Tab character in a string prints 8 spaces

[snippsat]

If the PEP8 defines the default should be 4 spaces, why is it defaulted to 8 spaces there? I mean its testing anyways, but it does confuse new people as to why they are sometimes getting 8 spaces when they are told they should be getting 4.

It's not Python specific it's just how tabs work Tab key.
They could have changed to 4 to avoid confusion between code indentation(always use 4-space) and output of \t 8-space.

the horizontal tab size of 8 evolved because as a power of two it was easier to calculate with the limited digital electronics available

When think of of it i never use \t,it always string formatting when i need to move or get a different output.
Also \t can be tricky,it start count at 3 then pushes it up to 8

>>> print('aaa\taaaaaa\taaa')
aaa     aaaaaa  aaa

A usage i showed in a resent Thread,of course f-string as now always use.

my_string = ("go")
my_list = [1, 2, 3, 4]
for item in my_list:
    print(f'|{my_string} -->{item:4}|')

Output:
|go -->   1|
|go -->   2|
|go -->   3|
|go -->   4|

item:30

Output:
|go -->                             1|
|go -->                             2|
|go -->                             3|
|go -->                             4|

Can also solve first task,but not so common usage this and maybe a case when expandtabs(4) can make sense.
Never used expandtabs(4) as if need a other output with string it's always sting formatting(f-string).

>>> print(f"Line 1\n{'Line 2':>10}\n{'Line 3':>14}")
Line 1
    Line 2
        Line 3