# What is the purpose of Field in replace action **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [June 21, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-the-purpose-of-field-in-replace-action/14823 "2013-06-21T01:48:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mrpeanutshell](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@mrpeanutshell](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrpeanutshell)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-the-purpose-of-field-in-replace-action/14823/1 "2013-06-21T01:48:10Z")
I won't bother everybody with my initial post which went deep down into the REPLACE action and much confusion. Bottom line is that if you want to **COPY** a tag to another tag, you create an **Action type** of **Format value** Then you select the **Tag** you want to change by choosing the appropriate **Field** from the pull-down menu. That done, you put into the **Format string** area (in my case) one of the **Tag names** (delimited with % on both ends) found in the left hand column of the list at [https://docs.mp3tag.de/mapping](https://docs.mp3tag.de/mapping) (column header is **Name in Mp3tag** ). When first approaching this issue, I thought copying would involve replacing tags (e.g. replace ARTIST with ALBUM ARTIST) and therefore explored the REPLACE action by mistake. I never would have thought of formatting. But that's how it is. ---
**Author:** ![stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/stevehero/32/337_2.png) [@stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/stevehero)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 5:11am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-the-purpose-of-field-in-replace-action/14823/2 "2013-06-21T05:11:42Z")
Also in case you missed it: [https://docs.mp3tag.de/actions](https://docs.mp3tag.de/actions) It explains clearly what each function does. ---
**Author:** ![mrpeanutshell](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@mrpeanutshell](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrpeanutshell)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-the-purpose-of-field-in-replace-action/14823/3 "2013-06-22T20:10:21Z")
A lot of the confusion for me is about the language used. For **Format value** , it reads: _Formats tag fields by other fields content, i.e., this action can also be used for copying the content of one tag field to another tag field._ Which is about **copying** content to **tags**. The casual reader would not think **Format value** had anything to do with **copying** or **tags** , since neither word appears in the action name. Lots of things don't strike me as intuitive. I want to remove a tag, so now that I know about the **Format value** action, I thought I could format the tag into nothingness. But if you try that and select the field (aka 'tag') you can't leave the **Format string** blank (why not?). Instead you need to use a different Action type ( **Remove fields** ). But wait, earlier I was Formatting **values** , and now I'm Removing **fields**. So are values, tags, and fields all referring to the same thing? Appears to be. mp3tag is a powerful tool. I get that and see why it is popular. But the grouping of operations seems peculiar to me. I would have had it set anything (filename, tags) based on anything (filename, tags, nothingness) and let the source, destination, and formatting be expressed in regexs (with tons of keywords), instead of Convert and multiple Action subcategories. ---
**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, 12:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-the-purpose-of-field-in-replace-action/14823/4 "2026-02-09T12:24:32Z")
Closed on February 9, 2026, 12:24pm UTC