Simple way to repeat a string

Question

I\'m looking for a simple commons method or operator that allows me to repeat some string n times. I know I could write this using a for loop, but I wish to avoid f

Answer 1

Try this out:

public static char[] myABCs = {'a', 'b', 'c'};
public static int numInput;
static Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.print("Enter Number of Times to repeat: ");
    numInput = in.nextInt();
    repeatArray(numInput);
}

public static int repeatArray(int y) {
    for (int a = 0; a < y; a++) {
        for (int b = 0; b < myABCs.length; b++) {
            System.out.print(myABCs[b]);                
        }
        System.out.print(" ");
    }
    return y;
}

Answer 2

here is the latest Stringutils.java StringUtils.java

    public static String repeat(String str, int repeat) {
    // Performance tuned for 2.0 (JDK1.4)

    if (str == null) {
        return null;
    }
    if (repeat <= 0) {
        return EMPTY;
    }
    int inputLength = str.length();
    if (repeat == 1 || inputLength == 0) {
        return str;
    }
    if (inputLength == 1 && repeat <= PAD_LIMIT) {
        return repeat(str.charAt(0), repeat);
    }

    int outputLength = inputLength * repeat;
    switch (inputLength) {
        case 1 :
            return repeat(str.charAt(0), repeat);
        case 2 :
            char ch0 = str.charAt(0);
            char ch1 = str.charAt(1);
            char[] output2 = new char[outputLength];
            for (int i = repeat * 2 - 2; i >= 0; i--, i--) {
                output2[i] = ch0;
                output2[i + 1] = ch1;
            }
            return new String(output2);
        default :
            StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder(outputLength);
            for (int i = 0; i < repeat; i++) {
                buf.append(str);
            }
            return buf.toString();
    }
    }

it doesn't even need to be this big, can be made into this, and can be copied and pasted into a utility class in your project.

    public static String repeat(String str, int num) {
    int len = num * str.length();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(len);
    for (int i = 0; i < times; i++) {
        sb.append(str);
    }
    return sb.toString();
    }

So e5, I think the best way to do this would be to simply use the above mentioned code,or any of the answers here. but commons lang is just too big if it's a small project

Answer 3

OOP Solution

Nearly every answer proposes a static function as a solution, but thinking Object-Oriented (for reusability-purposes and clarity) I came up with a Solution via Delegation through the CharSequence-Interface (which also opens up usability on mutable CharSequence-Classes).

The following Class can be used either with or without Separator-String/CharSequence and each call to "toString()" builds the final repeated String. The Input/Separator are not only limited to String-Class, but can be every Class which implements CharSequence (e.g. StringBuilder, StringBuffer, etc)!

Source-Code:

/**
 * Helper-Class for Repeating Strings and other CharSequence-Implementations
 * @author Maciej Schuttkowski
 */
public class RepeatingCharSequence implements CharSequence {
    final int count;
    CharSequence internalCharSeq = "";
    CharSequence separator = "";
    /**
     * CONSTRUCTOR - RepeatingCharSequence
     * @param input CharSequence to repeat
     * @param count Repeat-Count
     */
    public RepeatingCharSequence(CharSequence input, int count) {
        if(count < 0)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can not repeat String \""+input+"\" less than 0 times! count="+count);
        if(count > 0)
            internalCharSeq = input;
        this.count = count;
    }
    /**
     * CONSTRUCTOR - Strings.RepeatingCharSequence
     * @param input CharSequence to repeat
     * @param count Repeat-Count
     * @param separator Separator-Sequence to use
     */
    public RepeatingCharSequence(CharSequence input, int count, CharSequence separator) {
        this(input, count);
        this.separator = separator;
    }

