Deleting Redundant/Old Data Out Of File Names

[dec]

inadvertently i added the latest Bit Rate etc data to some File Names before i worked out how to delete the old previous data

a lot of options won't work here: the length from the start is of course highly variable: and also the length from teh END (due the differing data); the actual data to be deleted is not consistently the same eg the bit rate & sample rate vary

so the best i could think of are variations on this involving ? (or *) wild cards; but i can't work out just where (what MP3Tag function) i can use wild cards

so i want to delete this example string out of File name ...

[norm91] [????min]

(there may be an issue with the ]'s, in which case i would do a global replace and change them all back to normal brackets)

beyond my expertise. by the way, i can't see how to use %dummy% in this case as there are several different fields that might be embedded in the files names - in some but not oithers eg 'live', location, concert name, etc.

so just how do we do this?

[LyricsLover]

@dec

but i can't work out just where (what MP3Tag function) i can use wild cards

Do you remember this thread?

How to edit a text string with wild card chars?

so say i have a Duration/Length text string like this ... (0345min) as you can see, it is missing its separator (i accidently deleted it when i did a global replace of '_') now if i could use normal wild cards that would be quite simple replace ??min) > -??min) but it seems that i can't use wild cards, and i find no mention of 'wild cards' so .. if i CAN use wild cards (w/o Regex), what is the correct syntax? if i CAN'T use wild cards, what can i do? i assume only a Regex express…

and for

@dec

the length from the start is of course highly variable: and also the length from teh END (due the differing data)

Do you remember this at least two threads:

How to Cutright from a char str: can't get it work

Picard just automatically just trashed all my File Names and added rubbish at the end of each file name without so much as a say-so. it did other damage as well, but i am/have fixed most of that. i have worked out that the last valid string at the end of every file name is "(NORM)" see attached example so i want to truncate the file name from that to the rhs end of file name but do you think i can work out a way that actually works! i played with $left and $cut right and $strstr, but i coul…

and

Odd STRCHR Error

i found a whole lot of files w/o Artist, for some reason, although it is in Filename, and fortutiously has a '-' separator but i cannot get $strchr (with Cutright) to play nicely to extract the Artist precisely from Filename it seems quite weird. if i use Cutleft it extracts the rest of the Filename string exactly if i use Strrchr, it makes no difference ie it cuts to exactly the same place (meaning that there is only one in the string) but Cutright cuts to a completely different position t…

So what exactly have you already tried and where don't you get the expected result?

For the speciality with the square brackets the documentation says:

[dec]

thanks.
as far as i can tell NONE of that will work with this data; but thanks for the reminder about single quotes and special chars.

and no, i don't know about you, but i have a lot going on over past months, and any time before, so NO, i do NOT remember all of these Threads - AND i find it impossible to find when i search (as indicated) any way. what is the saying about sorting the chaff from something?

[LyricsLover]

@LyricsLover

So what exactly have you already tried and where don't you get the expected result?

How exactly does your source filenames looks like?
(Please don't create some manually modified "[norm91] [????min]" examples, show us your real existing filenames in a screenshot.)

What exactly have you already tried to delete old data from your filenames?
(Please show us your failing Actions, your Convert Format Strings and so on. What exactly do they fail at?)

@dec

so just how do we do this?

I don't know how you do this (therefore I ask you), but I would quite simply rewrite the filename with the data from the tags.

[dec]

as i thought i said, i CANNOT rebuild the File Name from existing Tags because the Title Tag is virtually identical to the File Name tag, ie, although i can get Artist and Duration etc as separate Tags, i can not get a 'minimalist' Title Tag, but just saying that gives me an idea - which i have to think about/check. can I rebuild the TITLE Tag - basically by truncating, and then use that minimal Title tag to then rebuild the File Name?

(not sure if that actually works given the fact that Title/s have almost the same data as File Names,; but i will have a look and see.)

the key issue/problem in all of this is that both the individual File Names and the Title Tags vary so much from both ends because of individual track-specific embedded data, including eg Venue, etc.

[dec]

... and as you know, i cannot upload screenshots as much as i would love to always