ffmpeg - Splitting up a variable in bash -

i have bunch of songs have downloaded trying convert .mp3 , rename. after converting .m4a file mp3 ffmpeg, in format of artist name - song name.mp3. want able separate song name , artist name own variables, can rename file , tag songs song name , artist name.

so, how can separate variable 2 variables, each respectively containing artist name , song name, 2 pieces of information separated ' - ' in bash?

using shell

v='artist name - song name.mp3' v=${v%.mp3} song=${v#* - } artist=${v% - $song} echo a=$artist, s=$song 

this produces output:

a=artist name, s=song name 

notice approach, sed solution below, consistently divides artist , song @ first occurrence of -. thus, if name is:

v='artist name - song name - 2nd take.mp3' 

then, output is:

a=artist name, s=song name - 2nd take 

this approach posix , works under dash , busybox under bash.

using sed

$ v='artist name - song name.mp3' $ { read -r artist; read -r song; } < <(sed 's/.mp3$//; s/ - /\n/' <<<"$v") $ echo a=$artist s=$song a=artist name s=song name 

this assumes (1) first occurrence of - divides artist name song name, , (2) file name, $v, has line (no newline characters).

we can overcome second limitation using, if tools support it, nul separator instead of newline:

$ { read -r -d $'\0' artist; read -r -d $'\0' song; } < <(sed 's/.mp3$//; s/ - /\x00/' <<<"$v"); echo a=$artist s=$song a=artist name s=song name 

here example newline characters inside both artist , song names:

$ v=$'artist\nname - song\nname.mp3' $ { read -r -d $'\0' artist; read -r -d $'\0' song; } < <(sed 's/.mp3$//; s/ - /\x00/' <<<"$v"); echo "a=$artist"; echo "s=$song" a=artist name s=song name 

how works

the sed command removes .mp3 suffix , replaces - newline character:

sed 's/.mp3$//; s/ - /\n/' <<<"$v" 

the output of sed command consists of 2 lines. first line has artist name , second song name. these read 2 read commands.