# Strip out eveything except the year
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 22, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748 "2026-08-22T22:43:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chayes](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chayes)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/1 "2026-08-22T22:43:16Z")
Hi All
In my Title field I have entries in this format :
```auto
1. THE SHADOWS – Quartermasters Stores (Trad. Arr. Shepherd) 1960
2. THE MOONTREKKERS – Night Of the Vampire (LePort) 1961
3. JET HARRIS – Man With The Golden Arm (Bernstein/Fino) 1962
4. TED TAYLOR FOUR – Cats Eyes (James) 1961
```
I'm trying to make an Action to run through each one and remove everything except the year.
So the above would become
```auto
1960
1961
1962
1961
```
The format is always the same , with the Year at the end.
Can someone advise a method to satisfy this please?
Grateful for any advice.
🙂
---
### Author:  [@rboss](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/rboss)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/2 "2026-08-22T23:41:49Z")
Hello,
if you're sure you want to edit the `TITLE` tag in such a way, the simplest method would be 'Convert' \> 'Tag to Tag' and using
This will return only the last 4 characters in your titles, which you mention are consistently the 4-digit year.
But I advice caution and testing before commiting this conversion on a large scale.
---
### Author:  [@chayes](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chayes)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2026, 2:40am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/3 "2026-08-23T02:40:14Z")
Hi rboss
Many thanks - this does the job perfectly. 🙂
I had in mind an Action , but I can see that Tag-\>Tag resolves it.
---
### Author:  [@rboss](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/rboss)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2026, 2:53am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/4 "2026-08-23T02:53:30Z")
> [@chayes](#):
>
> I had in mind an Action , but I can see that Tag-\>Tag resolves it.
If you plan on making this conversion often, then yes- you can create an Action with it, so you won't have to type out the conversion string everytime.
Happy tagging.
* * *
PS: If that reply takes care of your discussion topic, please mark it as the answer, as to help out future readers.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2026, 6:10am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/5 "2026-08-23T06:10:41Z")
> [@chayes](#):
>
> I had in mind an Action
The action equivalent to Convert\>Tag-Tag is an action of the type "Format value" for e.g. YEAR. The format string stays the same.
Another suggestion: if you have a varying number of trailing digits and not exactly 4 at the end and if you want to transfer these, then try
Format string: `$regexp(%title%,.+?(\d+)$,$1)`
---
### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2026, 7:41am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/6 "2026-08-23T07:41:26Z")
> [@chayes](#):
>
> I'm trying to make an Action to run through each one and remove everything except the year.
Would it not make more sense to strip the `YEAR` out of your `TITLE`?
Alternatively, you could move the `YEAR` into its own field?
Typically, one would split the content of your current title into
`TRACK`. `ARTIST` - `TITLE` `YEAR`
---
### Author:  [@chayes](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chayes)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2026, 2:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/7 "2026-08-23T14:23:06Z")
Thanks guys for your varying solutions. It's all working now! 🙂
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2026, 2:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/strip-out-eveything-except-the-year/71748/8 "2026-08-25T14:23:54Z")
This topic was automatically closed 2 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.