Text::Tabs -- expand and unexpand tabs per the unix expand(1) and unexpand(1)
use Text::Tabs;
$tabstop = 4;
@lines_without_tabs = expand(@lines_with_tabs);
@lines_with_tabs = unexpand(@lines_without_tabs);Text::Tabs does about what the unix utilities expand(1) and unexpand(1) do. Given a line with tabs in it, expand will replace the tabs with the appropriate number of spaces. Given a line with or without tabs in it, unexpand will add tabs when it can save bytes by doing so. Invisible compression with plain ascii!
expand doesn't handle newlines very quickly -- do not feed it an entire document in one string. Instead feed it an array of lines.
David Muir Sharnoff <muir@idiom.com>