REPT Function in Excel | How to use REPT in Excel (with Example)

Excel REPT Function

REPT function is also known as repeat function in excel and as the name suggests this function repeats a given data provided to it to a given number of times so this function takes two arguments one is the text which needs to be repeated and the second argument is the number of times we want the text to be repeated.

Syntax

Below is the REPT Formula in Excel.

Arguments

text = It is a required parameter. It is the text to be repeated.
number_of_times = It is also a required parameter. It is the number of times the text in the parameter-1 is to be repeated. It must be a positive number.

How to use the REPT Function in Excel? (with Examples)

The REPT Function is a Worksheet (WS) function. As a WS function, REPT Function can be entered as a part of the formula in a cell of a worksheet. Refer to a couple of examples given below to know more.

You can download this REPT Function Excel Template here – REPT Function Excel Template

Example #1 – Repeat a set of characters

In the above example, REPT(“\n”,3) “\n” is said to be repeated 3 times. As a result, cell B2 contains “\n\n\n\”.

Example #2 – Repeat a character

In the above example, REPT (“-”,10) “-” is said to be repeated 10 times. As a result, cell C1 contains “———-”.

Example #3 – Equalize the length of the numbers

In the above example, column C contains a series of numbers from C3 to C7. The number of digits each cell contains is different. So, the use case is to make all the numbers of the same length by adding zeros (0) in such a way that the value of the number doesn’t change but all the numbers become of the same length. Here, the length defined is 4. i.e. all the numbers should be of length 4. The formatted numbers are present in column D starting from D3 to D7. So, the formatted number of C3 is present in D3, C4 in D4, C5 in D5, C6 in D6, C7 in D7, and so on. Each cell from D3 to D7 has a REPT Function applied to it.

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Here, REPT function is used to add leading or trailing zeros. Let’s analyze the REPT function written in the formula bar.

=REPT(“0”,4-LEN(C3))&C3

As shown in the above REPT formula in Excel, “0” represents a digit/text to be repeated and the second parameter is the frequency with which zero is it to be repeated. Here, the length of the number in C3 cell is deducted from number 4 which will give us the number of zeros to be repeated so as to format the number in 4-digit format. E. g: If the length of the number present in C3 is 2, then 4-2=2 which is evaluated to – REPT (“0”,2) meaning repeat 0 two times. Further, the resultant number is ended with the original value which here, is 12 and the result is 0012.

Example #4– Create in-cell charts

In the above example, column E contains a series of marks obtained out of 100 from E3 to E7. The marks obtained are to be represented in a pictorial format without using the default Charts widget in Excel. This can be accomplished by using the REPT function, as explained below.

Here the REPT formula used is =REPT(CHAR(110), E3*0.05).

All characters have an ASCII code which is understood by the computer. Small case ‘n’ has code 110. So, =CHAR (110) in Excel returns ‘n’. When Wingdings font is applied on the same, it becomes a block displayed as – n.

Now, we have got the character to be repeated. Now, we must figure out how many times it is to be repeated. So, the REPT function is applied to calculate the number of blocks is: – E3*0.05 meaning one block would represent 1/5^th part of the value. So, the number of blocks for marks 70 is shown as 3 repeated blocks in the result cell F3. A similar formula is repeated on the remaining values i.e. from E4 to E7 resulting in 4, 1, 2 and 5 blocks for marks 80, 20, 40 and 100 shown in the result cells F4, F5, F6, F7 respectively.

Things to Remember

The 2^nd parameter of the REPT function must be a positive number.
If it is 0 (zero), the REPT function returns “” i.e. an empty text.
If it is not an integer, it is truncated.
The result of the REPT function cannot be longer than 32,767 characters, else the REPT formula returns #VALUE! indicating an error with the value.