# Need Help with an Action Item **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [March 20, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-an-action-item/17776 "2016-03-20T17:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![d2b](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@d2b](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/d2b)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-an-action-item/17776/1 "2016-03-20T17:57:34Z")
We have what we think is a peculiar situation. A series of Vorbis comments with the same field names (COMPOSER, PERFORMER or STYLE) were rewritten by an unauthorized program which took the previously separate fields and combined the values of those fields into a single field with mulitple values, as in the following example: Was (and should be): COMPOSER=Inge Doe COMPOSER=Johann Doe Now (and should not be): COMPOSER=Inge Doe; Johann Doe where the separator in the latter version is a semicolon followed by a space. I have two questions: 1. Can we create an action item that will reconstruct the original format with a separate field for each value? 2; Can such an action item be applied selectively to designated fields, such as the three mentioned in the first paragraph, without affecting other fields that might have 'semicolon/space' separators? This is not an essential requirement, just a desirable option. Thanks again for all of your suggestions on this and on former posts I've made. Dennis...aka "d2b" ---
**Author:** ![DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/detlevd/32/123_2.png) [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-an-action-item/17776/2 "2016-03-20T18:26:00Z")
> [@d2b](#): > > ... Was (and should be): > COMPOSER=Inge Doe > COMPOSER=Johann Doe > Now (and should not be): > COMPOSER=Inge Doe; Johann Doe ... Try this ... **Action "Format Value" Field: COMPOSER Formatstring: $if($neql($meta(COMPOSER,1),),%COMPOSER%,$regexp(%COMPOSER%,';\s+','\\\\'))** DD.20160320.2025.CET ---
**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-an-action-item/17776/3 "2016-03-20T19:02:49Z")
What about the "Split field by separator" action? ---
**Author:** ![Rijkstra](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/rijkstra/32/22_2.png) [@Rijkstra](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Rijkstra)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-an-action-item/17776/4 "2016-03-20T19:05:42Z")
> [@DetlevD](#): > > Try this ... > > **Action "Format Value" Field: COMPOSER Formatstring: $if($neql($meta(COMPOSER,1),),%COMPOSER%,$regexp(%COMPOSER%,';\s+','\\\\'))** > > DD.20160320.2025.CET Why not just: Split Field by Separator Field: COMPOSER Separator: ; ---
**Author:** ![DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/detlevd/32/123_2.png) [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-an-action-item/17776/5 "2016-03-20T19:29:35Z")
> [@Rijkstra](#): > > Why not just: ... Good question, ... my thinking was ... in case of a multi-value tag-field does already exists, ... then leave the multi-value tag-field untouched as it is, ... otherwise do the work of splitting, ... probably with the effect to save time when executed multiple times. DD.20160320.2139.CET ---
**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, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-an-action-item/17776/6 "2026-02-09T12:26:09Z")
Closed on February 9, 2026, 12:26pm UTC