mp3 files swap Artist - with Song name

[Johnk]

Hi I am brand new to BRU and can do simple things, but have scoured the forums for what i want to do now but either cannot understand the technical jargon or find what i want; can someone help please.

What i require is to swap my mp3 file names which start with artist name with song name which occurs after a dash e.g. Billy Ocean - Suddenly.mp3 with Suddenly - Billy Ocean.mp3 keeping the file extension at the end and separator between.

Does this require a multiple action rename process or can some sort of batch file process be set up to sort out the problem?

Considering i understand nothing about setting up a batch file is there somewhere on this forum where this process is explained or can someone help me please. Does a batch file process work on multiple file names with numerous differing file name lengths the common denominator being the - separator in the middle?
Johnk

[KenP]

You don't need a batch file to do this you can use regex

RegEx (1)
Match: (.*)( - )(.*)
Replace: \3\2\1

[Johnk]

Thanks KenP for your help, your solution works on about a fith of the files the rest remain stubbornly the same any ideas why?

[KenP]

Are you sure all the file-names have spaces before and after the dash as in your example, if not try this.

RegEx (1)
Match: (.*)\s?-\s?(.*)
Replace: \2 - \1

Be aware that if any of the song names have hyphens in them this will mess up the file name.

For instance "Billy Ocean - Suddenly-Mine" will become "Mine - Billy Ocean-Suddenly"


If this isn't the solution could you please post a few of the file-names that are not changing.

[Johnk]

UPDATE on KenP post, i have found a list of my music files untouched by myself on a SD card and applied the formula and all but 3 files did as exactly as i required them to do. I can overwrite my master copy on PC now. Just out of interest 2 songs had hyphens in the name but separated correctly at the Space/Hyphen/Space the only ones that didn't change were three which had no hyphens. Thank you for such helpful information.

To save on good people wasting time on here, is there anywhere i can learn better how to use these sorts of commands on the forum or in the help files? I do have very basic knowledge of a few of the old DOS commands but can never work out the correct syntax or logic involved to achieve a suitable solution, i am only really just getting my head around BRU which i can see is a fantastic tool in the right hands. Thank you again if i encounter further problems i will try your second solution posted a few moments ago.

[Johnk]

I am going to be a complete pain now and say that my first folder of music files i converted, i somehow had "Include Ext" ticked and now have .mp3 after every song title as well as where it should be at the end of the file name. I have tried to see if i can remove this but my efforts don't seem to work. Would you be patient enough to give me a solution to this problem as well please. (Who said amateurs should play with these things) Thank you in anticipation.
Johnk

[KenP]

Yes you need to be careful about things like that in BRU

Still it should be easily sorted

Replace (3)
Replace: .mp3
Leave the "With" box empty.

I don't think there should be any but if there are any extra spaces you need to delete either before or after the .mp3 just add them in the appropriate position of .mp3


edit:
If I've been using BRU, I make a habit of pressing the Reset button in the bottom right corner before starting a new renaming process.