s4g020.md

REPLICATE()

This function lets you create a string composed of multiple copies of another string.

Usage

cNewString = REPLICATE( cString, nTimes )

Parameter	Value	Meaning
cString	Character	The string to be repeated to produce the result.
nTimes	Numeric	The number of times to repeat cString.
cNewString	Character	A string consisting of nTimes copies of cString.

REPLICATE() is handy for allowing you to use proportional fonts for input without ending up with too many characters. By specifying an InputMask (PICTURE clause in 2.x) of REPLICATE("X", LEN(<field>)), the user can't enter more characters than the field holds.

In the little-known-facts department, you can pass an entire string to REPLICATE(), not just a single character. We suspect many experienced Xbase programmers don't realize this.

Example

? REPLICATE("X", 30)  && Returns a string of 30 X's
? REPLICATE("Fox", 3) && Returns "FoxFoxFox"

See Also

ChrTran(), InputMask, Space(), StrTran(), Stuff()