Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!cbnews!ask From: ask@cbnews.ATT.COM (Arthur S. Kamlet) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: tabs converted to spaces? Message-ID: <774@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 3 Aug 88 05:50:23 GMT Article-I.D.: cbnews.774 References: <3940001@hpgrla.HP.COM> <187@alobar.ATT.COM> <4425@ptsfa.PacBell.COM> <288@dawson.fpssun.fps.com> Reply-To: ask@cbnews.ATT.COM (Arthur S. Kamlet) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus Lines: 21 >> >Is there a filter which converts tabs to n-spaces throughout >> >a file? >> You might try newform and/or sed. >Several replies have mentioned tr or sed. I assume that the desired >result is to convert tabs to spaces *in a fomat preserving manner*. >The correct standard tool to do this in UNIX is expand. Expand is >designed to perform exactly this function (and its inverse 'unexpand') >and does so very well. On our UNIX V system, col -x works pretty well. col -x < oldfile > newfile or: cat oldfile | col -x > newfile seems to work rather quickly and simply. -- Art Kamlet ask@cbrmb.att.com AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus