# ARTIST to ALBUMARTIST, but only when ALBUMARTIST is blank

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-to-albumartist-but-only-when-albumartist-is-blank/12973
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 22, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-to-albumartist-but-only-when-albumartist-is-blank/12973 "2012-01-22T13:39:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![adrianh](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b77776/32.png) [@adrianh](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/adrianh)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-to-albumartist-but-only-when-albumartist-is-blank/12973/1 "2012-01-22T13:39:32Z")

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Hi

I hope somebody can help. I want to update all my ALBUMARTIST fields from ARTIST but only when ALBUMARTIST is blank.

I searched the forum and tried making an format value action but I can't find where I can specified "only when blank". Looking at the functions available, i assume I will have to check the length of ALBUMARTIST and see if it is equal to zero. Can anybody help?

Thanks

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### Author: ![pone](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/pone/32/272_2.png) [@pone](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pone)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-to-albumartist-but-only-when-albumartist-is-blank/12973/2 "2012-01-22T13:51:41Z")

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Action: Format Value  
Field: ALBUMARTIST  
Formatstring: $if2(%albumartist%,%artist%)

OR

Filter (F3): NOT %albumartist% PRESENT

Action: Format Value  
Field: ALBUMARTIST  
Formatstring: %artist%

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![adrianh](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b77776/32.png) [@adrianh](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/adrianh)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-to-albumartist-but-only-when-albumartist-is-blank/12973/3 "2012-01-22T18:50:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Action: Format Value  
> Field: ALBUMARTIST  
> Formatstring: $if2(%albumartist%,%artist%)

Thanks, this did the trick.

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### Author: ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-to-albumartist-but-only-when-albumartist-is-blank/12973/4 "2026-02-09T12:23:35Z")

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