    @Override
    public CharSequence subSequence(int start, int end) {
        checkBounds(start);
        checkBounds(end);
        int subLen = end - start;
        if (subLen < 0) {
            throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException("Illegal subSequence-Length: "+subLen);
        }
        return (start == 0 && end == length()) ? this
                    : toString().substring(start, subLen);
    }
    @Override
    public int length() {
        //We return the total length of our CharSequences with the separator 1 time less than amount of repeats:
        return count < 1 ? 0
                : ( (internalCharSeq.length()*count) + (separator.length()*(count-1)));
    }
    @Override
    public char charAt(int index) {
        final int internalIndex = internalIndex(index);
        //Delegate to Separator-CharSequence or Input-CharSequence depending on internal index:
        if(internalIndex > internalCharSeq.length()-1) {
            return separator.charAt(internalIndex-internalCharSeq.length());
        }
        return internalCharSeq.charAt(internalIndex);
    }
    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return count < 1 ? ""
                : new StringBuilder(this).toString();
    }

    private void checkBounds(int index) {
        if(index < 0 || index >= length())
            throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException("Index out of Bounds: "+index);
    }
    private int internalIndex(int index) {
        // We need to add 1 Separator-Length to total length before dividing,
        // as we subtracted one Separator-Length in "length()"
        return index % ((length()+separator.length())/count);
    }
}

Usage-Example:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    //String input = "12345";
    //StringBuffer input = new StringBuffer("12345");
    StringBuilder input = new StringBuilder("123");
    //String separator = "<=>";
    StringBuilder separator = new StringBuilder("<=");//.append('>');
    int repeatCount = 2;

    CharSequence repSeq = new RepeatingCharSequence(input, repeatCount, separator);
    String repStr = repSeq.toString();

    System.out.println("Repeat="+repeatCount+"\tSeparator="+separator+"\tInput="+input+"\tLength="+input.length());
    System.out.println("CharSeq:\tLength="+repSeq.length()+"\tVal="+repSeq);
    System.out.println("String :\tLength="+repStr.length()+"\tVal="+repStr);

    //Here comes the Magic with a StringBuilder as Input, as you can append to the String-Builder
    //and at the same Time your Repeating-Sequence's toString()-Method returns the updated String :)
    input.append("ff");
    System.out.println(repSeq);
    //Same can be done with the Separator:
    separator.append("===").append('>');
    System.out.println(repSeq);
}

Example-Output:

Repeat=2    Separator=<=    Input=123   Length=3
CharSeq:    Length=8    Val=123<=123
String :    Length=8    Val=123<=123
123ff<=123ff
123ff<====>123ff

Answer 4

Using recursion, you can do the following (using ternary operators, one line max):

public static final String repeat(String string, long number) {
    return number == 1 ? string : (number % 2 == 0 ? repeat(string + string, number / 2) : string + repeat(string + string, (number - 1) / 2));
}

I know, it's ugly and probably not efficient, but it's one line!

Answer 5

With java-8, you can also use Stream.generate.

import static java.util.stream.Collectors.joining;
...
String repeated = Stream.generate(() -> "abc").limit(3).collect(joining()); //"abcabcabc"

and you can wrap it in a simple utility method if needed:

public static String repeat(String str, int times) {
   return Stream.generate(() -> str).limit(times).collect(joining());
}

Answer 6

I really enjoy this question. There is a lot of knowledge and styles. So I can't leave it without show my rock and roll ;)

{
    String string = repeat("1234567890", 4);
    System.out.println(string);
    System.out.println("=======");
    repeatWithoutCopySample(string, 100000);
    System.out.println(string);// This take time, try it without printing
    System.out.println(string.length());
}

/**
 * The core of the task.
 */
@SuppressWarnings("AssignmentToMethodParameter")
public static char[] repeat(char[] sample, int times) {
    char[] r = new char[sample.length * times];
    while (--times > -1) {
        System.arraycopy(sample, 0, r, times * sample.length, sample.length);
    }
    return r;
}

/**
 * Java classic style.
 */
public static String repeat(String sample, int times) {
    return new String(repeat(sample.toCharArray(), times));
}

/**
 * Java extreme memory style.
 */
@SuppressWarnings("UseSpecificCatch")
public static void repeatWithoutCopySample(String sample, int times) {
    try {
        Field valueStringField = String.class.getDeclaredField("value");
        valueStringField.setAccessible(true);
        valueStringField.set(sample, repeat((char[]) valueStringField.get(sample), times));
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        throw new RuntimeException(ex);
    }
}

Do you like it?