Text functions

Repeat

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The Repeat function returns a string created by repeating a given string a specified number of times.

Repeat is one of the Text functions supported by Sigma.

Syntax

Repeat(string, number)

Repeat has the following arguments:

string
Required
The string that the function repeats
number
Required
The number of times the string repeats.
The zero, 0, and negative values both return a NULL string.

Examples

The following table shows the output of using Repeat on the Product Type column.

A table showing the Product Type column alongside the output of the Repeat function for the number values 0, 1, 2, 3, and -1

Repeat([Product Type], 0)

Returns an empty string as the Product Type is repeated zero times.

Repeat([Product Type], 1)

Returns each Product Type value unchanged.

Repeat([Product Type], 2)

Returns each Product Type value repeated twice.

Repeat([Product Type], 3)

Returns each Product Type value repeated three times.

Repeat([Product Type], -1)

Returns an empty string.

You can also use Repeat to add leading zeros to a fixed-length value. For example, to format invoice IDs as eight-digit numbers with leading zeros:

Concat(Repeat("0", 8 - Len([Invoice ID])), [Invoice ID])

Len([Invoice ID]) evaluates how many zeros are needed to reach a total length of 8 characters. Repeat is used to create the required number of zeros. Concat joins the zeros to the front of the invoice ID, producing the final fixed-length value. As a result, an example ID of 12345 returns 00012345, and an example ID of 1234 returns 00001234.