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Cover image for 1 line of code: How to convert spaces to tabs
Martin Krause
Martin Krause

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1 line of code: How to convert spaces to tabs

#javascript #webdev #productivity #codequality 
const spacesToTabs = (str, tabsize = 4) =>
  str.replace(new RegExp(` {${tabsize}}`, "g"), "\t");
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Returns the string and replaces all tabs with the given amount of spaces (tab size).

The repository & npm package

You can find the all the utility functions from this series at github.com/martinkr/onelinecode
The library is also published to npm as @onelinecode for your convenience.

The code and the npm package will be updated every time I publish a new article.

Follow me on Twitter: @martinkr and consider to buy me a coffee

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Top comments (3)

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lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr •

This is still converting tabs to spaces, not the other way around, as advertised.

const spacesToTabs = (input, length = 4) => input.replace(new RegExp(` {${length}}`, 'g'), '\t');
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martinkr profile image
Martin Krause •

Hi Alex,

thank you for pointing this out. Classic copy & paste error.

I updated the code and the article with my originally inteded code.

Cheers!

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jancizmar profile image
Jan Cizmar •

Shorter! 😅

const spacesToTabs = (str, tabsize = 4) =>
    str.replace(/\s{${tabsize}}/g, "\t")
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