# Strip leading numbers and dash
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 9, 2025, 1:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770 "2025-03-09T13:54:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AudioBabble](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/AudioBabble)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 1:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/1 "2025-03-09T13:54:34Z")
Hello all,
How do I strip leading numbers and dash from the TITLE tag?
I've done filename \> tag, now I'd like to use 'replace with regex' to strip the leading numbers and dash from the TITLE tag.
Sorry, this has probably been asked a zillion times before (even by me!), but google search led me down a rabbit hole of confusion!!
Do I need something in the regular expression box **and** something in the 'replace matches with' box?
format is: ' 01-Concert Intro '
---
### Author:  [@AudioBabble](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/AudioBabble)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/2 "2025-03-09T14:01:42Z")
sorted (for this case anyway)...
simply removed the first three characters from the title tag with:
```auto
^.{3}
```
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/3 "2025-03-09T14:02:50Z")
Or see here - as it is safer to look for digits than just any character
> [@Strip leading numbers from filenames to create titles](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-from-filenames-to-create-titles/7869):
>
> I could not for the life of me figure out this multistage process. After a lot of trouble (even though I am a professional programmer!) I finally got it working. I will describe the steps as best possible, having taken my steps from others' postings. I am sure there is an easier way to do this! Goal: Given filename: 01 SongName.mp3 Create title: SongName Select Actions from the Convert menu. Click the Star button to create a new Action Group. I named mine: Strip leading numbers Click…
---
### Author:  [@AudioBabble](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/AudioBabble)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/4 "2025-03-09T14:09:38Z")
thanks (admittedly i was a bit ham-fisted)
The format of no spaces between number, dash and track title is a bit of a bugger.
Normally I can do filename \> tag ' %track% %dummy% ' to get track numbers.
In this case I had to do replace with regex: \_FILENAME,
Regex:
`(? tag for the track numbers.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 2:13pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/5 "2025-03-09T14:13:30Z")
> [@AudioBabble](#):
>
> 01-Concert Intro
With
%dummy%-%title%
should also lead to success
Or a regular expression like
`\d+\s*-\s*`
would delete the leading number and a hyphen with or without spaces if you leave the "Replace with" empty.
---
### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/6 "2025-03-09T15:06:21Z")
> [@AudioBabble](#):
>
> How do I strip leading numbers and dash from the TITLE tag?
>
> ^.{3}
This only works for exactly the first 3 characters at the beginning of a TITLE tag.
This will NOT work as expected for this examples:
` 01-Concert Intro` -\> `-Concert Intro`
`1-Concert Intro` -\> `oncert Intro`
`123-Concert Intro` -\> `-Concert Intro`
It does not look for a dash and not for various amount of digits.
Please be careful with this "solution".
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/7 "2025-03-09T15:09:45Z")
> [@AudioBabble](#):
>
> Normally I can do filename \> tag ' %track% %dummy% ' to get track numbers.
This only works for filenames with a space in the filename.
`01-Concert Intro ` with %track% %dummy% would lead to have 01-Concerto in TRACK
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-leading-numbers-and-dash/67770/8 "2025-04-08T15:09:52Z")
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