How to copy album title preceding a colon into album artist?

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#1

Hi,

I have nearly a thousand classical music album titles which all have the composer, or performer, included at the beginning of each album title, and followed by a colon.

e.g. Bach JS: The Goldberg Variations; Glenn Gould

                          or

e.g John Williams: El Diablo Suelto

Does anyone know if there is a quick work around, using regular expressions, for copying the information preceding the colon in the album title field, and pasting it into the album artist field?

I would welcome any ideas or assistance in achieving in what would otherwise be a laborious task.

Regards.

#2

Is that a semicolon before "Glenn Gould?"

This can be done without RegEx with the Guess Values action:

Action type: Guess values
Source format: %album%
Guessing pattern: %albumartist%: %album%; %artist%

#3

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, that is a semi-colon after Glenn Gould, and I should not have included that as an example, as it probably confused the issue. I just want to focus on the information preceding the colon in the album title, as that is where my dilemma is.

I did try your work around, but unfortunately first time around it didn't work using the full formula provided. However, I left out "; %artist%" and repeated the action, and this time it put the information exactly into the album artist field. Unfortunately, it was a cut and past action, whereas I would like a copy and paste action, thereby leaving the composer/performer information still in the album field as well as in the album artist field. Would that still be possible using the Guess values field?

Regards

#4

Sure, it can be done. It wasn't clear that you wanted the ALBUM field to remain intact. Glenn Gould was TMI to make it clear.

Action type: Guess values
Source format: %album%
Guessing pattern: %albumartist%: %dummy%

#5

Your solution worked exactly as you said it would. I appreciate your help and thanks for being patient with me!

Regards