# Selective Commas in Title
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/selective-commas-in-title/71533
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 29, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/selective-commas-in-title/71533 "2026-06-29T16:42:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@djrip](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/djrip)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/selective-commas-in-title/71533/1 "2026-06-29T16:42:42Z")
Hello. I have successfully found a regex that works at regex101 but does not work as expected in Mp3Tag. (Test Data at the end of post.) I want to catch (and remove) any comma that does not meet the conditions below which is why I've used negative lookahead.
Regex:
```auto
,\s(?!\w+$)(?!\(\w+)(?!The\s\(.+\))
```
```auto
(?!\w+$) REM Exclude "Something, The"
```
```auto
(?!\(\w+) REM Exclude Some Text, (Other Text)
```
```auto
(?!The\s\(.+\)) REM Exclude "Something, The (More Text)"
```
Summary of conditions:
NOT Some Text, (Other Text) [e.g. Is This The Way To, (Amarillo)]
NOT Something, The [e.g. Way, The]
NOT Something, The (More Text) [e.g. Way, The (Extended Remix)]
NOT Text, (More text here) (With other text here) [e.g. Devotion, (I Wanna Give You) (12 Inch Mix)]
In the test data, it should catch only commas in the **bold** text (1 and 2), whilst excluding the others (3,4 & 5):
1. **When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going**
2. **This is it, I'm Done**
3. Some Text, (Other Text)
4. Something, The
5. Something, The (Extended Remix)
I'll keep working on it. Thank you
---
### Author:  [@djrip](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/djrip)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2026, 5:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/selective-commas-in-title/71533/2 "2026-06-29T17:26:58Z")
I've managed to simplify and get Mp3 Tag to do as required here with the following:
```auto
,(?=\s(?!\(|The))
```
I believe my previous error may have been the exclusion of an equals sign. Let me know. Thanks
---
### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2026, 9:37am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/selective-commas-in-title/71533/3 "2026-06-30T09:37:17Z")
For future readers:
The above regular expression matches a comma only if:
1. it is followed by a space, and
2. the next string after the space is neither `(` nor `The`.
More technical:
1. `,` -\> it matches a literal comma.
2. `(?= ... )` → positive lookahead, this means the comma is only matched if what follows satisfies a condition, but without consuming those characters.
Inside the lookahead: `\s(?!\(|The)`
1. `\s` -\> after the comma, there must be a whitespace character (e.g. a space).
2. `(?!\(|The)` → negative lookahead -\> immediately after that whitespace, it must NOT be:
`(` (an opening parenthesis), or
`The`
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2026, 9:37am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/selective-commas-in-title/71533/4 "2026-07-07T09:37:25Z")
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