---
title: User Stage
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---

The **User** [Stage](/configuration/transforms#stage) uses [**search-and-replace** expressions](#search-and-replace-expression), provided by you, to modify/replace parts of Play data.

This Stage is most useful for correcting individual instances of bad data, or patterns, in your known data. Example scenarios:

* Removing `(Album Version)` from all Titles
* Removing `Various Artists` from Artist data
* Correcting spelling mistakes for individual Artist names

The user [Stage `type`](/configuration/transforms#stage) is `user`.

## Configuration

All [Stage Configuration](/configuration/transforms#configuring-stage) is done using [**search-and-replace** expressions](#search-and-replace-expression) inside individual [rules](#rules). Default configuration for all Rules can still be done using Stage `defaults`.

<details>

<summary>Example</summary>

```json5 title="config.json"
{
  // ...
  "transformers": [
    {
      "type": "user",
      "name": "Normalizer",
      "defaults": {
        "title": [
          "(Album Version)"
        ],
        "artists": [
            "Various Artists"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}
```

</details>

### Search-And-Replace Expression

A Search-And-Replace Expression can be a plain string that matches a literal, then removes it:

```
Expression: "badTerm"

"this is badTerm cool string" => "this is a cool string"
```

or a regular expression that matches and removes the match:

```
Expression: "/bad\w+/i"

"this is badSomething cool string" => "this is a cool string"
```

Or it may be an object that specifies what to match (using either plain string or regular expression) and what to replace it with:

```json5
{
    "search": "anotherBadTerm", // match all instances of 'anotherBadTerm'
    "replace": "goodTerm" // replace with the string 'goodTerm'
}
```

```
"this is anotherBadTerm cool string" => "this is goodTerm cool string"
```

```json5
{
    "search": "/^\(\w+.com)/i", // matches any string that starts with EX '(YourMusic.com)'
    "replace": "[MySite.com]" // replace with the string '[MySite.com]'
}
```

```
"(Foo.com) this is a cool string" => "[MySite.com] this is a cool string"
```

The `replace` property uses javascript's [`replace()` function and so can use any special string characters.](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/replace#specifying_a_string_as_the_replacement)

### Rules

Each [Rule](/configuration/transforms#stage-rules) must be an array of [search-and-replace expressions](#search-and-replace-expressions):

```json5 title="lastfm.json"
[
  {
    "name": "myLastFm",
    "configureAs": "source",
    "data": {
      // ...
    },
    "options": {
      "playTransform": {
        "type": "user",
        "preCompare": [
            {
                "title": [
                    // removes "badTerm" from title
                    "badTerm",
                    {
                        // removes "fooTerm" from title and replaces it with "barTerm"
                        "search": "fooTerm",
                        "replace": "barTerm"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ],
      }
    }
  }
]
```

:::note

If the value of the field (title, an artist, album) is an empty string after transforming then the field is **removed.**

:::


## Examples

### Usage with `when` condition

Using `when` for [Conditional Modification](/configuration/transforms#conditional-modification)
<details>

<summary>Example</summary>

```json5
//   On search-replace in title...
//     IF artist matches "Elephant Gym"
//     THEN Run regex search-replace ELSE skip this rule
//
//   Run live|remastered regex remove on title
{
    "title": [
        {
            "search": "/\\s\\-\\s滾石40\\s滾石撞樂隊\\s40團拚經典(.+)$/i",
            "replace": "",
            "when": [
                {
                    "artist": "/Elephant Gym/"
                }
            ]
        },
        "/(\\s\\-\\s|\\s)(feat\\.(.+)|live|remastered(.+))$/i"
    ],
}
```

</details>

### Remove phrase from Title in all new Plays

Removes the phrase `(Album Version)` from the Title of a Play


<details>

<summary>Example</summary>

```json5
{
    "title": [
        "(Album Version)"
    ]
}

```
</details>

### Remove all parenthesized content from the end of a title

<details>

    <summary>Example</summary>
```json5
{
"compare": {
        "candidate": {
            "title": [
                "/(\(.+\))\s*$/"
            ]
        },
        "existing": {
            "title": [
                "/(\(.+\))\s*$/"
            ]
        },
    },
}
```
</details>

### Rename misspelled artist in all new Plays

<details>

    <summary>Example</summary>
```json5
{
    "artists": [
        {
        "search": "Boz Skaggs",
        "replace": "Boz Scaggs"
        }
    ]
}
```
</details>

### Remove "Various Artists" albums in all new Plays

<details>

    <summary>Example</summary>
```json5
{
    "album": [
        {
        "search": "Various Artists",
        "replace": ""
        }
    ]
}
```
</details>

### Extract primary Artist from delimited, multi-Artist string

<details>

  When the Artist string is actually a multi-artist, delimited string, this search-and-replace will replace the string with just the first artist found.

  Ex

  ```
  My Artist One / My Artist Two / Another Guy
  My Artist One
  ```

  Artists are delimited with a spaced forward slash (`/`) in the regex below. Replace the contents of the `delim` capture group with the delimiter for your use case. Some more common scenarios:

  * `(?<delim>\\/)` No spaces between slash IE `My Artist One/My Artist Two/Another Guy`
  * `(?<delim>\\s*\\\\\s*)` Backslash instead of forward slash IE `My Artist One \ My Artist Two \ Another Guy`
  * `(?<delim>,)` Comma IE `My Artist One, My Artist Two, Another Guy`

  <details>

      <summary>Example</summary>
```json
{
    "artists": [
        {
            "search": "(.*?)(?<delim>\\s*\\/\\s*)(.*$)",
            "replace": "$1"
        }
    ]
}
```
  </details>

</details>