# Remove all text after specific character(s)
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 31, 2013, 7:44am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409 "2013-01-31T07:44:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TMan459](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/TMan459)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 7:44am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/1 "2013-01-31T07:44:31Z")
Hey all!
I'm searching around, and probably just missing something.
So I'd like to cut all text to the right of a defined character.
Example:
My genre field has w/o quotes "Folk Rock\\Another\\A Third"
I want to make it so that genre field reads "Folk Rock".
I want to remove all text to the right before the first "".
Hoping to get some guidance!
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 9:24am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/2 "2013-01-31T09:24:36Z")
> [@TMan459](#):
>
> ... I'd like to cut all text to the right of a defined character.
> Example:
> My genre field has w/o quotes "Folk Rock\\Another\\A Third"
> I want to make it so that genre field reads "Folk Rock".
> I want to remove all text to the right before the first "".
> Hoping to get some guidance! Thanks!
It looks like as you want to reduce a multi-value tag-field GENRE to a standard single-value tag-field GENRE, while keeping the first value item from the multi-value tag-field GENRE.
You can try this ...
Converter: "Tag - Tag" or Action: "Format value"
Field: GENRE
Format string: **$regexp($meta\_sep(GENRE,';'),'^(.+?);.\*$','$1\\')**
... or simpler ...
Format string: **$meta(GENRE,0)'\\'**
From:
(multi-value)
GENRE=Folk Rock
GENRE=Another
GENRE=A Third
To:
(single-value)
GENRE=Folk Rock
See also this bug note ...
[/t/12626/1](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/12626/1)
DD.20130131.1119.CET
---
### Author:  [@TMan459](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/TMan459)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/3 "2013-02-01T23:04:32Z")
That did it! Thanks a ton!
May as well throw another out then. My publisher field doesn't appear to be a multi-value tag-field like my genre field was in the original post. My publisher field has multiple publisher's as well, yet in a single value, and I'd like to cut that down to the first one listed. Since we're not dealing with multi-value tag-fields, I need a different approach.
So, example layout of my publisher field:
Columbia; Columbia Records; A Third; A Fourth
So, each entry is separated by a semicolon.
I'd like the results to look like:
Columbia
So once again, I'd like to cut all text to the right of the semicolon, along with that semicolon.
I have a two step action, one to remove all text to the right of the semicolon, and another after that to actually just replace the semicolon with nothing:
Action type: Replace with regular expressions
Field: PUBLISHER
Regular expression: ^(.+;\s)(.+)
Replace matches with:$1
Then just a simple replace with blank to remove the lasting semicolon.
I'm sure there's an easier way to do this. If not, let me know!
Thanks again!
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/4 "2013-02-02T03:06:28Z")
> [@TMan459](#):
>
> ... example layout of my publisher field:
> Columbia; Columbia Records; A Third; A Fourth
> So, each entry is separated by a semicolon.
> I'd like the results to look like:
> Columbia
Have a closer look to the content of the tag-field:
each entry is separated by a string of _one semicolon plus one space_.
There are several ways to reach the goal.
1. You may use the proposal no. 1 from post #2.
Converter: "Tag - Tag" or Action: "Format value"
Field: PUBLISHER
Format string: **$regexp($meta\_sep(PUBLISHER,';'),'^(.+?);.\*$','$1\\')**
2. You may use the regexp part only of proposal no. 1.
**$regexp(%PUBLISHER%,'^(.+?);.\*$','$1')**
... or ...
**$regexp(%PUBLISHER%,'^(.+?)(?:;\s\*.+$|$)','$1')**
1. You may use a two step actions group.
Action: Split field by separator
Field: PUBLISHER
Separator: ;
Note: there is one semicolon only, there is no need to specify the space too.
Note: surrounding spaces will be trimmed automatically.
Action: Format value
Field: PUBLISHER
Format string: **$meta(PUBLISHER,0)'\\'**
DD.20130202.0503.CET
---
### Author:  [@TMan459](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/TMan459)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/5 "2013-02-02T07:31:28Z")
Once again, tremendous!
Last thing, is there any documentation that describes how this code is put together? The Mp3tag site doesn't go into a lot of depth, and I'd like to know how to do that instead of asking for a copy/paste solution on these forums.
Probably another silly question, but you've been great!
Thanks a lot!
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/6 "2025-11-12T14:53:50Z")
3 posts were split to a new topic: [Extract text from the middle of Title field](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/extract-text-from-the-middle-of-title-field/70124)
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/9 "2018-03-14T21:05:13Z")
3 posts were split to a new topic: [Extract artist from existing field](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/extract-artist-from-existing-field/41091)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/remove-all-text-after-specific-character-s/14409/10 "2025-11-12T14:58:17Z")
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