Inserting TAB into string

• RD-201664

  Ten Centuries

  Points: 1334

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  October 6, 2009 at 10:40 am

  #211690

  Hi all,

  This is for SQL 2000. I am trying to add a tab character to a string using char(9) but all I get is a single space.

  Example:

  select 'there should be a tab between here' + char(9) + 'and here'

  Ideas?

  Thanks.

• Garadin

  One Orange Chip

  Points: 29613

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  October 6, 2009 at 10:56 am

  #1062388

  What are you using to verify that you only get a space? You're not going to see it in QA or SSMS, as they don't show things like carriage returns/tabs/etc. If you select that cell into a front end that does display those things, it may work fine.

  Seth Phelabaum

  ---

  Consistency is only a virtue if you're not a screwup.

  Links: How to Post Sample Data[/url] :: Running Totals[/url] :: Tally Table[/url] :: Cross Tabs/Pivots[/url] :: String Concatenation[/url]

• RD-201664

  Ten Centuries

  Points: 1334

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  October 6, 2009 at 11:06 am

  #1062390

  Ahh, I was only looking in QA then copy/paste to Notepad. The finished output does have the tab.

  Thanks.

• arun.sas

  SSChampion

  Points: 11831

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  October 6, 2009 at 9:26 pm

  #1062568

  RD-201664 (10/6/2009)

  ---

  select 'there should be a tab between here' + char(9) + 'and here'

  Ideas?

  declare @result varchar(100)

  set @result = 'TEST START'+char(9)+'EXEC'+char(9)+'TEST END'

  select @result

  RESULT

  TEST STARTEXECTEST END

  set @result = replace(@result,char(9),' -TAB HERE- ')

  select @result

  RESULT

  TEST START -TAB HERE- EXEC -TAB HERE- TEST END

• emich11-reseau

  SSC Journeyman

  Points: 95

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  March 13, 2013 at 4:44 am

  #1596416

  [font="Arial"]I add the same problem with SQL Server :

  "something"+char(9)+"something"

  returns something something

  "something"+char(9) + char(9)+char(9)+char(9)+char(9)+char(9)+"something"

  returns something something

  finally, I "cheated" with :

  "something"+char(9)+char(160)+char(9)+char(160)+char(9)+char(160)+char(9)+char(160)"something"

  returns something [8 spaces here] something (each char9 or char16 is replaced by a space)

  so visually I got what I wanted, even if I admit it is not very elegant...[/font]

• drewmie

  Mr or Mrs. 500

  Points: 504

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  May 11, 2017 at 11:06 am

  #1942194

  I solved this by just creating a blank tab column, then copying both columns.  It pastes perfectly with a tab.

  SELECT '' AS Tab, 'Text following tab.' AS OtherText
  
  I use this method when I want to generate well-tabbed SQL code.