Sort a leading “The” without changing the artist credit¶

Uses Tag → Tag, $regexp, ARTISTSORT

Works on Copied local files with a reviewed primary Artist

Time About 5 minutes

Undo Recorded converter changes in the current desktop session

The problem¶

Keep the displayed credit The Lanterns, but offer Lanterns, The as its sort name. Write ARTISTSORT; do not rewrite ARTIST merely to alter an alphabetical order. Whether a player uses that field remains player-specific.

This recipe derives one sort name from the first Artist value. It leaves the full Artist value list alone. It does not invent personal surname order or sort each member of a multi-artist collaboration separately.

The following are primary Artist input/output examples. ↵ denotes a newline; · makes a space visible. The result is the proposed ARTISTSORT, with the Artist credit unchanged.

First `ARTIST` value	Proposed `ARTISTSORT`
`The Lanterns`	`Lanterns, The`
`the Lanterns`	`Lanterns, the`
`Juniper Vale`	`Juniper Vale`
`The`	`The`
`The Lanterns`	`·Lanterns, The`
`The Lanterns↵Mira Solberg`	`The Lanterns↵Mira Solberg`
(empty text)	(empty text)

The extra-space and empty examples are reasons to stop and correct the source, not desirable sort names. The rule preserves text it does not recognize. It matches one literal space after a leading “The”; extra spaces belong to the captured name and survive.

The solution¶

Work on copied files. Save or discard pending changes and inspect the existing Artist and Artist Sort values. Keep manually curated sort names.
Choose Edit → Unselect all, show the filter, and enter:
```
ARTISTSORT MISSING AND ARTIST PRESENT
```
Wait for auto-apply or press Enter in manual mode. A present empty Artist still passes PRESENT; inspect the preview. A present empty Artist Sort is not MISSING and is deliberately outside this selection. 3. Select only the intended visible rows, then open Convert → Tag → Tag…. Enter ARTISTSORT in Field and use:
```
$regexp(%artist%,'(?-m)^(The) ([^\r\n]+)$','$2, $1')
```
Inspect the before/after preview. Exclude malformed credits, empty results and collaborations for which the first artist is the wrong sorting policy.
Apply to the practice selection. The converter writes immediately; no extra Save tags is required for its successful results. Reload and check that ARTIST is still the original credit and ARTISTSORT has the intended value. Inspect any per-file errors before a larger run.

If preferred, save the same field/expression as a Format Value action. Its apply command also writes immediately; preserve the filter/selection precondition rather than running it over existing curated sort fields.

How it works¶

%artist% reads the first value. $regexp is case-insensitive by default, so both The and the match. Capture 1 remembers the original spelling of the article, and capture 2 remembers the remaining name. The quoted replacement $2, $1 places a comma and space between them. Quoting prevents the comma from becoming another scripting-function argument.

(?-m) keeps the anchors tied to the whole value. [^\r\n]+ requires a nonempty name without line breaks; a multi-line credit is left untouched. A nonmatch returns the original text, which supplies the unchanged-credit fallback for names such as Juniper Vale.

The filter excludes existing Artist Sort value lists, including present empty strings. If a file has two Artist values, the new sort name still uses only the first. Its Artist values remain separate and unchanged. For example:

`ARTIST` values	Existing `ARTISTSORT`	Pass main filter?	Resulting `ARTISTSORT`
`["The Lanterns","Mira Solberg"]`	Absent	Yes	`["Lanterns, The"]`
`["The Lanterns"]`	`["Lanterns"]`	No	`["Lanterns"]`
`["The Lanterns"]`	`[""]`	No	`[""]`
`[""]`	Absent	Yes	Absent

Variations¶

Only match exactly capitalized “The”¶

Add a fourth $regexp argument of 0 to respect case:

$regexp(%artist%,'(?-m)^(The) ([^\r\n]+)$','$2, $1',0)

Input	Result with `0`
`The Lanterns`	`Lanterns, The`
`the Lanterns`	`the Lanterns`
`Juniper Vale`	`Juniper Vale`

This is the shared scripting-core flag, not Find's checkbox or a web-source parser default.

Album artist sorting¶

Use the separate ALBUMARTISTSORT field and an expression reading %albumartist% when the album-level credit needs sorting. Review its existing values and select its missing-field targets separately. Do not substitute a track artist for a compilation's album credit merely to fill a blank.

Make OpenTag's list use a sort field¶

Writing ARTISTSORT does not automatically change every column's sorting behavior. Configure an appropriate column sort expression and click its header as described in Columns. A player's own sorting preference is separate. Sort fields and compilations explains native mappings, fallbacks and format-specific behavior.

Recover the old value¶

Read the recorded Undo … step and file count in the current desktop session. Inspect pending edits afterward so a later save does not replace a restored value. Session history is bounded and is not a restart-proof backup. Keep original copies and review a player's actual behavior before a library run.