Spaces and tab comparison string Xcode

Question

I wrote simple test:

   func testTabs() {
        let tabbed = "\t"
        let spaced = "    "

        XCTAssert(tabbed == spaced, "Comparison is illegal")
    }

   func testTabs() {
        let tabbed = "\t"
        let tab = "    "

        XCTAssert(tabbed == tab, "Comparison is illegal")
    }

if fails for using actual 'tab' spacing, it fails for 4 spaces,2 spaces. So I compare tab for \t and it fails. ( also fails for any equivalent).

Should it work at all? Should I never use tab in strings if I want do the tests? Let me show what I mean:

func generateSomeString() -> String {
    let array = ["Some","Stupid","People","Don't","Read","But","Comment"]
    let string = array.joined(separator: "\t")
    return string
}

func testStrings() {
    let string = generateSomeString()
    let expectedString = "Some    Stupid    People    Don't    Read    But    Comment"
    print(string)
    XCTAssert(string == expectedString, "Comparison is illegal")
}

Why would you expect a tab character to be equal to any number of spaces? It's no different from comparing the letter O to the digit 0. In other words, not at all the same. — rmaddy, Feb 18 '18 at 05:54

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 18 '18 at 13:13

0

Tabs and spaces are whitespace, but are not the same thing.

You can replace \t to an expected number of spaces, and then test it...

answered Feb 18 '18 at 13:13

thedp

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ye, that workaround will work for sure. But it also means, I never can use \t in my strings if I want to use tests. or I need to replace all spaces(and/or tabs) in constant strings with \t and loose their visuality and readability. – Zaporozhchenko Oleksandr Feb 18 '18 at 13:26

Spaces and tab comparison string Xcode

1 Answers1