Question

I understand that the tab character (‘\t’) size depends on where you output it.
But how would you programmatically measure it? That is: how to find the number of spaces needed to print an equivalent ‘\t’ character?

Answer 1

you cannot measure it, for the size is defined in and determined by the interface you are sending the control character to

what you can do is to set your own tabsize and count the characters you have written in that line, to calculate how much spaces you need, so have an identation like you had with a tab