JOptionPane in Java

Question

Does anyone know why tab (\\t) does not work with JOptionPane.showMessageDialog?

My code is as follows:

 String addText = "NAME\t\tADDRESS\t\tTEL.No\tEMAIL\n";
        for (int i = 0; i < addressBookSize; i++) {
           addText = addText+entry[i].viewAllInfo();
        }
        System.out.print(addText);
 JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, addText);

Are there other ways to align text in JOptionPane?

Answer 1

Put your tabbed text into JTextArea

String addText = "NAME\t\tADDRESS\t\tTEL.No\tEMAIL\n";
        for (int i = 0; i < addressBookSize; i++) {
           addText = addText+entry[i].viewAllInfo();
        }
        System.out.print(addText);
 JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, new JTextArea(addText));

Answer 2

Looking at your data again, I'd probably display it in a JTable, and then if desired, would display this in a JOptionPane or in a GUI. If you need simpler, then display it in a JTextArea whose font has been set to monospaced, and use String.format(...) or something similar to allow your Strings to be displayed in a table.