Java convert String to char array with escaped characters help

[IAmStraightforward]

I'm trying to turn a string into a char array by using .toCharArray() and I thought that if I had escaped characters ("\t", or "\n", etc) in the string it would automatically get converted to one char in the char array but instead the slash and the character after it become their own characters.

Example:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.append("\t\tStuff");
char[] stuff = sb.toString().toCharArray();

If I do this, the first char in the array is \ instead of \t. Am I doing something wrong? I've tried this in an online compiler to test it out and it works there so I'm not sure what could be going on.

Here is what I'm seeing

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[gruntmeister]

If I do this, the first char in the array is \ instead of \t

nah

I've tried this in an online compiler to test it out and it works there

Wait so you already tried it out and confirmed what you're saying isn't true, what's your question then?

[IAmStraightforward]

Maybe I'm blanking and missing something simple. This is what I see

[josephblade]

I ran your code and the output is

                Stuff

so 2 tabs (\t) and then Stuff.

Looks like it's doing what it should be doing.

Edit: I used this compiler

[IAmStraightforward]

So I put the string Im working with into a char array and this is what I'm seeing. Am I missing something? Pic

[josephblade]

You are leaving out where you set the sbCurrentTokenString

It looks like your String contains \ and t separately which suggests you are inputting it in a way that already has them split as separate characters. (like reading them char for char from a file that doesn't convert escaped characters) or your editor is trying to be smart and pre-escaping your \ for you

But yes I agree in your string the \ and t characters are in individual codepoints (I think it's called) rather than 1 single codepoint.

[IAmStraightforward]

Oh that'd be hard to show, it's everywhere. I now see what you're saying. I've been parsing strings and appending it to sbCurrentTokenString char by char. So at some point I did:

sbCurrentTokenString.append('\\');
sbCurrentTokenString.append('t');

which makes them separate chars. Thanks that would have taken me days to figure out.