strrepeat()

            You like blanks() but life isn't made only of blanks. You will love strrepeat()

strrepeat() concatenates a character or a string or a set of strings or by
default a blank, respectively with themselves, a given number of times, or up to
a given number of characters or up to the length of a given text template. 

See below for a full help, description, and examples.

RESULTS OF EXAMPLES
-------------------
-->// Blanks:
--> '|' + strrepeat(9) + '|'
 ans  =
 |         |   
 
--> '|' + strrepeat([ 2 5 ; 4 8]) + '|'
 ans  =
!|  |    |     |     !
!|    |  |        |  !
 
--> '|' + strrepeat(['abc' ; '1234567']) + '|'
 ans  =
!|   |      !
!|       |  !


-->// Text with UTF-8 characters:
-->strrepeat('éüçñ実またちこんфий', 2)
 ans  = 
 éüçñ実またちこんфийéüçñ実またちこんфий   


-->// One text, various repeating rates:
--> strrepeat('.', [2 5 ; 0 8])
 ans  =
!..  .....     !
!    ........  !
 
--> strrepeat('-.', [3 -3 ; 5 -5])
 ans  =
!-.-.-.      -.-    !
!-.-.-.-.-.  -.-.-  !
 
--> strrepeat('.', ['abc' '1234567'])
 ans  =
!...  .......  !
 
--> strrepeat(['A' ''], -7)  // => error
 !--error 10000 
strrepeat: repeating the empty "" can't reach 7 characters!
 

-->// One repeating rate, various texts:
--> strrepeat(['-' '~' ; '-.' '~.'], 5)
 ans  =
!-----       ~~~~~       !
!-.-.-.-.-.  ~.~.~.~.~.  !
 
--> strrepeat(['-' '~' ; '-.' '~.'], -9)
 ans  =
!---------  ~~~~~~~~~  !
!-.-.-.-.-  ~.~.~.~.~  !
 
--> strrepeat(['-' '~' ; '-.' 'ab'], 'abcdefg')
 ans  =
!-------  ~~~~~~~  !
!-.-.-.-  abababa  !
 

-->// Element-wise repeating rates:
--> '|' + strrepeat(['' '-.' '/\' '0-' 'cB'], [8 5 0 4 -11]) + '|'
 ans  =
!||  |-.-.-.-.-.|  ||  |0-0-0-0-|  |cBcBcBcBcBc|  !

------------------------------------------------------------------

-->strrepeat

 Repeats a text pattern n times or up to a n-characters length

SYNTAX
     strrepeat         //  Displays this help
 R = strrepeat(N)      //  R(I) = N(I) blanks
 R = strrepeat(ST)     //  R(I) = length(ST(I)) blanks
 R = strrepeat(T,  N)  //  R(I) = T(I) repeated N(I)>0 times
                       //  R(I) = T(I) repeated up to |N(I)<0| characters
 R = strrepeat(T, ST)  //  R(I) = T(I) repeated up to length(ST(I)) characters
                  // ... where I stands for i, or (i,j), or (i,j,k..)
PARAMETERS
 T : Scalar, vector, matrix or hypermatrix of text to be repeated.
     By default, T = " ". UTF-8 characters are accepted.
 N : Scalar, vector, matrix or hypermatrix of integers.
     If N is a scalar while T is not so, N is used for every T components.
     If T is a scalar while N is not so, T is repeated according to
      each N component.
     If N and T are not scalars, they must have the same sizes.
 ST: Scalar, vector, matrix or hypermatrix of texts used as templates,
      setting N = length(ST).
     If T and ST are not scalars, they must have the same sizes.
 R : Scalar, vector, matrix or hypermatrix of repeated text.
     R has the sizes of the largest input T, N, or ST.
     R = []  if T, N or ST is [].

DESCRIPTION
 From a character, a word or a text, or from each component of a
 matrix of chars and words and texts, strrepeat() concatenates it
 with itself a) either as many times n as specified, or b) as many
 times as to reach a given number n of characters. In the latter
 case, if n is not a multiple of the item's length, the result of
 the concatenation is trimmed on the right to n characters.
 When no item to repeat is specified, " " is considered. Hence,
  - strrepeat(n) is equivalent to blanks(n). However,
  - strrepeat() is vectorized, while blanks() is not.
  - strrepeat() is applicable to any character or string, whereas
    blanks() generates exclusively white strings.
  - strrepeat() can take strings as templates, while blanks() cannot.

 NOTE: UTF-8 characters are supported.
 WARNING: If a text is empty and must be repeated to reach a non
  null length, an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
 blanks  : http://help.scilab.org/docs/5.5.2/en_US/blanks.html
 strcat  : http://help.scilab.org/docs/5.5.2/en_US/strcat.html
 strsubst: http://fileexchange.scilab.org/toolboxes/294000

REFERENCE:
  Comments, scoring and bug reports are welcome on
  http://fileexchange.scilab.org/toolboxes/365000

EXAMPLES
// Blanks:
 '|' + strrepeat(9) + '|'
 '|' + strrepeat([ 2 5 ; 4 8]) + '|'
 '|' + strrepeat(['abc' ; '1234567']) + '|'

// Text with UTF-8 characters:
 strrepeat('éüçñ実またちこんфий', 2)

// One text, various repeating rates:
 strrepeat('.',  [2 5 ; 0 8])
 strrepeat('-.', [3 -3 ; 5 -5])
 strrepeat('.',  ['abc' '1234567'])
 strrepeat(['A' ''], -7)  // => error

// One repeating rate, various texts:
 strrepeat(['-' '~' ; '-.' '~.'], 5)
 strrepeat(['-' '~' ; '-.' '~.'], -9)
 strrepeat(['-' '~' ; '-.' 'ab'], 'abcdefg')

// Element-wise repeating rates:
 '|' + strrepeat(['' '-.' '/\' '0-' 'cB'], [8 5 0 4 -11]) + '|'