\t giving more space in c++

[shivamjain1]

Why is the output showing more space between the words "10 years" and "15 years" despite giving only single \t as between other words.

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
float P =1000, r1 =5;
cout<<"Rate of"<<"\t"<<"Initial Amount"<<"\t"<<"5 Years"<<"\t"<<"10 Years"<<"\t"<<"15 Years"<<"\n";
return 0;
}

[48T7M4Gy]

Tab positions are 'pre-set' so if a column is not wide enough to accommodate a particular entry then a tab position is missed and the next one is used.

Change 'Years' to 'Year' and you'll see the difference.

You are better off using <iomanip> and setw() functionality.

[shivamjain1]

Yes got it. But can you please explain in detail (or give a link) why such a thing happens. Also I want equal spacing. But if i give the following command, I got less space between "Rate of" and "Initial Amount" as compared to others. What should I do ?

cout<<"Rate of"<<setw(18)<<"Initial Amount"<<setw(18)<<"5 Years"<<setw(18)<<"10 Years"<<setw(18)<<"15 Years"<<"\n";

[mbozzi]

Control of how text (including tab characters) is displayed is the job of your terminal, not of C++'s streams.

The manipulator std::setw(n) sets the field width of the following token to n fill characters - in particular, it is not a blank space n fill characters in size.

See
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/io/manip/setw

[shivamjain1]

Understood.
Thisgives correctly.
cout<<"Rate of"<<setw(19)<<"Initial Amount"<<setw(10)<<"5 Years"<<setw(10)<<"10 Years"<<setw(10)<<"15 Years"<<"\n";

[mbozzi]

If you simply want equal spacing between fields, just do something like this:

std::string const spacer{10, ' '}; // a spacer is 10 space characters:
std::cout << "Rate of" << spacer << "Initial amount" << spacer <<  ... etc ...;

setw is useful for printing text that should be aligned in columns.

[48T7M4Gy]

It's like tabs on typewriters and word processors. They are set positions across the page, generally columns are 10 spaces wide.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13094690/how-many-spaces-for-tab-character-t

BTW: The tab character '\t' (not "\t")

Also, if your cout statement is the heading to the table of interest payments then you are making life very difficult for yourself.

cout<<"Rate of Initial   Amount 5 Years   10 Years   15 Years\n";
cout << setw(5) << r1 << setw(10) << amount5 << setw(10) << ... <<'\n';

Adjust those two lines by adding spaces manually to the first and adjusting the setw amounts to suit what you want.

[shivamjain1]

I used setw to add spaces manually and got the desired output as shown in my previous reply. Thanks to all for your help