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Ask HN: It would be nice if text editors and IDEs would show the tab number

1 points by hk1337 ↗ HN
It may be a feature but I cannot find it. The two main applications I am using is Visual Studio Code and Jetbrains IDEs.

In both, I can see what line number and column my cursor is located. This is incredibly useful when I need it.

What I cannot see is the tab number where my cursor is.

This is probably a niche request but I am double checking and validating tab separated text files and the only way I can verify it is in the correct column is counting from the left.

Visual Studio Code at least has an extension that color codes the columns so that makes it somewhat easier with CSV files.

3 comments

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ycombinatrix
Just divide the column number by the tab width to get the tab number. Am I missing something?
pancsta
Not you, he does, and for me personally having color coded indention guides is the worst thing for code, but then CSV isnt code.
barrry
Sublime Text supports displaying the column count instead of the character count via its selection_description_column_type setting (only useful when using tab indentation I suppose):

"virtual": Shows columns as they visually appear on screen. A tab character that displays as 4 spaces wide will count as 4 columns.

"real": Shows the actual number of characters. A tab is counted as 1 column regardless of its visual width.