Question

i am trying to make an Mp3 Name Organizer, but i have a problem. How can i parse file names like this and in vary names. All file names has not a place like “Miami-Usa” etc.

My output format must [Artist Name – Set Name Set Number – Place – Date]

Place is optional

Any idea ?

04-Gareth-Emery –
A-State-Of-Trance-500-Miami-Usa
2011-03-27.mp3

06-Armin-Van-Buuren –
A-State-Of-Trance-500-Miami-Usa
2011-03-27.mp3

05 Leon Bolier – A State Of Trance 500
Johannesburg South Africa
2011-03-19.mp3

Armin Van Buuren – A State Of Sundays
027 2011.03.13.mp3

Ferry-Corsten – Corstens-Countdown-199
2011-04-20.mp3

Arty – Anjunabeats-Worldwide-215
2011-02-27.mp3

Answer 1

There is no simple solution. Truthfully, the easiest way is to get a cheap intern to do it manually.

If you are looking for a solution in code, you’ll need the code to:

1. Determine what format the filename is in, based on rules you define. E.g. “Contains no – character, so it does not have artist, just title”
2. Use these rules to extract the relevant properties.

No matter how you do it, you need to define these rules. They won’t magically appear from the computer. Yes, it is very difficult to get right and I would probably get someone to do it manually.

You can make the task easier if you can manually separate the files into large groups of similar filenames that you can parse with a smaller rule set. You’ll need to do this anyway, because some things are going to have conflicting rules (e.g. some files might have “artist-title”, others “title-artist” – there is no way the computer will understand which is which).