# Splitting a tag into 2 and copying one part to another tag **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [November 20, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855 "2020-11-20T20:47:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Kuchlei)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/1 "2020-11-20T20:47:26Z")
Hello, I know your first reactions are going to be "Read the FAQ" the answers are there. I have looked, cut and pasted the solutions, changed the tag names etc to my purposes and tested several of the solutions and non worked for me.. Now I assume it is because I am doing something wrong when I try to create the actions or I don't understand the syntax. I have items in the %artist% tag in the format where the group lead is followed by a " & " followed by the group name. i.e. Bob Marley & The Wailers. What I want to do is copy everything before the " & " to the %albumartist% tag but only if the artist album is blank.. Since none of the examples I found worked for me I tried this: Field: ALBUMARTIST Regular expression: %artist% HAS " & " AND %albumartist% IS "" (this works in the filter) Replace matches with: $LEFT(%artist%,$LEN(%artist%) - $STRCHAR(%artist%," & ")). When I click on the Action I see this:Regular expression "ALBUMARTIST":"%artist% HAS " & " AND %albumartist% IS "" -\> "$LEFT(%artist%,$LEN(%artist%) - $STRCHAR(%artist%," & "))" This kind of logic works in many languages and there seem to be the correct scripting functions to do this but so far I have not been able to make it work. Am I way of base with my expectations of the scripting language or is my syntax wrong??? Help please ---
**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:** [November 20, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/2 "2020-11-20T20:51:53Z")
> [@Kuchlei](#): > > but only if the artist album is blank I would filter for the files that do not have a filled ALBUMARTIST with ALBUMARTIST MISSING This also reduces the number of rewritten files. Then try an action of the type "Guess value" Source: `%artist%` Target string: `%albumartist% & %artist%` ---
**Author:** ![Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Kuchlei)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/3 "2020-11-20T21:14:51Z")
Nope, That did nothing but propagate the Artist to the albumartist . Guess I will just do it manually. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/4 "2020-11-20T21:18:25Z")
What kind of action did you use? If the pattern does not match then usually nothing happens. So the result is not really plausible ---
**Author:** ![Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Kuchlei)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/5 "2020-11-20T21:28:16Z")
I Used Guess values. The source exactly as you posted and the Target string exactly as you posted. That just copied from artist to album artist. Since the & has a space on each side I also tried " & " in the target string but that did nothing. ---
**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:** [November 20, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/6 "2020-11-20T21:30:41Z")
Then perhaps a screendump would help - with a visible source field and the action ---
**Author:** ![Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Kuchlei)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/7 "2020-11-20T21:35:32Z")
To be honest I've spent more time on this than it would have taken to do this manually, which is what I am going to do. Thanks for your help anyway. Once I'm done I won't need to do this again. 😌 ---
**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, 12:28pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/splitting-a-tag-into-2-and-copying-one-part-to-another-tag/50855/8 "2026-02-09T12:28:56Z")