How do i continuously escape \t in java?

Question

I searched for same questions.(How do I escape a string in Java?) but i can't solve my problem.

part of source code System.out.println("year : "+year+"\t"+"rate_year : "+rate_year+"\t"+"rate_month : "+rate_month);

but when i print that . . . year : 10 rate_year : 0.4 rate_month : 0.03333333333333333

This prints first "\t" why all "\t"s are not adapted???

Answer 1

A "\t" advances to the next tab stop. If one changes the text description slightly, notice the alignment:

System.out.println("year : "+year+"\t"+"rate_year : "+rate_year+"\t"+"rate_month : "+rate_month);
System.out.println("year : "+year+"\t"+"ry : "+rate_year+"\t"+"rm : "+rate_month);

Output:

year : 10   rate_year : 0.4 rate_month : 0.333333    
year : 10   ry : 0.4        rm : 0.333333

I believe the issue is simply where the tab column is falling.

On a different note, if the goal is column alignment, it might be better to use printf and specific column sizes. See, e.g., this answer on formatting with \t

Example:

for (int i = 0; i < 12; ++i) {
        System.out.printf("year : %3d rate_year : %6f rate_month : %-6f\n", 
                i,
                rate_year,
                rate_month);
}

Output:

year :   8 rate_year : 0.400000 rate_month : 0.333333  
year :   9 rate_year : 0.400000 rate_month : 0.333333      
year :  10 rate_year : 0.400000 rate_month : 0.333333  
year :  11 rate_year : 0.400000 rate_month : 0.333333