# Boolean function difficulty with Export format
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844
**Category:** Mac
**Created:** [March 8, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844 "2026-03-08T22:51:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@awck](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/awck)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844/1 "2026-03-08T22:51:46Z")
I am trying to export tag data to a file (TSV/CSV). I want to add two columns to indicate the external source of the music. One column would contain ‘CD’ or nothing, the other ‘Download’ or nothing. I am trying to use $if(x,y,z) to distinguish the source. After using $strstr to scan %filepath to locate my text indicator. No matter what I specify for x, the z value (false) is substituted. Ex: $if(1,true,false) I can’t find a x that will substitute ‘true’.
Are there any suggestions how to specify a ‘False’ boolean?
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844/2 "2026-03-09T06:09:07Z")
> [@awck](#):
>
> $if(x,y,z)
You have to add a comparison operator like $eql or $grtr, e.g
`$if($grtr($strstr(%_filepath%,CD),0),CD,)`
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### Author:  [@awck](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/awck)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2026, 6:34pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844/3 "2026-03-09T18:34:01Z")
Thanks very much for the fix. It works somewhat. I may be misunderstanding.
I have four sources that I want to identify: CD, Download, Misc, and/or Temp. It seems like once the $grtr 0 is true (string found) subsequent uses of $strstr return a location \> 0 when the target string (y) is actually not in the string (x).
This is the complete format string which includes the &strstr x %\_folderpath% value for debugging aid:
$char(9)%composer%$char(9)%Title%$char(9)%album%$char(9)%local-work%$char(9)%localother%
$char(9)$if($grtr($strstr(%\_folderpath%,CDs),0),CD,not)
$char(9)$if($grtr($strstr(%\_folderpath%,Downloads),0,),DL,not)
$char(9)$if($grtr($strstr(%\_folderpath%,Misc.),0,),Misc,not)
$char(9)$if($grtr($strstr(%\_folderpath%,Temp),0,),Temp,not),
$char(9)%\_folderpath%
This is the formatted export (I don’t know how to make it legible/larger here).
I would appreciate any further light you can shed on this.
Thanks,
Art
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2026, 7:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844/4 "2026-03-09T19:26:29Z")
AFAI can see it, you get a "not" each time the string is not found - which is probably the case 3 out of 4 times.
It would be better to cut the location word from the %\_directory% and then replace it with the desired string, e.g.
`$replace($regexp(%_directory%,.* - (.*),$1),CDs,CD,Downloads,DL,Misc.,Misc,Temp,Temp)`
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### Author:  [@awck](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/awck)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2026, 1:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844/5 "2026-03-10T01:48:27Z")
Hi again and thank you for the new suggestion. I did not understand exactly what the output was going to be and based on past experience, I didn’t want to be further confused by regular expressions so I held off working with it.
But I was successful when I changed from using $grtr and comparing the string position with zero.
I used $eql and compare the string position with the fixed location of the target characters in the path. Kind of what I think you were getting at with cut and replacement. It seems to give me what I wanted.
I appreciate your help. Thanks again.
Art
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2026, 1:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/boolean-function-difficulty-with-export-format/70844/6 "2026-03-17T01:48:33Z")
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