Python String expandtabs() Method

​The expandtabs() function returns a new string with the "\t" tabs replaced by blank spaces. That is, the expandtabs() function specifies the amount of empty space to be replaced by the "\t" tabs in the string.

\t tabs default to 4 spaces when displaying a text string, but when the expandtabs() function is used each \t symbol will be converted to 8 spaces unless you specify the number of spaces in the tabsize argument.

expand tabs (tab size = 8)

In the following example, we will use the "\t" symbol, where 4 spaces are placed by default

Example:

string1 = 'a\tb\tc'
string2 = 'aaaa\tbbbb\tcccc'
print(string1)
print(string2)

The output will be:

a b c
aaaa bbbb cccc

In the following example, we will use the expandtabs() function without an integer value for the tabsize argument.

Example:

string1 = 'a\tb\tc'
string2 =undefined 'aaaa\tbbbb\tcccc'
 print(string1. expandtabs())
 print(string2. expandtabs())

 The output will be:

a       b       c
aaaa    bbbb    cccc 

 In the following example, we will use the expandtabs() function and insert an integer value into the tabsize argument. Where blank spaces will be placed according to the specified numerical value.

 Example:

string1 = 'a\tb\tc'
string2 = 'aaaa\tbbbb\tcccc'
print(string1.expandtabs(12))
print(string2.expandtabs(20))

 The output will be:

a           b           c
aaaa                bbbb                cccc

 If the value we give to the tabsize argument does not represent an integer. We will get an error.

 Example:

string = "this is\tstring example.\t"
print(string.expandtabs(2.3))

 We will get the error:

raceback (most recent call last):
  File "./prog.py", line 5, in <module>
TypeError: integer argument expected, got float

 External sources:

 Built-in functions - official Python documentation

 If you have any questions or concerns, leave them in the comments