# Using | for visual purposes

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/using-for-visual-purposes/17039>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [July 9, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/using-for-visual-purposes/17039 "2015-07-09T16:35:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zerow](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/zerow/32/11379_2.png) [@Zerow](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Zerow)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/using-for-visual-purposes/17039/1 "2015-07-09T16:35:09Z")

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I've recently learned, that the sign

```
|

```

is used in regular expression like a coma for alternative values

And the thing is I used it as a [big / special] coma myself; in ALBUM tag in

```
 |||

```

form and in COMMENT both in two forms of

```
 |
 ||

```

Is it possible that all those sign could in time somehow mess up my info in those two tag fields; especially when applying to them some actions?

---

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**Author:** ![DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/detlevd/32/123_2.png) [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 9:00am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/using-for-visual-purposes/17039/2 "2015-07-10T09:00:43Z")

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> [@zerow](#):
>
> I've recently learned, that the sign
> 
> ```
> | is used in regular expression like a coma for alternative values ... Is it possible that all those sign could in time somehow mess up my info in those two tag fields; especially when applying to them some actions?
> 
> ```

In the area of computing ...  
... the 'pipe' or 'pipeline' or 'vertical bar' character '|', ...  
... encoded in Unicode at U+007C | vertical line (124 decimal · HTML |) ...

- is an allowed literal text character to be applied in Mp3tag tag-field values;  
Note: Mp3tag uses the 'vertical bar' character pipe as special separator character in some tag-fields  
(comments with description, unsycedlyrics);

- is an operator on the DOS command line with the meaning of chaining two processes, by sending output from one command to the input of another command, to build a chained process;

- is a reserved character on the DOS command line and is not allowed to be used within a filename;

- is a reserved character within a regular expression and has the meaning of the logical 'OR' separator, ...  
and can get back it's literal meaning by 'escaping' the pipe character with a leading 'backslash', so written as '|'.

See also ...  
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical\_bar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_bar)

DD.20150710.1300.CEST

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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/using-for-visual-purposes/17039/3 "2026-02-09T12:25:45Z")

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