Escape character \t not reflected in output

[cathy smith]

Help, I have a simple output line:
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "sum\t= " + sum + "\nx\t= " + x);
...however, the \t escape character seems to be ignored in my output. if I replace JOptionPane.showMessageDialog to:
System.out.println
the tab is reflected in the command line window.
What can I do to make it work in the first case.
any help appreciated

[Barry Gaunt]

I would suggest that you review JLabel. There is no mention (that I can see) that the '\t' like characters will be expanded. You can however use HTML in labels.
I'm guessing here, but maybe you can use java.io.PrintWriter and java.io.StringWriter to do some of the formatting for you. You can then use the resulting formatted string in your message dialog.

[Barry Gaunt]

UPDATED:Unfortunately the following does not work !!!
The '\t' is still in the string when it is printed to System.out, a pity....

Here's me just playing around, but it may work for you:

import java.io.* ;
public class Formatting
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
        PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter( sw );
    
        pw.println( "hi\thi" );
        String formattedOutput = sw.toString();
        System.out.println( formattedOutput );
        int t = formattedOutput.indexOf('\t'); // I had 't' here last time  :(  
        System.out.println(t);
    }
}
hihi
2
 

[ February 22, 2003: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]
[ February 22, 2003: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]
[ February 22, 2003: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]

[cathy smith]

Thanks for your reply. I'm in the beginning chapters of learning Java, so haven't yet learned how to pass values to JoptionPane.showMessage dialog (or other objects). I'll keep your suggestion in mind when I get to that chapter.