But, Magic Nodes doesn't permit filtering based on the Track Number field, either.

Am I just plain hosed, or is there a trick for getting around this?