# Need help with regular expression
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-regular-expression/8465
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 17, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-regular-expression/8465 "2009-06-17T12:26:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MrDog](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MrDog)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-regular-expression/8465/1 "2009-06-17T12:26:46Z")
I had a problem with disk crashes and general computer mayhem a while back. A bunch of my tags got screwed up, and now I want to fix them. The artist and year fields have been particularly affected. They read Bob Marley/Bob Marley/Bob Marley (anywhere from 2-4 repeats) or 1992\\1992. Sometimes there is a blank character box, too.
Is there an expression that will delete the slashes and repeated values?
Thanks in advance,
Mr. Dog
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### Author:  [@RevRagnarok](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/RevRagnarok)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-regular-expression/8465/2 "2009-06-17T18:08:00Z")
> [@Mr. Dog](#):
>
> I had a problem with disk crashes and general computer mayhem a while back. A bunch of my tags got screwed up, and now I want to fix them. The artist and year fields have been particularly affected. They read Bob Marley/Bob Marley/Bob Marley (anywhere from 2-4 repeats) or 1992\\1992. Sometimes there is a blank character box, too.
>
> Is there an expression that will delete the slashes and repeated values?
Well, I don't have MP3Tag in front of me, but you can try:
Search:
([^/]_)(/\1)_
Replace:
$1
Again, this is off the top of my head, I'm at work so cannot check this. You would do the same for the backslashes, replace the first two / with \ but NOT the last one at \1.
Explanation (highlight): Capture greedily everything up to a slash into $1. Then capture the string of / followed by what you already captured into $1. Do it as many times as you can.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/need-help-with-regular-expression/8465/3 "2026-02-09T12:21:35Z")