Is there a definable structure to all of this or not ?
So far we have this:
For all these types of albums, the following conditions exist:
This expression always outputs YES: $if($strstr($lower(%path%),'\various'),'YES','NO')
$directory_path(%path%) is constant (all the tracks live in the same parent folder)
$meta(album) is constant, and always contains the string "Various" .
$meta(date) is variable .
$meta(album artist) is ...I'm not sure !?
$meta(artist) is variable (obviously the track artist names will be different)
$meta(title) is variable (obviously the track title names will be different)
Is there anything else to know?
Is it possible for the OP to define the problem again in a lucid way ?
What exactly needs to be done with all these facts ??
* EDIT *
I wasn't aware of the previous post by ~tagtypedisplay while posting this.
The first line: "This is a playlist grouping issue." means "This is a Playlist View grouping display issue AND NOT a Playlist Sort issue" ..OK.
The second line: "in the file tree I use view by folder, and my self compiled music is in folders as such in the file tree," means "In Windows Explorer details view, for these types of albums, my filesystem is like this:" ..OK.
So what happens if you try using this:$if($strstr($lower(%path%),'\various'),
$ifequal($len(%album%),0,'%album%',$if2($trim(%album%),'%album%')),
$ifequal($len(%album%),0,'%album%',$if2($trim(%album%),'%album%'))' '$ifequal($len(%date%),0,'(%date%)',$if2('('$trim(%date%)')','(%date%)'))
)