7.2.70 Text::Tabs - Expand and Unexpand Tabs

use Text::Tabs;

$tabstop = 8;                            # set tab spacing to 8 (default)
print expand("Hello\tworld");            # convert tabs to spaces in output
print unexpand("Hello,        world");   # convert spaces to tabs in output
$tabstop = 4;                            # set tab spacing to 4
print join("\n", expand(split(/\n/,
                "Hello\tworld, \nit's a nice day.\n")));

This module expands tabs into spaces and "unexpands" spaces into tabs, in the manner of the UNIX expand (1) and unexpand (1) programs. All tabs and spaces - not only leading ones - are subject to being expanded and unexpanded.

Both expand() and unexpand() take as argument an array of strings, which are returned with tabs or spaces transformed. Newlines may not be included in the strings, and should be used to split strings into separate elements before they are passed to expand() and unexpand() .

expand() , unexpand() , and $tabstop are imported into your program when you use this module.