# \_DIRECTORY formatting issue with non alphanumeric characters
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [February 12, 2018, 9:42am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754 "2018-02-12T09:42:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@marcusj0015](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/marcusj0015)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2018, 9:42am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754/1 "2018-02-12T09:42:48Z")
I have an action to place songs in the %artist%%album% folder, and it works ok for alphanumeric characters (lower and upper case and numbers) but not special characters like `$` let alone Unicode.
Here's my action:
Format value: Field =\_DIRECTORY Format string = `E:\Media\Music\%artist%\%album%`
I've tried it both with and without a trailing slash at the end of the format string, and it doesn't affect it at all.
Try it yourself, Put A$ap Rocky or $uicideBoy$ in the artist field then apply the action, it won't work.
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2018, 10:18am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754/2 "2018-02-12T10:18:18Z")
> [@marcusj0015](#):
>
> Format value: Field =\_DIRECTORY Format string = E:\Media\Music%artist%%album%
Are you on Windows or macOS?
Besides that, it looks like a backslash is missing between the fixed and variable parts of the format string. Can you try with
`E:\Media\Music\%artist%%album%`
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2018, 10:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754/3 "2018-02-12T10:19:26Z")
apparently, you have to use the $validate() function
> [@marcusj0015](#):
>
> Format value: Field =\_DIRECTORY Format string = E:\Media\Music%artist%%album%
should be
Format string = $validate(E:\Media\Music%artist%%album%,\_)
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### Author:  [@marcusj0015](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/marcusj0015)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754/4 "2018-02-12T18:08:10Z")
No, there's no backslash missing between Music and the variables, I just did a typo on accident when I copied it here.
In fact, I didn't even make a typo, your forum software ate that slash.
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### Author:  [@marcusj0015](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/marcusj0015)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754/5 "2018-02-12T23:12:17Z")
Thanks for this, I didn't know about the validate function.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/directory-formatting-issue-with-non-alphanumeric-characters/40754/6 "2026-02-09T12:27:14Z")