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# The Plugin

The `the` plugin allows you to move patterns in path formats. It’s suitable, for example, for moving articles from string start to the end. This is useful for quick search on filesystems and generally looks good. Plugin does not change tags. By default plugin supports English “the, a, an”, but custom regexp patterns can be added by user. How it works:

    The Something -> Something, The
    A Band -> Band, A
    An Orchestra -> Orchestra, An

To use the `the` plugin, enable it (see Plugins) and then use a template function called `%the` in path format expressions:

    paths:
        default: %the{$albumartist}/($year) $album/$track $title

The default configuration moves all English articles to the end of the string, but you can override these defaults to make more complex changes.

## Configuration

To configure the plugin, make a `the:` section in your configuration file. The available options are:

- a: Handle “A/An” moves. Default: `yes`.

- the: handle “The” moves. Default: `yes`.

- patterns: Custom regexp patterns, space-separated. Custom patterns are case-insensitive regular expressions. Patterns can be matched anywhere in the string (not just the beginning), so use `^` if you intend to match leading words. Default: `[]`.

- strip: Remove the article altogether instead of moving it to the end. Default: `no`.

- format: A Python format string for the output. Use `{0}` to indicate the part without the article and `{1}` for the article. Spaces are already trimmed from ends of both parts. Default: `'{0}, {1}'`.