Split title into individual fields?

[Sludge]

Been getting a number of mp3 with the Title field as "Title - Artist" or "Artist - Title" and the Artist field set as something like "Various".

I know there must be some way of splitting the Title field into the correct individual fields but can't seem to figure it out. How do I do this?

I've previously relied on converting filenames to tags but now this isn't an option as many of the files are often having incorrect or truncated filenames.

[ohrenkino]

You would have to select the files that show the same pattern. MP3tag by itself does not know whether a string is a title or an artist.
But once you have done that, you can automate it:

Create an action of the type "Guess values"
Soruce: %title%
Guessing pattern: %artist% - %title%

or
Guessing pattern: %title% - %artist%

Please note that the pattern has to match exactly, e.g.
%artist%-%title%
is a different pattern.

[Sludge]

You would have to select the files that show the same pattern. MP3tag by itself does not know whether a string is a title or an artist.
But once you have done that, you can automate it:

Create an action of the type "Guess values" for TITLE
Guessing pattern: %artist% - %title%

or
Guessing pattern: %title% - %artist%

Please note that the pattern has to match exactly, e.g.
%artist%-%title%
is a different pattern.

Thanks a lot!
That works fine, I knew the solution was simple but overlooked the slightly cryptic sounding "guess" function.

[Ian_Werich]

I've carefully readen ohrenkino solution, but something seems wrong on my dates.

I have in the field TITLE the value "A Media Luz-Carlos Almada" (i.e. TITLE-ALBUM ARTIST) and the value "Edgardo Donato" in the field ARTIST.

I'm trying to split the split field TITLE to let "A Media Luz" in this field, putting the value "Carlos Almada" in the file ALBUM ARTIST.

Thanks in advance

Ian

[ohrenkino]

And what have you tried so far?

@ohrenkino

Create an action of the type "Guess values" for TITLE
Guessing pattern: %title%-%albumartist%

[Ian_Werich]

@ohrenkino

what have you tried so far

The same you suggested, but it doesn't work.

Apparently, I don't see any typing error.

I also tried (unsuccessfully) to change the value of the "Replace matches with" field with %title% and %albumartist%.

[ohrenkino]

Then please show me a screendump that shows the real data from TITLE and the action that you applied.

[MotleyG]

@Ian_Werich

Apparently, I don't see any typing error.

I'd be suspicious in this case with the dash character. Often there are titles from web sources that have used alternate Unicode characters. Trying copying that character from your test filename, and paste it into the guessing pattern instead of typing it from the keyboard.

[LyricsLover]

In addition to @MotleyG's advice, please have a look at all the various dash variants.
Some of them are hardly distinguishable by eye.

[Ian_Werich]

Hi,

here you have the screendump of data from TITLE and the action I applied.

Thank you
Ian

[ohrenkino]

If you read carefully

@ohrenkino

Create an action of the type "Guess values"

you will see that you chose the wrong action.
It should be "Guess value" (import tag fields)
Source pattern would be: %title%
Target string: %title%-%albumartist%

[Ian_Werich]

Ops, now I've understood my wrong action.

Thank you very much!
Ian