# HG changeset patch
# Parent 7f4325dc42565fadfd1f768c8464372fb414001f
Issue #17670: Provide an example of expandtabs() usage.

diff --git a/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst b/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
--- a/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
@@ -1527,10 +1527,19 @@
 .. method:: str.expandtabs([tabsize])
 
    Return a copy of the string where all tab characters are replaced by zero or
-   more spaces, depending on the current column and the given tab size.  The
-   column number is reset to zero after each newline occurring in the string.
-   If *tabsize* is not given, a tab size of ``8`` characters is assumed.  This
-   doesn't understand other non-printing characters or escape sequences.
+   more spaces, depending on the current tab column and the given tab size.
+   Starting at the first character of the string, the tab column is set to
+   zero.  Whenever a tab character (``\t``) is encountered, space characters
+   are inserted as needed until the next tab position is reached and the tab
+   column is set to that tab position; the tab character itself is not copied.
+   Whenever a newline character (``\n`` or ``\r``) is encountered, it is copied
+   and the tab column is reset to zero.  Any other character is copied unchanged
+   and the tab column is incremented by one regardless of how it may be
+   represented when printed.  If *tabsize* is not given, a tab size of 8
+   characters is assumed.
+
+      >>> '012\t4\t89'.expandtabs(4)
+      '012 4   89'
 
 
 .. method:: str.find(sub[, start[, end]])