# How to copy PORTION of one field to another?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 10, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874 "2007-12-10T18:46:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tbessie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tbessie)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874/1 "2007-12-10T18:46:23Z")
Is there any way to apply a regular expression to one field, and then use the results of that regular expression (through parenthesized sub-expressions) as changes to be made in another field?
For example, let's say I have tracks titles that have:
> My Title (Track 1) My Title 2 (Track 2) My Title 3 (Track 90)
And I have a regex:
> ^[^(]\*\(Track ([0-9]\*)\)$
And I want to set the value for the TRACK field to '\1' from the above expression as applied to the TITLE field.
Is there a way I can do this? Also, is there a way to extract values from MULTIPLE fields to use in modifying a target field?
Something like that would be truly wonderful.
- Tim
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2007, 9:32pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874/2 "2007-12-10T21:32:02Z")
> [@tbessie](#):
>
> ... And I have a regex:
>
> > ^[^(]\*\(Track ([0-9]\*)\)$
>
> And I want to set the value for the TRACK field to '\1' from the above expression as applied to the TITLE field. Is there a way I can do this? Also, is there a way to extract values from MULTIPLE fields to use in modifying a target field? Something like that would be truly wonderful. - Tim
You can copy content from one tag to another tag, e. g.
Actiongroup: **Copy content from one tagfield to another tagfield**
Action #1
_Actiontype 5:_ **Format tag field**
_Field:_ **TAG\_2**
_Formatstring:_ **%TAG\_1%**
You can run any action against the new tagfield.
DD.20071210.2331.CET
---
### Author:  [@tbessie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tbessie)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874/3 "2007-12-10T23:07:39Z")
> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> You can copy content from one tag to another tag, e. g.
> Actiongroup: **Copy content from one tagfield to another tagfield**
> Action #1
> _Actiontype 5:_ **Format tag field**
> _Field:_ **TAG\_2**
> _Formatstring:_ **%TAG\_1%**
>
> You can run any action against the new tagfield.
>
> DD.20071210.2331.CET
Hi there, DetlevD...
Well, that is a related thing, but it's not extracting content elements from one tag and transforming a second field based on them.
Say I had one field that had "ABC DEF 123" in it, and another field that had "XYZ HAHAHA 999", and I wanted to copy the digits at the end of the 2nd field and replace the 1st field's digits with them. That kind of thing is not doable with mp3tag, correct?
- Tim
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2007, 11:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874/4 "2007-12-10T23:25:51Z")
> [@tbessie](#):
>
> Hi there, DetlevD...
>
> Well, that is a related thing, but it's not extracting content elements from one tag and transforming a second field based on them.
>
> Say I had one field that had "ABC DEF 123" in it, and another field that had "XYZ HAHAHA 999", and I wanted to copy the digits at the end of the 2nd field and replace the 1st field's digits with them. That kind of thing is not doable with mp3tag, correct?
>
> - Tim
Proposal, quick and dirty, not tested:
TAG\_1 use Format
"ABC DEF 123"
TAG\_2 use Format
%TAG\_1%
TAG\_3 use Format
"XYZ HAHAHA 999"
TAG\_1 use RegExp
"ABC DEF 123" manipulate it to "123" e. g. $regexp(TAG\_1,^(._?)(\d_)$,$2)
TAG\_2 use RegExp
"ABC DEF 123" manipulate it to "ABC DEF " e. g. $regexp(TAG\_2,^(._?)(\d_)$,$1)
TAG\_3 use RegExp
"XYZ HAHAHA 999" manipulate it to "999" e. g. $regexp(TAG\_3,^(._?)(\d_)$,$2)
TAG\_4 use Format
%\_TAG\_2%%TAG\_3%
You may be able to reduce the number of tag fields.
DD.20071211.0125.CET
---
### Author:  [@tbessie](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/tbessie)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2007, 7:29am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874/5 "2007-12-11T07:29:40Z")
Thanks, D -- I'll give those ideas a try -- I appreciate the thought you put into it.
Do you happen to know if there is a tagging program that supports this kind of really complex
transformations with regular expressions built in, so that you needn't come up with
a strategy to do this based on multiple steps or intermediary tags?
- Tim
Moderation: removed unnecessary fullquote
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874/6 "2007-12-15T15:45:05Z")
> [@tbessie](#):
>
> ... Do you happen to know if there is a tagging program that supports this kind of really complex transformations with regular expressions built in, ...
I would solve this special problem with Mp3tag this way:
Begin Actiongroup **Test\_tbessie**
Action #1
_Actiontype 5:_ **Format tag field**
_Field:_ **TBESSIE\_1**
_Formatstring:_ **ABC÷DEF÷123**
Action #2
_Actiontype 5:_ **Format tag field**
_Field:_ **TBESSIE\_2**
_Formatstring:_ **XYZ÷HAHAHA÷999**
Action #3
_Actiontype 5:_ **Format tag field**
_Field:_ **TBESSIE\_3**
_Formatstring:_ **%TBESSIE\_1%,%TBESSIE\_2%**
Action #4
_Actiontype 4:_ **Replace with regular expression**
_Field:_ **TBESSIE\_3**
_Regular expression:_ **^(._?)(\d_),(._?)(\d_)$**
_Replace matches with:_ **$1$4**
[\_] case sensitive comparison
Note: Replace one special character ÷ with one space character.
End Actiongroup **Test\_tbessie** (4 Actions)
This actiongroup gives the result TBESSIE\_3= **ABC DEF 999**.
DD.20071215.1745.CET
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-copy-portion-of-one-field-to-another/5874/7 "2026-02-09T12:20:38Z")