How to Show/hide whitespace characters in Xcode

⋅ 1 min read ⋅ Xcode

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By default, Xcode won't show whitespace characters, e.g., tabs and spaces in the editor.

How to show whitespace characters visible in the Xcode editor

To show the tabs and spaces in Xcode.

  1. Select "Editor" menu.
  2. Then check "Invisibles".
Editor > Invisibles
Editor > Invisibles

After enabling the "Invisibles" menu item, you will see all whitespace characters, e.g., spaces, tabs, and newlines.

Whitespace characters
Whitespace characters

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How to hide whitespace characters visible in the Xcode editor

If you want to hide all whitespace characters, just repeat the above steps.

To hide the tabs and spaces in Xcode.

  1. Select "Editor" menu.
  2. Then uncheck "Invisibles".
Editor > Invisibles
Editor > Invisibles

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What is the benefit of visible whitespace

Some file types like Comma separated values (CSV) have very strict file format. Different whitespace characters mean different things in CSV. Turning on whitespace characters might help you catch an error in your file.

Another popular file type with a strict rule is YAML. Tabs are forbidden in the YAML file. If you get an error for no reason, it might cause by whitespace characters.


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