Repeated string command

[PB]

I thought this had been requested before, but I can't find it now.

In some other Basics there's a command to create a repeated string.
In PureBasic, I would suggest it to be named "RepeatString", as in this:

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a$=RepeatString("*",50)

So it would generate a string containing 50 asterisks. Currently it's done like this:

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For a=1 To 50 : a$+"*" : Next

Which is ugly and probably way slower than a native ASM command to do it.

Oh, and the repeated string is NOT just one character, but can be any size:

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a$=RepeatString("he",3) ; Returns "hehehe"

[Demivec]

Not to detract from the request, here's a faster implentation:

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Procedure.s RepeatString(pattern$,reps = 1)
  Protected a.String
  a\S = Space(reps * Len(pattern$))

  Protected *stringPtr = @a\S, i
  CopyMemoryString(pattern$,@*stringPtr)
  For i = 2 To reps
    CopyMemoryString(pattern$)
  Next
  
  ProcedureReturn a\S
EndProcedure
  
Debug RepeatString("*",50)
Debug RepeatString("he",3)

[Trond]

Currently it's done like this:

I never thought of doing it that way. I always used ReplaceString() and Space() like this:

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S.s = ReplaceString(Space(RCount), " ", "RepeatMe")

ReplaceString() can even use in-place replacing, but then it's not so elegant any more:

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Procedure.s RepeatString(RepeatCount, StringToRepeat.s)
  Protected S.s = Space(RepeatCount*Len(StringToRepeat))
  ReplaceString(S, Space(Len(StringToRepeat)), StringToRepeat, #PB_String_InPlace)
  ProcedureReturn S
EndProcedure

But I agree that it would be nice to have this predefined, it's something I've had to create for myself several times.

[AND51]

Which is ugly and probably way slower than a native ASM command to do it.

I think that's the point why there are so many feature requests. With ASM, an algorithm can be done better than with the best PB-Knowledge and with the smallest PB code.

Same with RepeatString().
But the best example is Hex-Dec-Bin-Support for Val(). The best coders of this forum cannot reach the performance of the native Val(), if a hex-value has to be converted to a long.

All in all I would agree with you, PB.

[HeX0R]

Why not like this?

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Debug RSet("*", 50, "*")

[Edit]
>>Oh, and the repeated string is NOT just one character, but can be any size:

Well o.k., then my solution won't work