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PHP to write Tab Characters inside a file?

Tags:

string

php

csv

tsv

How do i simply write out a file including real tabs inside? tab means real tab which is not the spaces. How to write the tab or what is the character for real tab?

For example here:

$chunk = "a,b,c";
file_put_contents("chunk.csv",$chunk);

What character should i use to get tabs instead of Commas (,) there?
In the output file, there should be real tabs between the seperated words.

  • Real Tabs means, a true wide space we get when we press the <tab> key in a text-editor.
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夏期劇場 Avatar asked Jun 15 '12 17:06

夏期劇場


3 Answers

The tab character is \t. Notice the use of " instead of '.

$chunk = "<html>\t<head>\t\t<title>\t</head>";

PHP Strings - Double quoted

If the string is enclosed in double-quotes ("), PHP will interpret more escape sequences for special characters:

...

\t horizontal tab (HT or 0x09 (9) in ASCII)


Also, let me recommend the fputcsv() function which is for the purpose of writing CSV files.

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kapa Avatar answered Oct 24 '22 04:10

kapa


Use \t and enclose the string with double-quotes:

$chunk = "abc\tdef\tghi";
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flowfree Avatar answered Oct 24 '22 05:10

flowfree


This should do:

$chunk = "abc\tdef\tghi";

Here is a link to an article with more extensive examples.

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Drewness Avatar answered Oct 24 '22 05:10

Drewness