Is there an easy way to return a string repeated X number of times?

Question

I'm trying to insert a certain number of indentations before a string based on an items depth and I'm wondering if there is a way to return a string repeated X times. Example:

string indent = "---";
Console.WriteLine(indent.Repeat(0)); //would print nothing.
Console.WriteLine(indent.Repeat(1)); //would print "---".
Console.WriteLine(indent.Repeat(2)); //would print "------".
Console.WriteLine(indent.Repeat(3)); //would print "---------".

Answer 1

Use String.PadLeft, if your desired string contains only a single char.

public static string Indent(int count, char pad)
{
    return String.Empty.PadLeft(count, pad);
}

Credit due here

Answer 2

public static class StringExtensions
{
    public static string Repeat(this string input, int count)
    {
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(
            (input == null ? 0 : input.Length) * count);

        for(int i = 0; i < count; i++) builder.Append(input);

        return builder.ToString();
    }
}

Answer 3

If you're using .NET 4.0, you could use string.Concat together with Enumerable.Repeat.

int N = 5; // or whatever
Console.WriteLine(string.Concat(Enumerable.Repeat(indent, N)));

Otherwise I'd go with something like Adam's answer.

The reason I generally wouldn't advise using Andrey's answer is simply that the ToArray() call introduces superfluous overhead that is avoided with the StringBuilder approach suggested by Adam. That said, at least it works without requiring .NET 4.0; and it's quick and easy (and isn't going to kill you if efficiency isn't too much of a concern).

Answer 4

You can create an ExtensionMethod to do that!

public static class StringExtension
{
  public static string Repeat(this string str, int count)
  {
    string ret = "";

    for (var x = 0; x < count; x++)
    {
      ret += str;
    }

    return ret;
  }
}

Or using @Dan Tao solution:

public static class StringExtension
{
  public static string Repeat(this string str, int count)
  {
    if (count == 0)
      return "";

    return string.Concat(Enumerable.Repeat(indent, N))
  }
}

Answer 5

        string indent = "---";
        string n = string.Concat(Enumerable.Repeat(indent, 1).ToArray());
        string n = string.Concat(Enumerable.Repeat(indent, 2).ToArray());
        string n = string.Concat(Enumerable.Repeat(indent, 3).ToArray());

Answer 6

Something to this effect?

string Repeat(string, count)
{
    string out="";
    for(int i=0;i<count;i++)
        out = out+string;
    return out;
}

called:

Console.WriteLine(Repeat("asfasf",4));

Answer 7

If you only intend to repeat the same character you can use the string constructor that accepts a char and the number of times to repeat it new String(char c, int count).

For example, to repeat a dash five times:

string result = new String('-', 5); // -----

Answer 8

I would go for Dan Tao's answer, but if you're not using .NET 4.0 you can do something like that:

public static string Repeat(this string str, int count)
{
    return Enumerable.Repeat(str, count)
                     .Aggregate(
                        new StringBuilder(),
                        (sb, s) => sb.Append(s))
                     .ToString();
}