# Finding first occurence of string
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 9, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876 "2006-10-09T03:37:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@juiceman](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/juiceman)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/1 "2006-10-09T03:37:38Z")
Hi, this is a newbie question.
I have string which may come in the following formats:
string1 (string2 - string3)
string1 (string2/string2 - string3)
string1 (string2/string3/string4)
string1 (string2)
I always to grab string2 with replace with regular expression.
I am doing the following:
^(._)((._)/-)$
to get $2
I guess I don't understand the priority of the bracket statement. How do I make it choose the first occurence (leftmost) of those choices. In the third example, there are multiple forward slashes and I want to choose the first.
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/2 "2006-10-09T05:55:15Z")
> [@juiceman](#):
>
> ... I guess I don't understand the priority of the bracket statement. ...
```
s1: string1 (string2 - string3)
s2: string1 (string2/string3 - string4)
s3: string1 (string2/string3/string4)
s4: string1 (string2)
r1: ^(.+) \((.+) - (.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2 $3
r2: ^(.+) \((.+)\/(.+) - (.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2 $3 $4
r3: ^(.+) \((.+)\/(.+)\/(.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2 $3 $4
r4: ^(.+) \((.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2
```
I hope it is self explaining.
DD.2006109.0955
---
### Author:  [@juiceman](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/juiceman)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/3 "2006-10-09T11:41:00Z")
Sorry for not explaining clearly. I have no idea which of the 4 examples may occur. Any of them may happen and I want to handle them with one replace command. Or else I will have to manually sort them and apply a different action for each one. I was hoping to avoid this.
QUOTE (DetlevD @ Oct 9 2006, 01:55) \<{POST\_SNAPBACK}\>
s1: string1 (string2 - string3)
```
s2: string1 (string2/string3 - string4)
s3: string1 (string2/string3/string4)
s4: string1 (string2)
r1: ^(.+) \((.+) - (.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2 $3
r2: ^(.+) \((.+)\/(.+) - (.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2 $3 $4
r3: ^(.+) \((.+)\/(.+)\/(.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2 $3 $4
r4: ^(.+) \((.+)\)$ ==> $1 $2
```
I hope it is self explaining.
DD.2006109.0955
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/4 "2006-10-09T12:56:26Z")
> [@juiceman](#):
>
> Sorry for not explaining clearly. I have no idea which of the 4 examples may occur. Any of them may happen and I want to handle them with one replace command. ...
Give this a try (not tested):
RegExp: **^(.+) ((.+)( - (.+)|/(.+) - (.+)|/(.+)/(.+)|))$**
In Mp3tag it should be: **^(.+) ((.+)( - (.+)|/(.+) - (.+)|/(.+)/(.+)|()))$**
When running this RegExp in Mp3tag reality it produces not the result I would expect.
So please have patience, I will think over, maybe some other RegExp crack can help in the meantime.
DD.20061009.1656
---
### Author:  [@juiceman](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/juiceman)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/5 "2006-10-09T14:22:43Z")
DD
Thanks for your help. I think I have it. I tested this on EditPad Pro at work. Now I need to go home and see if it works in MP3TAG.
^(._)((._?)/( - )\\$
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/6 "2006-10-10T02:58:06Z")
> [@juiceman](#):
>
> ... Thanks for your help. I think I have it. ...
So far so good.
But while I'm struggling with the Mp3tag RegExp machine there were coming up new questions.
Literal string: **A=B=C=**
RegExp: **(.+=)(.+=)**
Result $1: **A=B=**
Result $2: **C=**
I have expected that RegExp's would be evaluated from left to right, and the result should be:
$1: **A=**
$2: **B=C=**
Is there anybody out there who could explain this behaviour?
DD.20061010.0658
---
### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2006, 5:45am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/7 "2006-10-10T05:45:21Z")
Quantifiers are greedy and try to match as much as possible.
Your (.+=) does not stop at the first = it goes till the end of the string and back to the second because .+ matches every sign.
To make the quantifer lazy you can add a question mark behind it (.+?=) and it stops at the first =
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/finding-first-occurence-of-string/3876/8 "2026-02-09T12:19:55Z")