Transform an integer value to a repeated character

Question

When my XSL stylesheets encounters this node:

...it should transform it into this node:

Answer 1

A fairly dirty but pragmatic approach would be to make a call on what's the highest number you ever expect to see in attribute, then use

substring("****...", 1, $repeat)

where you have as many *s in that string as that maximum number you expect. But I hope that there's something better!