# Trimming ALL does not work like it does for FILENAME
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/trimming-all-does-not-work-like-it-does-for-filename/46640
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 4, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/trimming-all-does-not-work-like-it-does-for-filename/46640 "2019-10-04T17:07:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Zerow](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Zerow)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/trimming-all-does-not-work-like-it-does-for-filename/46640/1 "2019-10-04T17:07:06Z")
I want to remove all pauses at the beginning and end of fields
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So if
`Format value "_FILENAME": "$trim(%_FILENAME%)"`
works for FILENAME, then why does
`Format value "_ALL": "$trim(%_ALL%)"`
works for none of the fields?
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``
Yes, I can use Replace with regular expression for removing one pause
`Regular expression "_ALL": "^\s" -> ""`
`Regular expression "_ALL": "\s$" -> ""`
but how about removing multiple white spaces stacked together?
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/trimming-all-does-not-work-like-it-does-for-filename/46640/2 "2019-10-04T20:03:49Z")
I think that \_ALL refers to all TAG fields - and as the filename is a file property for the file system, it does not part of tags.
> [@Zerow](#):
>
> but how about removing multiple white spaces stacked together?
see the Howtos:
> [@Actions and batch-operations](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967/10):
>
> How to remove/trim leading and trailing spaces [Video tutorial for these actions](http://www.vimeo.com/7756545) Leading spaces: Action type: Replace with regular expressions Field: \_TAG Regular expression: ^\s+ Replace matches with: ^ matches the beginning of the string. Then \s+ searches for all whitespaces till a different char occurs. The whitespaces found will be replaced by nothing and, thus, deleted. Trailing spaces: Action type: Replace with regular expressions Field: \_TAG Regular expression: \s+$ Replace matc…
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### Author:  [@Zerow](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Zerow)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/trimming-all-does-not-work-like-it-does-for-filename/46640/3 "2019-10-05T17:19:38Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> [...]see the Howtos:
> [Actions and batch-operations - #10 by dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967/10)
Thank you. I now use
`Regular expression "_ALL": "^\s+" -> ""`
`Regular expression "_ALL": "\s+$" -> ""`
`Format value "_FILENAME": "$trim(%_FILENAME%)"`
` `
` `
But the stange thing is that
`Regular expression "_ALL": "^\s+" -> ""`
works also for ` `FILENAME [removing all the leading spaces in it], but
`Regular expression "_ALL": "\s+$" -> ""`
does not [leaving all the trailing spaces]
And that
`Format value "_FILENAME": "$trim(%_FILENAME%)"`
is suppose to take out only what is at the beginning and not also that what is at the end - and yet this one line of code takes care of both
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/trimming-all-does-not-work-like-it-does-for-filename/46640/4 "2026-02-09T12:28:16Z")