Repeat Character N Times

Question

In Perl I can repeat a character multiple times using the syntax:

$a = \"a\" x 10; // results in \"aaaaaaaaaa\"

Is there a simple way to ac

Answer 1

The most performance-wice way is https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/repeat

Short version is below.

  String.prototype.repeat = function(count) {
    if (count < 1) return '';
    var result = '', pattern = this.valueOf();
    while (count > 1) {
      if (count & 1) result += pattern;
      count >>>= 1, pattern += pattern;
    }
    return result + pattern;
  };
  var a = "a";
  console.debug(a.repeat(10));

Polyfill from Mozilla:

if (!String.prototype.repeat) {
  String.prototype.repeat = function(count) {
    'use strict';
    if (this == null) {
      throw new TypeError('can\'t convert ' + this + ' to object');
    }
    var str = '' + this;
    count = +count;
    if (count != count) {
      count = 0;
    }
    if (count < 0) {
      throw new RangeError('repeat count must be non-negative');
    }
    if (count == Infinity) {
      throw new RangeError('repeat count must be less than infinity');
    }
    count = Math.floor(count);
    if (str.length == 0 || count == 0) {
      return '';
    }
    // Ensuring count is a 31-bit integer allows us to heavily optimize the
    // main part. But anyway, most current (August 2014) browsers can't handle
    // strings 1 << 28 chars or longer, so:
    if (str.length * count >= 1 << 28) {
      throw new RangeError('repeat count must not overflow maximum string size');
    }
    var rpt = '';
    for (;;) {
      if ((count & 1) == 1) {
        rpt += str;
      }
      count >>>= 1;
      if (count == 0) {
        break;
      }
      str += str;
    }
    // Could we try:
    // return Array(count + 1).join(this);
    return rpt;
  }
}