# Please check my regexp
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/please-check-my-regexp/2449
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 2, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/please-check-my-regexp/2449 "2005-11-02T18:33:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Newbielicious](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Newbielicious)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/please-check-my-regexp/2449/1 "2005-11-02T18:33:05Z")
I'm using MP3Tag to clean up my tags. Very powerful program. So powerful that I'm afraid to just jump in with this regexp I made. I'm using a good tutorial:
[Regexp Tutorial Link](http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html)
as a reference. Anyone new to regexp, like me, should read it.
I want to remove the leading "The " from my artist tags. "The Eagles" becomes "Eagles". I also want to take into account the possibility of an extra space or two (or more) between the "The" and the next word. Here is the regexp I came up with and would like comments from those more experienced than I. I've run some trials but I certainly can't think of everything and don't want to mess up my tags.
In ARTIST field, search with ^[Tt]he( +) and replace with nothing.
Can anyone see if this will end up doing more than I want it to?
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/please-check-my-regexp/2449/2 "2005-11-03T16:37:12Z")
We have more or less the same in the [FAQ](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/967/9)
By default, the expressions are case insensitive in Mp3tag so you don't need _[Tt]_
But if you have ticked the checkbox, you need it of course.
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### Author:  [@Newbielicious](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Newbielicious)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/please-check-my-regexp/2449/3 "2005-11-04T02:38:53Z")
dano thanks for responding. I did read most of the FAQ but I remember not reading down that whole page. My fault.
I'm guessing from your response that my regexp would work, but I see that yours is formed better. I made mine too complex. Well, I learned something so that's good.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/please-check-my-regexp/2449/4 "2026-02-09T12:19:30Z")