# Need An Expression
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [August 19, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121 "2021-08-19T19:21:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Splungeworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Splungeworthy)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/1 "2021-08-19T19:21:00Z")
What would the expression be for a filename that looks like this:
52nd Street - Billy Joel - 1 - 01 - Billy Joel - Big Shot.mp3
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/2 "2021-08-19T20:10:52Z")
Expression for what?
To rename your filename from already existing id3 tags?
Or to fill your tags from the given filename?
The formatstring would be something like
`%album% - %artist% - %discnumber% - %track% - %artist% - %title%`
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### Author:  [@Splungeworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Splungeworthy)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/3 "2021-08-19T21:01:23Z")
Thanks. It's for the existing filename.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2021, 9:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/4 "2021-08-19T21:29:06Z")
I would think the first artist reference may in fact be AlbumArtist:
%album% - %_albumartist_% - %discnumber% - %track% - %artist% - %title%
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/5 "2021-08-19T22:34:40Z")
I hope @Splungeworthy will let us know, which [converter](https://docs.mp3tag.de/converters) and which formatstring was the needed one.
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### Author:  [@Splungeworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Splungeworthy)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/6 "2021-08-20T15:39:26Z")
My whole goal for joining this community was to figure out how to load a USB stick with albums that would play back in the correct order on my car head unit. Well I have figured that out. It was a combination of putting track numbers first in the filename, and then putting that list into a temporary folder on my desktop. I then copied the files over to the stick, which would then add them to the stick in numerical order, since that's how the stick plays them-in the order in which they were added to the stick. Very roundabout about way of doing this, I know-but it worked like a charm.
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2021, 4:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/7 "2021-08-20T16:07:49Z")
> [@Splungeworthy](#):
>
> since that's how the stick plays them-in the order in which they were added to the stick.
I still [doubt that this is the reason](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-tags-permanently/54111/2), but if it works for you this way, everything is ok.
_(You could try it by your self:
Copy track 01 - Title 1.mp3 as first track from your desktop to your USB stick.
Then copy track 08 - Title 8.mp3 as second track to your USB stick.
Then copy track 03 - Title 3.mp3 as third track to your USB stick.
I bet, your player use this sort order 01, then 03, then 08.)_
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### Author:  [@Splungeworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Splungeworthy)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/8 "2021-08-20T17:19:52Z")
The funny thing is when I did this once before, I appended track numbers to the beginnings of file names, and the stick played them in the correct order, and I was adding albums to the stick in a random fashion. I tried doing that again, and the stick mixed them all up. So it took me having to change the filenames, load them onto a temp folder, and then transfer them back onto to the stick for this to work. I have not been able to find out how my head unit plays tracks off of the USB. It's a Pioneer DEH-P8300UB from several years back. When you Google this topic, many of the responses note that USB sticks will play tracks back in the order that they were added.
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/9 "2021-08-20T18:10:00Z")
Thank you for your explanation. It's new to me that the lack of existing device memory in combination with FAT file systems can lead to such a situation.
You could try out if one of this 3rd party tools mentioned [here](https://superuser.com/questions/376577/how-to-reorder-the-files-of-a-fat32-file-system#answer-1348720) can help you.
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### Author:  [@Splungeworthy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Splungeworthy)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-an-expression/54121/10 "2021-08-20T20:37:28Z")
Thank you LyricsLover for the referral. The thing about this stick that I'm using is all of the folders on the stick contain playlists that have no order to them except for the "Favorite Albums" folder. What I'm also finding is the player actually does a pretty decent job with "gapless" tracks-there's only a minute gap.