SQL Reference

REPEAT

>>-REPEAT--(--expression--,--expression--)---------------------><
 

The schema is SYSFUN.

Returns a character string composed of the first argument repeated the number of times specified by the second argument.

The first argument is a character string or binary string type. For a VARCHAR the maximum length is 4 000 bytes and for a CLOB or a binary string the maximum length is 1 048 576 bytes. The second argument can be SMALLINT or INTEGER.

The result of the function is:

• VARCHAR(4000) if the first argument is VARCHAR (not exceeding 4 000 bytes) or CHAR
• CLOB(1M) if the first argument is CLOB or LONG VARCHAR
• BLOB(1M) if the first argument is BLOB.

The result can be null; if any argument is null, the result is the null value.

Example:

• List the phrase 'REPEAT THIS' five times.

  VALUES CHAR(REPEAT('REPEAT THIS', 5), 60)
  

  This example return the following:

  1                                                           
  ------------------------------------------------------------
  REPEAT THISREPEAT THISREPEAT THISREPEAT THISREPEAT THIS     
  

  As mentioned, the output of the REPEAT function is VARCHAR(4000). For the above example the function CHAR has been used to limit the output of REPEAT to 60 bytes.