How to use String.format() in Java to replicate tab “\t”?

Question

I\'m printing data line by line and want it to be organized like a table.

I initially used firstName + \", \" + lastName + \"\\t\" + phoneNumber.

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Answer 1

The only alternative is loop the names list, calculate the maximum length of the String, and add whitespaces as needed after every name to ensure that all the numbers begin at the same column.

Using tabs has the disavantage that you cannot know a priori how many whitespace are equivalent to a tab, since it is dependent of the editor.