# Actions and batch-operations

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967
**Category:** FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
**Created:** [April 16, 2004, 7:46am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967 "2004-04-16T07:46:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 8

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### Author: ![dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/dano/32/6_2.png) [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967/8 "2004-04-16T13:32:16Z")

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### How to remove a certain number of leading chars?

In order to remove some leading characters from the filename or a tag field, create a [new action](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions/967/2) in an existing action group and choose Replace with regular expression as action type.

- **Field** : choose where you want to remove the chars.
- **Regular expression** : enter **`^.{3}`** if you want to remove 3 chars.
- **Replace matches with** stays empty.

You can enter the number of chars to be removed between the two curly brackets.

To remove the last 3 characters use **`.{3}$`** (but do not use this on \__FILENAME_ as it would remove the file extension).

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_[View the full topic](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967)._