lossless-cut/import-export.md

Import / Export

Customising exported file names

When exporting multiple segments as separate files, LosslessCut offers you the ability to specify how the output files will be named in sequence using a template string. The template string is evaluated as a JavaScript template string, so you can use JavaScript syntax inside of it.

The following variables are available in the template to customize the filenames:

Avail when merging?	Variable	Type	Output
✅	${FILENAME}	string	The original filename without the extension (e.g. Beach Trip for a file named Beach Trip.mp4).
✅	${EXT}	string	The extension of the file (e.g.: .mp4, .mkv).
✅	${EPOCH_MS}	number	Number of milliseconds since epoch (e.g. 1680852771465). Useful to generate a unique file name on every export to prevent accidental overwrite.
✅	${EXPORT_COUNT}	number	Number of exports done since last LosslessCut launch (starts at 1).
	${FILE_EXPORT_COUNT}	number	Number of exports done since last file was opened (starts at 1).
	${SEG_NUM}	string	Segment index, padded string (e.g. 01, 02 or 42).
	${SEG_NUM_INT}	number	Segment index, as an integer (e.g. 1, 2 or 42). Can be used with numeric arithmetics, e.g. ${SEG_NUM_INT+100}.
	${SEG_LABEL}	string	The label of the segment (e.g. Getting Lunch).
	${SEG_SUFFIX}	string	If a label exists for this segment, the label will be used, prepended by -. Otherwise, the segment index prepended by -seg will be used (e.g. -Getting_Lunch, -seg1).
	${CUT_FROM}	string	The timestamp for the beginning of the segment in hh.mm.ss.sss format (e.g. 00.00.27.184).
	${CUT_TO}	string	The timestamp for the ending of the segment in hh.mm.ss.sss format (e.g. 00.00.28.000).
	${SEG_TAGS.XX}	object	Allows you to retrieve the tags for a given segment by name. If a tag is called foo, it can be accessed with ${SEG_TAGS.foo}. Note that if the tag does not exist, it will yield the text undefined. You can work around this as follows: ${SEG_TAGS.foo ?? ''}

Your files must always include at least one unique identifer (such as ${SEG_NUM} or ${CUT_FROM}), and it should end in ${EXT} (or else players might not recognise the files). For instance, to achieve a filename sequence of Beach Trip - 1.mp4, Beach Trip - 2.mp4, Beach Trip - 3.mp4, your format should read ${FILENAME} - ${SEG_NUM}${EXT}. If your template gives at least two duplicate output file names, LosslessCut will revert to using the default template instead.

JavaScript tips

Padding numbers

If you need to pad a number, you can use this JavaScript code around the variable. For example to pad the FILE_EXPORT_COUNT variable to 2 digits with leading zeros: ${String(FILE_EXPORT_COUNT).padStart(2, '0')}

If you need more help, you can ask an AI to help you with this, e.g. "How to pad a number with JavaScript?"

Import/export projects

LosslessCut also allows importing/exporting your project (segments) in a variety of file formats. See list of supported formats.

CSV

• The CSV export/import function takes CSV files with one cut segment on each line. Each line contains three columns: segment start, segment end, label.
• segment start and segment end are expressed in seconds or left empty. Empty segment end means segment ends at the duration of the video.
• Use comma , to separate the fields (not semicolon ;)

example.csv

,56.9568,First segment starting at 0
70,842.33,"Another quoted label"
1234,,Last segment

TSV

Same as CSV but <tab> instead.