Biblatex: Local change in sorting order in references

Question

Is it possible to generate a local change in the sorting order in the references? I'm using the authortitle-icomp style which is working very well for me. There is just one minor problem. I would like to sort a number of entries by the number of the series without affecting all '@book' entries with number and series. (Without the change they are ordered jT77a, jT77, jT77b and I need jT77a, jT77b, jT77)

@book{jT77a,
author = {John~R.~R. Tolkien},
series = {Der Herr der Ringe},
number = {1},
title = {Die Gefährten},
year = {1977},
edition = {},
publisher = {Hobbit-Presse im Klett-Verlag},
location = {Stuttgart},
} 

@book{jT77b,
author = {John~R.~R. Tolkien},
series = {Der Herr der Ringe},
number = {2},
title = {Die zwei Türme},
year = {1977},
edition = {},
publisher = {Hobbit-Presse im Klett-Verlag},
location = {Stuttgart},
} 

@book{jT77,
author = {John~R.~R. Tolkien},
series = {Der Herr der Ringe},
number = {3},
title = {Die Rückkehr des Königs},
year = {1977},
edition = {},
publisher = {Hobbit-Presse im Klett-Verlag},
location = {Stuttgart},
}

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

I suggest you follow the example of the knuth:ct:_ works in biblatex-examples.bib

You would then use maintitle instead of series and volume in lieu of number. Then add a sortyear field with content <year>-<volume> and a sorttitle with content <maintitle> <volume>. The former is so name-year sort schemes do the right thing, the latter is for name-title schemes.

@book{jT77a,
  author    = {John R. R. Tolkien},
  maintitle = {Der Herr der Ringe},
  volume    = {1},
  title     = {Die Gefährten},
  year      = {1977},
  publisher = {Klett-Cotta},
  location  = {Stuttgart},
  sorttitle = {Der Herr der Ringe 1},
  sortyear  = {1977-1},
}
@book{jT77b,
  author    = {John R. R. Tolkien},
  maintitle = {Der Herr der Ringe},
  volume    = {2},
  title     = {Die zwei Türme},
  year      = {1977},
  publisher = {Klett-Cotta},
  location  = {Stuttgart},
  sorttitle = {Der Herr der Ringe 2},
  sortyear  = {1977-2},
}
@book{jT77,
  author    = {John R. R. Tolkien},
  maintitle = {Der Herr der Ringe},
  volume    = {3},
  title     = {Die Rückkehr des Königs},
  year      = {1977},
  publisher = {Klett-Cotta},
  location  = {Stuttgart},
  sorttitle = {Der Herr der Ringe 3},
  sortyear  = {1977-3},
}

MWE

\documentclass[ngerman]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage[style=authortitle-ibid]{biblatex}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{jT77a,
  author    = {John R. R. Tolkien},
  maintitle = {Der Herr der Ringe},
  volume    = {1},
  title     = {Die Gefährten},
  year      = {1977},
  publisher = {Klett-Cotta},
  location  = {Stuttgart},
  sorttitle = {Der Herr der Ringe 1},
  sortyear  = {1977-1},
}
@book{jT77b,
  author    = {John R. R. Tolkien},
  maintitle = {Der Herr der Ringe},
  volume    = {2},
  title     = {Die zwei Türme},
  year      = {1977},
  publisher = {Klett-Cotta},
  location  = {Stuttgart},
  sorttitle = {Der Herr der Ringe 2},
  sortyear  = {1977-2},
}
@book{jT77,
  author    = {John R. R. Tolkien},
  maintitle = {Der Herr der Ringe},
  volume    = {3},
  title     = {Die Rückkehr des Königs},
  year      = {1977},
  publisher = {Klett-Cotta},
  location  = {Stuttgart},
  sorttitle = {Der Herr der Ringe 3},
  sortyear  = {1977-3},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\renewrobustcmd*{\bibnamedelimb}{\addnbspace}
\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

gives

Tolkien, John R. R. Der Herr der Ringe. Bd. 1: Die Gefährten. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1977.

— Der Herr der Ringe. Bd. 2: Die zwei Türme. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1977.

— Der Herr der Ringe. Bd. 3: Die Rückkehr des Königs. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1977.

I have also removed the non-breaking spaces between the initials, if you want those, you better add them in via \bibinitdelim, \bibnamedelima and friends. Actually, you should only need \renewrobustcmd*{\bibnamedelimb}{\addnbspace} to get the same effect. — moewe, Sep 30 '15 at 15:53

Biblatex: Local change in sorting order in references

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