How can I display <TAB> as bars in vim

Question

I want to know is it possible to display the <tab> as | (bars) when coding in vim like this Are there any ways to show them.

Please any solution other than set listchars and set list as it affects eol and spaces.

Answer 1

:set list
:set lcs=tab:\|\  " the last character is space!

The tab setting consists of two characters: | and a space. The first character is used once. The second character is repeated to fill the space that the tab normally occupies. See :h lcs.

Sample result:

However, setting the second character to space is not very helpful, as it is difficult to distinguish spaces followed by a tab, for instance. Consider changing it to another character, e.g.:

:set list listchars=tab:\|\-

Sample result: