How to repeat characters in Python without string concatenation?

Question

I'm currently writing a short program that does frequency analysis. However, there's one line that is bothering me:

"{0[0]}  | " + "[]" * num_occurrences + " Total: {0[1]!s}"

Is there a way in Python to repeat certain characters an arbitrary number of times without resorting to concatenation (preferably inside a format string)? I don't feel like I'm doing this in the most Pythonic way.

Could clarify a bit more i.e add some trivial sample i/p and o/p — Bhargav Rao, Mar 28 '15 at 19:43
`"{0} | {1} Total: {2!s}".format("Some val", "[]"*10, "not string")` May be this what you are looking for. — Tanveer Alam, Mar 28 '15 at 19:55

David Wolever · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-28T19:47:53.223

20

The best way to repeat a character or string is to multiply it:

>>> "a" * 3
'aaa'
>>> '123' * 3
'123123123'

And for your example, I'd probably use:

>>> "{0[0]}  | {1} Total: {0[1]!s}".format(foo, "[]" * num_occurrences)

edited Mar 28 '15 at 19:47

answered Mar 28 '15 at 19:47

David Wolever

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I think the OP is already doing this, with `"[]" * num_occurrences` – jedwards Mar 28 '15 at 19:47
1

@jedwards the latter part of the question dealt with concatenation, as does the latter part of my answer :) – David Wolever Mar 28 '15 at 19:49
Hmmm.. I feel like that wasn't there originally.. :-P Okay fair enough. – jedwards Mar 28 '15 at 19:51

How to repeat characters in Python without string concatenation?

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