Inserting a tab character into text using C

Question

I m building an application where I should capture several values and build a text with them  Name  Age  etc    The output will be a plain text into a TextBox   I am trying to make those information appear in kind of columns  therefore I am trying to separate them with tab to make it clearer   For example  instead of having   Ann 26 Sarah 29 Paul 45   I would like it to show as   Ann tab 26 Sarah tab 29 Paul tab 45  Any tip on how to insert the tabs into my text

User · Accepted Answer

Try using the  t character in your strings

User · Answer

In addition to the anwsers above you can use PadLeft or PadRight   string name    John   string surname    Smith    Console WriteLine  Name   PadRight 15   Surname   PadRight 15    Console WriteLine  name PadRight 15    surname PadRight 15      This will fill in the string with spaces to the left or right

User · Answer

Hazar is right with his  t  Here s the full list of escape characters for C       for a single quote      for a double quote      for a backslash    0 for a null character    a for an alert character    b for a backspace    f for a form feed    n for a new line    r for a carriage return    t for a horizontal tab    v for a vertical tab    uxxxx for a unicode character hex value  e g   u0020     x is the same as  u  but you don t need leading zeroes  e g   x20     Uxxxxxxxx for a unicode character hex value  longer form needed for generating surrogates

User · Answer

It can also be useful to use String Format  e g   String Format   0  t 1    FirstName Count

User · Answer

Hazar is right with his  t  Here s the full list of escape characters for C       for a single quote      for a double quote      for a backslash    0 for a null character    a for an alert character    b for a backspace    f for a form feed    n for a new line    r for a carriage return    t for a horizontal tab    v for a vertical tab    uxxxx for a unicode character hex value  e g   u0020     x is the same as  u  but you don t need leading zeroes  e g   x20     Uxxxxxxxx for a unicode character hex value  longer form needed for generating surrogates

User · Answer

Using Microsoft Winform controls  it is impossible to solve correctly your problem without an little workaround that I will explain below   PROBLEM  The problem in using simply   t  or vbTab is that when more than one TextBox are displayed and that alignment must be respected for all TextBox  the ONLY   t  or vbTab solution will display something that is NOT ALWAYS correctly aligned   Example in VB Net    Private Sub Form1 Load sender As Object  e As EventArgs  Handles MyBase Load     TextBox1 Text    Bernard    vbTab    32      TextBox2 Text    Luc    vbTab    47      TextBox3 Text    Fran  ois-Victor    vbTab    12  End Sub   will display     as you can see  age value for Fran  ois-Victor is shifted to the right and is not aligned with age value of two others TextBox   SOLUTION  To solve this problem  you must set Tabs position using a specific SendMessage   user32 dll API function as shown below   Public Class Form1      Public Declare Function SendMessage           Lib  user32  Alias  SendMessageA              ByVal hWnd As IntPtr             ByVal wMsg As Integer             ByVal wParam As Integer             ByVal lParam   As Integer             As Integer      Private Const EM SETTABSTOPS As Integer    amp HCB      Private Sub Form1 Load sender As Object  e As EventArgs  Handles MyBase Load         Dim tabs   As Integer    4   25           TextBox1 Text    Bernard    vbTab    32          SendMessage TextBox1 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs          TextBox2 Text    Luc    vbTab    47          SendMessage TextBox2 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs          TextBox3 Text    Fran  ois-Victor    vbTab    12          SendMessage TextBox3 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs      End Sub  End Class   and following Form will be displayed    You can see that now  all value are correctly aligned  -   REMARKS  Multiline property of the TextBox must be set to True  If this properties is set to False  the Tab is positioned as before   How AcceptsTab property is assigned is not important  I have tested      This question has already be treated on StackOverflow  Caution  the mesure Unit for Tab position is not character but something that seems to be 1 4 of character  That is why I multiply the length by 4   C  SOLUTION  using System  using System Windows Forms  using System Runtime InteropServices   namespace WindowsFormsApp1       public partial class Form1   Form                DllImport  User32 dll   CharSet   CharSet Auto           private static extern IntPtr SendMessage IntPtr h  int msg  int wParam  uint   lParam           private const int EM SETTABSTOPS   0x00CB          private const char vbTab     t            public Form1                         InitializeComponent                 var tabs   new uint     25   4                 textBox1 Text    Bernard    vbTab    32               SendMessage textBox1 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs               textBox2 Text    Luc    vbTab    47               SendMessage textBox2 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs               textBox3 Text    Fran  ois-Victor    vbTab    12               SendMessage textBox3 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs

User · Answer

Hazar is right with his  t  Here s the full list of escape characters for C       for a single quote      for a double quote      for a backslash    0 for a null character    a for an alert character    b for a backspace    f for a form feed    n for a new line    r for a carriage return    t for a horizontal tab    v for a vertical tab    uxxxx for a unicode character hex value  e g   u0020     x is the same as  u  but you don t need leading zeroes  e g   x20     Uxxxxxxxx for a unicode character hex value  longer form needed for generating surrogates

