# Reversing COMPOSER tags with multiple composers
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reversing-composer-tags-with-multiple-composers/11989
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [May 8, 2011, 8:30am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reversing-composer-tags-with-multiple-composers/11989 "2011-05-08T08:30:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fuzzbass45](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/fuzzbass45)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2011, 8:30am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reversing-composer-tags-with-multiple-composers/11989/1 "2011-05-08T08:30:42Z")
After a hard drive accident, where I somehow lost thousands of composer tags, but somehow managed to keep all the sort composer tags, i'm left with quite a large job to do!
All of my sort composer tags are written like this:
Hilpert, Fritz, Hütter, Ralf, Schneider, Florian
Copying the SORT COMPOSER tag to the COMPOSER tag is no problem.
Is there a regular expression I could apply to tags like these that would re-order the tag into the correct format for me?
I.E:
Fritz Hilpert / Ralf Hütter / Florian Schneider
I know I would probably need to tweak the expression for composers with more / less names.
Many Thanks
Steve 45
---
### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2011, 9:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reversing-composer-tags-with-multiple-composers/11989/2 "2011-05-08T09:26:22Z")
> [@Steve45](#):
>
> After a hard drive accident, where I somehow lost thousands of composer tags, ...
A very unusual situation. Hard to believe, that a drive accident can corrupt only one tag-field in a music data file.
> [@Steve45](#):
>
> ... All of my sort composer tags are written like this:
> Hilpert, Fritz, Hütter, Ralf, Schneider, Florian
> ...
> Is there a regular expression I could apply to tags like these that would re-order the tag into the correct format for me? ...
> Fritz Hilpert / Ralf Hütter / Florian Schneider
> ...
Not as elegant, but this seems to work ...
**$trimRight($regexp($regexp(%COMPOSER%,'(.+?, .+?)(?:, |$)','$1 # '),'(.+?), (.+?)(?: # |$)','$2 $1 # '),' #')**
... or this ...
**$regexp($regexp($regexp(%COMPOSER%,'(.+?, .+?)(?:, |$)','$1 # '),'(.+?), (.+?)(?: # |$)','$2 $1 # '),' # $',)**
... or this ...
**$regexp($regexp(%COMPOSER%', ','(.+?), (.+?), ','$2 $1 # '),' # $',)**
From:
Hilpert, Fritz, Hütter, Ralf, Schneider, Florian
To:
Fritz Hilpert # Ralf Hütter # Florian Schneider
DD.20110508.1345.CEST
---
### Author:  [@fuzzbass45](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/fuzzbass45)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2011, 9:38am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reversing-composer-tags-with-multiple-composers/11989/3 "2011-05-08T09:38:18Z")
Many thanks!
What actually happened was that I had my entire music collection open in MP3tag, we had a power cut, I don't remember why I had so many files highlighted, or why they were saved, but it wiped the composer tags!
Steve 45
> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> A very unusual situation. Hard to believe, that a drive accident can corrupt only one tag-field in a music data file.
>
> Not as elegant, but this seems to work ...
>
> **$trimRight($regexp($regexp(%COMPOSER%,'(.+?, .+?)(?:, |$)','$1 # '),'(.+?), (.+?)(?: # |$)','$2 $1 # '),' #')**
>
> ... or this ...
>
> **$regexp($regexp($regexp(%COMPOSER%,'(.+?, .+?)(?:, |$)','$1 # '),'(.+?), (.+?)(?: # |$)','$2 $1 # '),' # $',)**
>
> From:
> Hilpert, Fritz, Hütter, Ralf, Schneider, Florian
> To:
> Fritz Hilpert # Ralf Hütter # Florian Schneider
>
> DD.20110508.1329.CEST
---
### Author:  [@fuzzbass45](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/fuzzbass45)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2011, 9:47am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reversing-composer-tags-with-multiple-composers/11989/4 "2011-05-08T09:47:05Z")
Works like a dream! 5000 tags to check now!
Steve 45
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reversing-composer-tags-with-multiple-composers/11989/5 "2026-02-09T12:23:05Z")