1 line of code: How to convert tabs to spaces

const tabsToSpaces = (str, tabsize = 4) => str.replaceAll("\t", " ".repeat(tabsize));

Returns the string and replaces a series of spaces (tab size) with a tab.

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The repository & npm package

You can find the all the utility functions from this series at github.com/martinkr/onelinecode
The library is also published to npm as @onelinecode for your convenience.

The code and the npm package will be updated every time I publish a new article.

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Photo by zoo_monkey on Unsplash

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Comments

[Martin Krause]

The other way around: 1 line of code: How to convert spaces to tabs

[Koas]

youtu.be/SsoOG6ZeyUI

[Veera Srivastava]

cute

[Jon Randy 🎖️]

[Martin Krause]

:D

[Alex Lohr]

There's an edge case inherent to tabs this one-liner misses: tabs mask previous spaces within their length, so \s\t should become \t, unless tab length was one.

However, if there are no stray spaces hidden beneath the tabs, it should work.

[Martin Krause]

Hey Alex,

Thank you, good catch! You want to contribute an optimised version and I update the article?

Cheers!

[Alex Lohr]

Unfortunately, that's not a one-liner anymore, as you would have to calculate the expected position of the tab even inside the string, so it's a lot more complex. I would advise to merely document this edge case.

[DevFranPR]

Part 1: Get this snippet.
Part 2: Use it on your friend who loves tabs over spaces codebase.
Part 3: Enjoy.