# Find and Replace Question

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [September 19, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356 "2017-09-19T12:18:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![landmark](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@landmark](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/landmark)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356/1 "2017-09-19T12:18:24Z")

</div>

I've organized all my mp3 tags for complete albums (as opposed to single tracks), by adding an "aa" at the beginning of the Sort Artist (value %albumartistsort%). I did that to force my complete albums to the top of the Artist list in my mp3 player.

So the Rolling Stones has the sort artist tag of "aaRolling Stones" and David Bowie has "aaBowie David" and Animal Collective has "aaAnimal Collective".

Now I want to get rid of this sorting structure. I'd like to do a Find-and-Replace all Sort Artists beginning with "aa" and return to them to nothing. Meaning David Bowie would now be "Bowie David".

How would I write an Action to do this for me?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/stevehero/32/337_2.png) [@stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/stevehero)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356/2 "2017-09-19T13:26:33Z")

</div>

Replace with regular expression action:

**Field:** %albumartistsort%  
**Replace:** ^aa  
**With:** LEAVE BLANK  
**[x] Check the Case-senstive comparision**

It's good you asked becuase using the normal replace would of messed up your tags replacing aa anywhere in the string of the TAG.

**Baan** \> Would end up \> **Bn**

So the reg exp with **^aa** only affects the starting point of the string like you want.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![landmark](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@landmark](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/landmark)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356/3 "2017-09-19T15:35:31Z")

</div>

Thanks for the help, but it's not working. Do I need any wildcard characters after the "^aa"?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356/4 "2017-09-19T16:17:59Z")

</div>

no wildcards.  
Did you use "Replace with regular expression" or just "Replace"? It should be the first type of action.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/stevehero/32/337_2.png) [@stevehero](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/stevehero)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356/5 "2017-09-19T17:32:00Z")

</div>

> [@landmark](#):
>
> Thanks for the help, but it's not working. Do I need any wildcard characters after the "^aa"?

You only want to find aa at the start of the string, not in the middle.

And then replace with nothing.

No need to do wildcards.

Use Replace with, regular expression, not replace action. Read my 1st post again.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/find-and-replace-question/19356/6 "2026-02-09T12:27:01Z")

</div>