# Shorten year field?

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-year-field/15914>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [July 17, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-year-field/15914 "2014-07-17T03:14:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![krissasaur](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/krissasaur/32/5606_2.png) [@krissasaur](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/krissasaur)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-year-field/15914/1 "2014-07-17T03:14:42Z")

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I searched the forum and couldn't find anything like this.

Anyway, I would like an action that can remove the ends of dates? Some songs I have are named "20130515" or sometimes it is some long thing like "2013-05-15T07:00:00Z" and I would like to JUST have it be "2013."

Is there any way to make an action that would delete everything except the first 4 characters?

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**Author:** ![poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/poster/32/4881_2.png) [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-year-field/15914/2 "2014-07-17T03:23:54Z")

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> [@krissasaur](#):
>
> Is there any way to make an action that would delete everything except the first 4 characters?

Use the coverter Tag-Tag.  
Field: YEAR  
Format String: $left(%year%,4)

Or If you want to use it in an action group with other actions you can use:

Format Value  
Field: YEAR  
Format String: $left(%year%,4)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![krissasaur](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/krissasaur/32/5606_2.png) [@krissasaur](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/krissasaur)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2014, 9:05am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-year-field/15914/3 "2014-07-26T09:05:07Z")

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Sorry for the late reply, but that was exactly what I wanted!!! Thank you so much! ❤

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**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/shorten-year-field/15914/4 "2026-02-09T12:25:08Z")

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Closed on February 9, 2026, 12:25pm UTC