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Batch Rename, Remove everything before _ ? Regex?

By Jack Green @Jack_Green
    2024-02-15 14:19:07.363Z

    Hi,

    this might not be a sound flow question but given the level of coding workflow gods that hang out here I figured someone might know!

    Trying to remove everything that appears before "_" using batch rename.There could be any number of characters that appear before the _. Im 90% sure this is possible using regular expressions but I after quite a bit of googling I'm getting nowhere.

    Thanks in advance

    Solved in post #6, click to view
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    • 5 replies
    1. Raphael Sepulveda @raphaelsepulveda2024-02-15 17:48:27.977Z

      @Jack_Green, this can be done in several ways but let's start with this simple pattern: .*_
      This will match anything before the last underscore including the underscore itself.
      When used in Batch Rename with regex turned on, a track named songName_GTR will become just GTR.

      Hopefully, that does it but let me know if it mishaves.

      Btw, I like using the following website for testing regex in a visual way: https://regexr.com/

      Reply
      1. Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2024-02-15 23:45:00.421Z

        This should also do it, and even more immediately:

        
for(let oldTrackName of Array.from(sf.ui.proTools.selectedTrackNames))
{
    let newTrackName = oldTrackName.split('_')[0];
    
    sf.app.proTools.renameTrack({
        oldName: oldTrackName,
        newName: newTrackName,
    });
}
        Reply
        1. Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2024-02-15 23:49:42.715Z

          Here it is as a regex:

          
for(let oldTrackName of Array.from(sf.ui.proTools.selectedTrackNames))
{
    let newTrackName = oldTrackName.match(/^(.*)_/)[1]; //[1] means take the first captured group - the group is designated by the parentheses
    
    sf.app.proTools.renameTrack({
        oldName: oldTrackName,
        newName: newTrackName,
    });
}
          Reply1 Like
          1. In reply tochrscheuer⬆:
            Jack Green @Jack_Green
              2024-02-16 11:44:37.532Z

              Thanks a bunch.

              This actually works great even without using batch rename.

              I changed the [0] to [1] as it was keeping the stuff before the underscore rather than the stuff after.

              1 small issue is if there are 2 underscores it keeps what is between them. Is there a way to say keep [1] + [2] + however many there are? in other words just remove the [0] element?

              Thanks again for all your help :)

              Reply
              1. Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer2024-02-16 17:24:35.737Z

                Ah, I'm sorry I misunderstood - I thought you wanted to keep everything before the '_'.

                Here's another version that keeps everything after the first underscore:

                for(let oldTrackName of Array.from(sf.ui.proTools.selectedTrackNames))
{
    let newTrackName = oldTrackName.split('_').slice(1).join('_');
    
    sf.app.proTools.renameTrack({
        oldName: oldTrackName,
        newName: newTrackName,
    });
}
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