Putting a tab character in an output record.

Question

I have tried many things to put a tab character between fields in an output record.  But it keeps putting the "\t" instead.  I thought I have done this is the past.  I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me how to do this.  Here is first part of record string that I am creating.  Thanks,

arep

         char tab = '\t';
 
         Output_Files.PrintExtract(subClient + tab
            + Convert.ToString(sourceReader["ContractNbr"]).Trim() + tab
            + Convert.ToString(sourceReader["PersonNo"]) +  '\t'
            + Convert.ToInt64(sourceReader["MemberDateofBirth"]).ToString("MM/dd/yyyy")