# Move The at beginning of artist field to after artist
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [May 26, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622 "2025-05-26T13:06:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@reddwarf4ever](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/reddwarf4ever)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/1 "2025-05-26T13:06:53Z")
The, Beatles - hello goodbye
to
Beatles, The - Hello goodbye
tried replace with regular expression
^(the)\s(.+)$
$2 ($1)
doesnt work
thanks
---
### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/2 "2025-05-26T13:19:53Z")
This is what your regular expression actually tries to match:
In your example there is no space after your word "The".
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/3 "2025-05-26T13:21:05Z")
> [@reddwarf4ever](#):
>
> Beatles, The - Hello goodbye
I would say that this is not the ARTIST but something else.
The artist is "The Beatles".
So what does the data in the field ARTIST look like?
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### Author:  [@anon32189785](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/anon32189785)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 7:17am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/4 "2025-05-27T07:17:57Z")
This works for me:
find: `(^.*?), (.*?)( -.*?)$`
replace: `\2, \1\3`
or `$2, $1,$3`
---
### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 7:33am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/5 "2025-05-27T07:33:14Z")
@anon32189785
The OP asks for a solution to move "The" at the beginning of the `ARTIST` field.
In your solution everything at the beginning (in front of the comma) will be moved.
Typical example for an `ARTIST` that should NOT be moved:
Earth, Wind & Fire
---
### Author:  [@reddwarf4ever](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/reddwarf4ever)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2025, 2:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/6 "2025-05-28T14:56:04Z")
Hello
Think it should be dimple, just can't get my head around writing mp3tag scripts
Need in artist fiekd
The, Beatles
To becone
Beatles, The
Needs to search for first 3 characters in artist field to be The
Then move it to the end of the artist field
Hopefully someone can help me with the code
Have written visual basuc, and some machine code, so have a grasp of the basics but not mp3tag scripts, pity there's not a script creator of sorts
Thanks in advance
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/7 "2025-05-28T15:57:42Z")
> [@reddwarf4ever](#):
>
> The, Beatles
> To becone
> Beatles, The
Try "Replace with regular expression" for ARTIST
Search string: `^The (.*)`
Replace with: `$1, The`
My favourite group for this procedure is always "The The".
Also problematic:
The Duke & The King
The Head & The Heart
The Weeknd & Ariana Grande
The Wind & The Wave
---
### Author:  [@reddwarf4ever](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/reddwarf4ever)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2025, 10:38am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/8 "2025-05-29T10:38:00Z")
Thank you
Will give this a try, plan to use on my massive music collection, will do on a backup first lol
Does this only look for The I'm the first 3 characters 🤔
If The appears elsewhere in the artist field needs to be ignored
e.g Brian Poole and The tremeloes, in this case The "The" should be ignored thanks
Cheers 👍
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2025, 10:50am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/9 "2025-05-29T10:50:11Z")
Yes, it matches only occurrences of `The` at the start of the line (denoted by `^` in the expression above).
You can also always experiment and try for yourself. It's a good way to familarize yourself with the workings of these actions.
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### Author:  [@reddwarf4ever](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/reddwarf4ever)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2025, 12:49pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/10 "2025-05-29T12:49:51Z")
Is there a guide to what all the symbols mean and what they achieve e.g. ^
Would love to learn what that and $ do
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2025, 12:53pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/11 "2025-05-29T12:53:20Z")
See the documentation about regular expressions:
> **[Regular Expressions – Mp3tag Documentation](https://docs.mp3tag.de/regex/)**
>
> Documentation on support for regular expressions in Mp3tag. Mp3tag is the universal Tag Editor.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2025, 11:25am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/12 "2025-05-30T11:25:50Z")
2 posts were split to a new topic: [Rename files if track number is there or not](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/rename-files-if-track-number-is-there-or-not/68672)
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2025, 11:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/move-the-at-beginning-of-artist-field-to-after-artist/68622/13 "2025-05-30T11:26:08Z")