Re: Compare 2 Tab Delimited

Leonard Milcin wrote:
Arved Sandstrom wrote:
"Chase Preuninger" <chasepreuninger@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:e50333ba-e8a1-47b5-a82e-865ab191172c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I don't like the idea of tab delimited files. Use something else like
a comma or semicolon.

I'm a little curious as to what you have against tabs. The problem with commas or semicolons or colons is that now you have to quote fields with those characters, then handle the situation of the quote character being in the fields too...namely, our favourite CSV flatfile format. Tabs as part of your data is much less common, so it's a good delimiter. You normally don't manually insert the tabs anyway, and any decent text editor has a "Show whitespace" option if you find that necessary.

Well. Even with ,,show whitespace'' it is usually difficult to say if
something is a tab or a space and it is quite easy to escape special
characters properly.

It is easier to write tab separated files by programs.

But it is more difficult to read tab separated files by humans.

Arne
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Compare 2 Tab Delimited
    ... a comma or semicolon. ... I'm a little curious as to what you have against tabs. ... then handle the situation of the quote character being in ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)
  • Re: Compare 2 Tab Delimited
    ... a comma or semicolon. ... The problem with commas or semicolons or colons is that now you have to quote fields with those characters, then handle the situation of the quote character being in the fields too...namely, our favourite CSV flatfile format. ... Tabs as part of your data is much less common, ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)
  • Re: Compare 2 Tab Delimited
    ... a comma or semicolon. ... I'm a little curious as to what you have against tabs. ... those characters, then handle the situation of the quote character being ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)
  • Re: #include <math.h>
    ... > This bug is similar to the make utility bug. ... As I use edit.com with tabs set to 3 this annoyed the hell ... also a Rule / Command separator. ... # Note that semicolon separates Rule from Command on a line. ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: Great SWT Program
    ... It's not putting mouse support into an editor running on modern ... Didn't I explain that this whole thing is "you don't like tabs" ... characters into spaces" feature on. ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)