CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rubycsvtabs
BC00
BC00

Reputation: 1639

Ruby, Files, Tab Characters

I am parsing a csv file and the file has "\t" characters after every column. Why is it that when I print out the individual lines in terminal or open the file in my text editor that the tab spacing between each of the columns is different?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2155

Answers (2)

wvm2008
wvm2008

Reputation: 3034

When you use tab, you're essentially moving to the next tab location, not moving over a specific distance. To see the difference, try using 4 spaces instead of tab. Or, alternatively, run the following code, and I think it may become clear to you.

puts "Hel\tlo world!"
puts "H\tello world!"
puts "Hell\to world!"

Hope that helps.

Upvotes: 1

knut
knut

Reputation: 27845

Do you mean something like 

1   1
12345678    1

as a result of

puts "1\t1"
puts "12345678\t1"

A tab jumps to the next position in 8-space steps (8 spaces is a common distance, but it depends on settings of your editor. For ruby often is 2-space distance is used).

If the previous text is longer then 8 characters, then you jump to the next position and you have the impression of different tab spacing.

Upvotes: 1

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