Create a String of Variable Length, Filled with a Repeated Character

Create a string of variable length, filled with a repeated character

The best way to do this (that I've seen) is

var str = new Array(len + 1).join( character );

That creates an array with the given length, and then joins it with the given string to repeat. The .join() function honors the array length regardless of whether the elements have values assigned, and undefined values are rendered as empty strings.

You have to add 1 to the desired length because the separator string goes between the array elements.

How to create String of length consisting of same character repeated multiple times?

Nothing wrong with this code at all... But maybe you can use Arrays.fill():

public static String stringOfSize(int size, char ch)
{
    final char[] array = new char[size];
    Arrays.fill(array, ch);
    return new String(array);
}

Can one initialize a Java string with a single repeated character to a specific length

char[] chars = new char[len];
Arrays.fill(chars, ch);
String s = new String(chars);

What is the easiest way to generate a String of n repeated characters?

int n = 10;
char[] chars = new char[n];
Arrays.fill(chars, 'c');
String result = new String(chars);

EDIT:

It's been 9 years since this answer was submitted but it still attracts some attention now and then. In the meantime Java 8 has been introduced with functional programming features. Given a char c and the desired number of repetitions count the following one-liner can do the same as above.

String result = IntStream.range(1, count).mapToObj(index -> "" + c).collect(Collectors.joining());

Do note however that it is slower than the array approach. It should hardly matter in any but the most demanding circumstances. Unless it's in some piece of code that will be executed thousands of times per second it won't make much difference. This can also be used with a String instead of a char to repeat it a number of times so it's a bit more flexible. No third-party libraries needed.

In Python, how do I create a string of n characters in one line of code?

To simply repeat the same letter 10 times:

string_val = "x" * 10  # gives you "xxxxxxxxxx"

And if you want something more complex, like n random lowercase letters, it's still only one line of code (not counting the import statements and defining n):

from random import choice
from string import ascii_lowercase
n = 10

string_val = "".join(choice(ascii_lowercase) for i in range(n))

Simple way to repeat a string

String::repeat

". ".repeat(7)  // Seven period-with-space pairs: . . . . . . . 

New in Java 11 is the method String::repeat that does exactly what you asked for:

String str = "abc";
String repeated = str.repeat(3);
repeated.equals("abcabcabc");

Its Javadoc says:

/**
 * Returns a string whose value is the concatenation of this
 * string repeated {@code count} times.
 * <p>
 * If this string is empty or count is zero then the empty
 * string is returned.
 *
 * @param count number of times to repeat
 *
 * @return A string composed of this string repeated
 * {@code count} times or the empty string if this
 * string is empty or count is zero
 *
 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the {@code count} is
 * negative.
 *
 * @since 11
 */ 

Repeat a string in JavaScript a number of times

These days, the repeat string method is implemented almost everywhere. (It is not in Internet Explorer.) So unless you need to support older browsers, you can simply write:

"a".repeat(10)

Before repeat, we used this hack:

Array(11).join("a") // create string with 10 a's: "Create a String of Variable Length, Filled with a Repeated Characteraa"

(Note that an array of length 11 gets you only 10 "a"s, since Array.join puts the argument between the array elements.)

Simon also points out that according to this benchmark, it appears that it's faster in Safari and Chrome (but not Firefox) to repeat a character multiple times by simply appending using a for loop (although a bit less concise).

Create a string with n characters

The for loop will be optimized by the compiler. In such cases like yours you don't need to care about optimization on your own. Trust the compiler.

BTW, if there is a way to create a string with n space characters, than it's coded the same way like you just did.

Construct a string from a repeated character

If you don't mind creating an extra string:

String zeros = new String(new char[n]).replace((char) 0, '0');

Or more explicit (and probably more efficient):

char[] c = new char[n];
Arrays.fill(c, '0');
String zeros = new String(c);

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Performance wise, the Arrays.fill option seems to perform better in most situations, but especially for large strings. Using a StringBuilder is quite slow for large strings but efficient for small ones. Using replace is a nice one liner and performs ok for larger strings, but not as well as filll.

Micro benchmark for different values of n:

Benchmark                       (n)  Mode  Samples        Score         Error  Units
c.a.p.SO26504151.builder          1  avgt        3       29.452 ±       1.849  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.builder         10  avgt        3       51.641 ±      12.426  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.builder       1000  avgt        3     2681.956 ±     336.353  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.builder    1000000  avgt        3  3522995.218 ±  422579.979  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.fill             1  avgt        3       30.255 ±       0.297  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.fill            10  avgt        3       32.638 ±       7.553  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.fill          1000  avgt        3      592.459 ±      91.413  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.fill       1000000  avgt        3   706187.003 ±  152774.601  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.replace          1  avgt        3       44.366 ±       5.153  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.replace         10  avgt        3       51.778 ±       2.959  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.replace       1000  avgt        3     1385.383 ±     289.319  ns/op
c.a.p.SO26504151.replace    1000000  avgt        3  1486335.886 ± 1807239.775  ns/op

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