---

{ “title”: “REPEAT”, “language”: “en”, “description”: “The REPEAT function is used to repeat a specified string a specified number of times to generate a new string.” }

Description

The REPEAT function is used to repeat a specified string a specified number of times to generate a new string. This function is commonly used for generating padding characters, creating separators, or generating test data.

Syntax

REPEAT(<str>, <count>)

Parameters

Parameter	Description
<str>	The source string to repeat. Type: VARCHAR
<count>	The number of times to repeat, must be a non-negative integer. Type: INT

Return Value

Returns VARCHAR type, representing the string repeated the specified number of times.

Repeat rules:

• When count is greater than 0, returns the result of str repeated count times
• When count equals 0, returns an empty string
• When count is less than 0, returns an empty string
• If the resulting string is too long, it may be subject to string length limitations

Special cases:

• If any parameter is NULL, returns NULL
• If str is an empty string, returns an empty string regardless of count
• If count is 0, returns an empty string
• If count is negative, returns an empty string

Examples

1. Basic character repetition

SELECT REPEAT('a', 3);

+----------------+
| REPEAT('a', 3) |
+----------------+
| aaa            |
+----------------+

2. Multi-character string repetition

SELECT REPEAT('hello', 2);

+--------------------+
| REPEAT('hello', 2) |
+--------------------+
| hellohello         |
+--------------------+

3. Zero repetitions

SELECT REPEAT('test', 0);

+-------------------+
| REPEAT('test', 0) |
+-------------------+
|                   |
+-------------------+

4. Negative repetitions

SELECT REPEAT('a', -1);

+-----------------+
| REPEAT('a', -1) |
+-----------------+
|                 |
+-----------------+

5. NULL value handling

SELECT REPEAT(NULL, 3), REPEAT('a', NULL);

+------------------+-------------------+
| REPEAT(NULL, 3)  | REPEAT('a', NULL) |
+------------------+-------------------+
| NULL             | NULL              |
+------------------+-------------------+

6. Empty string repetition

SELECT REPEAT('', 5);

+----------------+
| REPEAT('', 5)  |
+----------------+
|                |
+----------------+

7. Special character repetition

SELECT REPEAT('-', 10), REPEAT('*', 5);

+------------------+-----------------+
| REPEAT('-', 10)  | REPEAT('*', 5)  |
+------------------+-----------------+
| ----------       | *****           |
+------------------+-----------------+

8. UTF-8 character repetition

SELECT REPEAT('ṭṛì', 3), REPEAT('ḍḍu', 2);

+-------------------+-------------------+
| REPEAT('ṭṛì', 3)  | REPEAT('ḍḍu', 2)  |
+-------------------+-------------------+
| ṭṛìṭṛìṭṛì          | ḍḍuḍḍu            |
+-------------------+-------------------+

9. Mixed numbers and symbols

SELECT REPEAT('123', 3), REPEAT('@#', 4);

+-------------------+------------------+
| REPEAT('123', 3)  | REPEAT('@#', 4)  |
+-------------------+------------------+
| 123123123         | @#@#@#@#         |
+-------------------+------------------+

10. UTF-8 character repetition

SELECT REPEAT('ṭṛìṭṛì', 3);

+--------------------------------------------------+
| REPEAT('ṭṛìṭṛì', 3)                              |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| ṭṛìṭṛìṭṛìṭṛìṭṛìṭṛì                               |
+--------------------------------------------------+

Description

The REPEAT function is used to repeat a string a specified number of times.

Syntax

REPEAT( <str>, <count> )

Parameters

Parameter	Description
<str>	The string to be repeated.
<count>	The number of times to repeat. It must be a non-negative integer. If it is less than 1, an empty string will be returned.

Return Value

Returns the string repeated the specified number of times. Special cases:

• If any Parameter is NULL, NULL will be returned.

Examples

SELECT repeat("a", 3);

+----------------+
| repeat('a', 3) |
+----------------+
| aaa            |
+----------------+

SELECT repeat("a", -1);

+-----------------+
| repeat('a', -1) |
+-----------------+
|                 |
+-----------------+