Implement soft tab in JTextArea?

Question

Hi
Does anyone know how I can implement soft tab in
JTextArea?
Or put it this way, override default tabbing behaviour
and inserts string " " whenever user press tab.
Thanks in advance
Okidoki

Answer 1

For backspace you can do the same thing, removing only the previous character(s).
class MyTabKey extends KeyAdapter {
     public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
          int keyCode = e.getKeyCode();
          if (keyCode == KeyEvent.VK_TAB ) {
               e.consume();
               JTextArea textArea = (JTextArea)e.getSource();
               int tabSize = textArea.getTabSize();
               StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
               for ( int i = 0; i < tabSize; i++ )
               buffer.append(" ");
               textArea.insert( buffer.toString(), textArea.getCaretPosition() );
          if (keyCode == KeyEvent.VK_BACK_SPACE) {
               e.consume();
               JTextArea textArea = (JTextArea)e.getSource();
               int tabSize = textArea.getTabSize();
               int end  = textArea.getCaretPosition()-1;
               int start  = end - tabSize;
               textArea.replaceRange("",  start, end);
}Hope this helps,
Denis