How to emulate REPEAT() in SQLite How to emulate REPEAT() in SQLite sqlite sqlite

How to emulate REPEAT() in SQLite


A solution was inspired by this answer to a related question, here:

How to emulate LPAD/RPAD with SQLite

I wanted to share this on Stack Overflow, as this may be useful to other SQLite users. The solution goes like this:

-- X = string-- Y = number of repetitionsreplace(substr(quote(zeroblob((Y + 1) / 2)), 3, Y), '0', X)


If its a single character you want to repeat, you can use printf function.

Bellow is an example where * is repeated 10 times.

sqlite> select printf('%.' || 10 ||'c', '*');**********

To repeat multiple characters please see Lukas's answer above.


A simplified version of @Lukas Eder's solution using hex() instead of quote:

-- X = string-- Y = number of repetitionsreplace(hex(zeroblob(Y)), '00', X)