Actually, conditional statements work just fine in sort strings. However, $if3()
should have its arguments separated with commas and nothing else. Using spaces caused various confusing problems. A working sort string is:
$if3(%albumartistsortorder%,%albumartistsort%,%artistsortorder%,%album artist%) $if3(%original release date%,%date%) %album% %disc% %track%
This is the same string as the one in the question, with proper syntax. It also uses %artistsortorder%
and %album artist%
as fallback fields for where there is no sorted album artist.