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# CTTextTab

A tab in a paragraph style, storing an alignment type and location.

```
class CTTextTab
```

## Overview

Core Text supports five alignment types: [`CTTextAlignment.left`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextAlignment/left), [`CTTextAlignment.center`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextAlignment/center), [`CTTextAlignment.right`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextAlignment/right), [`CTTextAlignment.justified`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextAlignment/justified) and [`CTTextAlignment.natural`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextAlignment/natural). These alignment types are absolute, not based on the line sweep direction of text.

For example, tabbed text is always positioned to the left of a right-aligned tab, whether the line sweep direction is left to right or right to left. A tab’s location, on the other hand, is relative to the back margin. A tab set at 1.5 inches, for example, is at 1.5 inches from the right in right-to-left text.

## Topics

### Creating Text Tabs

[`CTTextTabCreate(_:_:_:)`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextTabCreate(_:_:_:))

Creates and initializes a new text tab object.

[`kCTTabColumnTerminatorsAttributeName`](/documentation/CoreText/kCTTabColumnTerminatorsAttributeName)

Specifies the terminating character for a tab column.

### Getting Text Tab Data

[`CTTextTabGetAlignment(_:)`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextTabGetAlignment(_:))

Returns the text alignment of the tab.

[`CTTextTabGetLocation(_:)`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextTabGetLocation(_:))

Returns the tab’s ruler location.

[`CTTextTabGetOptions(_:)`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextTabGetOptions(_:))

Returns the dictionary of attributes associated with the tab.

### Getting the Type Identifier

[`CTTextTabGetTypeID()`](/documentation/CoreText/CTTextTabGetTypeID())

Returns the Core Foundation type identifier of the text tab object.


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