# Extract text from title or filename

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/extract-text-from-title-or-filename/18339
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [October 16, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/extract-text-from-title-or-filename/18339 "2016-10-16T18:22:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

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### Author: ![poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/poster/32/4881_2.png) [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/extract-text-from-title-or-filename/18339/3 "2016-10-17T03:19:32Z")

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> [@Bill TKD](#):
>
> I have ripped several CDs with incorrectly formatted freedb entries. The artists' names and track titles are combined in the Title tag, usually separated by a dash or a solidus (/), and the Title tags just say 'Various Artists'.  
> Is there a way to extract the component text automatically?  
> (Apologies if this has been covered before.)

This is very common in freedb with samplers because no albumartist is used. As you don't tell us what's in the filename I cannot tell you how to resolve the problem with the filename.  
Have a look at the FAQ  
[/t/8016/1](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/8016/1)

Without using the filename you can use two actions or combine them as an action group:  
First you have to get the files with the same separator in a row. Then mark all of them.

1. Save the calue of the artist-tag to the albumartist-tag  
Action Type: Format Values  
Field: ALBUMARTIST  
Format String: %artist%

2. Get artist and title from the title-tag  
Action Type: Gues Values  
Source Format: %title%  
Guessing pattern: %artist%/%title%  
or %artist% / %title% or %artist% - %title%

The guessing pattern of the second action depends of the kind of separator in the tags and if there is a white space or not. The separator is always the complete string of characters between artist and title.

Test this with a copy of your files. It does not work properly if the chosen separator character is present in the artist-name too.

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