# Regexp problem
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regexp-problem/3991
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 2, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regexp-problem/3991 "2006-11-02T17:09:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regexp-problem/3991/1 "2006-11-02T17:09:16Z")
Can anyone tell me why this Action:
Regular expression "ARTIST": "(.\*)" -\> "X$1'
turns
a
in to
XaX
rather than in to
Xa
as expected?
I have to use
Regular expression "ARTIST": "^(.\*)$" -\> "X$1'
to get what I expect.
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regexp-problem/3991/2 "2006-11-02T17:50:09Z")
Because it matches both the presence of the characters and their absence after the string.
You can also use (.+)
Best regards,
Florian
---
### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regexp-problem/3991/3 "2006-11-02T18:06:04Z")
> Because it matches both the presence of the characters and their absence after the string.
It should not.
- is supposed to be greedy, so .\* should match only once.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regexp-problem/3991/4 "2026-02-09T12:19:58Z")