How to Fix TabError in Python

1. Indentation Rule in Python
2. Causes of TabError in Python
3. Fix TabError in Python

Python is one of the most widely used programming languages. Unlike other programming languages like Java and C++, etc., which uses curly braces for a code block (like a loop block or an if condition block), it uses indentation to define a block of code.

Indentation Rule in Python

According to the conventions defined, Python uses four spaces or a tab for indentation. A code block starts with a tab indentation, and the next line of code after that block is unindented.

The leading whitespaces determine the indentation level at the beginning of the line. We need to increase the indent level to group the statements for a particular code block.

Similarly, we need to lower the indent level to close the grouping.

Causes of TabError in Python

Python uses four spaces or a tab for indentation, but if we use both while writing the code, it raises TabError: inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation. In the following code, we have indented the second and third line using tab and the fourth line using spaces.

Example Code:

# Python 3.x
def check(marks):
    if marks > 60:
        print("Pass")
        print("Congratulations")


check(66)

Output:

#Python 3.x
File "<ipython-input-26-229cb908519e>", line 4
    print("Congratulations")
                            ^
TabError: inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation

Fix TabError in Python

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to fix this error automatically. We have to check each line within a code block.

In our case, we can see the tabs symbol like this ----*. Whitespaces do not have this symbol. So we can fix the code by consistently using four spaces or tabs.

In our case, we will replace the spaces with tabs to fix the TabError. Following is the correct code.

Example Code:

# Python 3.x
def check(marks):
    if marks > 60:
        print("Pass")
        print("Congratulations")


check(66)

Output:

#Python 3.x
Pass
Congratulations