# Why both "Value" and "Field" in column customization

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-both-value-and-field-in-column-customization/15834
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [June 22, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-both-value-and-field-in-column-customization/15834 "2014-06-22T01:35:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![aax](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@aax](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/aax)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-both-value-and-field-in-column-customization/15834/1 "2014-06-22T01:35:46Z")

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Am I missing something or is the **Field** box redundant?

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### 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: [June 22, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-both-value-and-field-in-column-customization/15834/2 "2014-06-22T02:10:38Z")

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Within the list view you can define colums, which do not write to a tag-field, just for displaying purpose.  
For example:  
Name: Covers; Value: %\_covers%  
Name: Codec; Value: %\_codec%[' ('%\_tool%')']  
Name: VBR; Value: [$left(%\_vbr%,1)]  
Name: Bitrate; Value: [%\_bitrate%' kBit/s ']  
Name: Samplerate; Value: [%\_samplerate%' Hz']  
Name: Duration; Value: %\_length%; SortBy: %\_length\_seconds%; Numeric: yes  
Name: Filesize; Value: %\_file\_size\_mb%' MB'; SortBy: %\_file\_size\_bytes%; Numeric: yes

DD.20140622.0610.CEST

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### Author: ![aax](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@aax](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/aax)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-both-value-and-field-in-column-customization/15834/3 "2014-06-22T02:39:33Z")

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Oh, so **field** actually writes to the tag, while **value** is just for display.  
Makes sense now that you've said it. I usually edit tags in the panel, not columns, so I didn't think of it.

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### Author: ![poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/poster/32/4881_2.png) [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/why-both-value-and-field-in-column-customization/15834/4 "2014-06-22T03:23:12Z")

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Editing is locked if Field is not defined.