User · Answer

When using literal strings  start with     this might be easier  char tab     u0009   string A    Apple   string B    Bob   string myStr   String Format    0   1  2    A  tab  B     Would result in Apple  lt tab gt Bob

User · Answer

It can also be useful to use String Format  e g   String Format   0  t 1    FirstName Count

User · Answer

In addition to the anwsers above you can use PadLeft or PadRight   string name    John   string surname    Smith    Console WriteLine  Name   PadRight 15   Surname   PadRight 15    Console WriteLine  name PadRight 15    surname PadRight 15      This will fill in the string with spaces to the left or right

User · Answer

string St   String Format   0 -20   1 5 N1  r   names ctr   hours ctr    richTextBox1 Text    St    This works well  but you must have a mono-spaced font

User · Answer

string St   String Format   0 -20   1 5 N1  r   names ctr   hours ctr    richTextBox1 Text    St    This works well  but you must have a mono-spaced font

User · Answer

When using literal strings  start with     this might be easier  char tab     u0009   string A    Apple   string B    Bob   string myStr   String Format    0   1  2    A  tab  B     Would result in Apple  lt tab gt Bob

User · Answer

It can also be useful to use String Format  e g   String Format   0  t 1    FirstName Count

User · Answer

var text    Ann 26   var editedText   text Replace        t

User · Answer

Using Microsoft Winform controls  it is impossible to solve correctly your problem without an little workaround that I will explain below   PROBLEM  The problem in using simply   t  or vbTab is that when more than one TextBox are displayed and that alignment must be respected for all TextBox  the ONLY   t  or vbTab solution will display something that is NOT ALWAYS correctly aligned   Example in VB Net    Private Sub Form1 Load sender As Object  e As EventArgs  Handles MyBase Load     TextBox1 Text    Bernard    vbTab    32      TextBox2 Text    Luc    vbTab    47      TextBox3 Text    Fran  ois-Victor    vbTab    12  End Sub   will display     as you can see  age value for Fran  ois-Victor is shifted to the right and is not aligned with age value of two others TextBox   SOLUTION  To solve this problem  you must set Tabs position using a specific SendMessage   user32 dll API function as shown below   Public Class Form1      Public Declare Function SendMessage           Lib  user32  Alias  SendMessageA              ByVal hWnd As IntPtr             ByVal wMsg As Integer             ByVal wParam As Integer             ByVal lParam   As Integer             As Integer      Private Const EM SETTABSTOPS As Integer    amp HCB      Private Sub Form1 Load sender As Object  e As EventArgs  Handles MyBase Load         Dim tabs   As Integer    4   25           TextBox1 Text    Bernard    vbTab    32          SendMessage TextBox1 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs          TextBox2 Text    Luc    vbTab    47          SendMessage TextBox2 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs          TextBox3 Text    Fran  ois-Victor    vbTab    12          SendMessage TextBox3 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs      End Sub  End Class   and following Form will be displayed    You can see that now  all value are correctly aligned  -   REMARKS  Multiline property of the TextBox must be set to True  If this properties is set to False  the Tab is positioned as before   How AcceptsTab property is assigned is not important  I have tested      This question has already be treated on StackOverflow  Caution  the mesure Unit for Tab position is not character but something that seems to be 1 4 of character  That is why I multiply the length by 4   C  SOLUTION  using System  using System Windows Forms  using System Runtime InteropServices   namespace WindowsFormsApp1       public partial class Form1   Form                DllImport  User32 dll   CharSet   CharSet Auto           private static extern IntPtr SendMessage IntPtr h  int msg  int wParam  uint   lParam           private const int EM SETTABSTOPS   0x00CB          private const char vbTab     t            public Form1                         InitializeComponent                 var tabs   new uint     25   4                 textBox1 Text    Bernard    vbTab    32               SendMessage textBox1 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs               textBox2 Text    Luc    vbTab    47               SendMessage textBox2 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs               textBox3 Text    Fran  ois-Victor    vbTab    12               SendMessage textBox3 Handle  EM SETTABSTOPS  1  tabs

User · Answer

Hazar is right with his  t  Here s the full list of escape characters for C       for a single quote      for a double quote      for a backslash    0 for a null character    a for an alert character    b for a backspace    f for a form feed    n for a new line    r for a carriage return    t for a horizontal tab    v for a vertical tab    uxxxx for a unicode character hex value  e g   u0020     x is the same as  u  but you don t need leading zeroes  e g   x20     Uxxxxxxxx for a unicode character hex value  longer form needed for generating surrogates

User · Answer

There are several ways to do it  The simplest is using  t in your text  However  it s possible that  t doesn t work in some situations  like PdfReport nuget package

User · Answer

It can also be useful to use String Format  e g   String Format   0  t 1    FirstName Count

User · Answer

There are several ways to do it  The simplest is using  t in your text  However  it s possible that  t doesn t work in some situations  like PdfReport nuget package

User · Answer

var text    Ann 26   var editedText   text Replace        t

[c#] Inserting a tab character into text using C#

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