1\name{repChar}
2\alias{repChar}
3\alias{bl.string}
4\title{Make Simple String from Repeating a Character, e.g. Blank String}
5\description{
6  Simple constructors of a constant character string from one character,
7  notably a \dQuote{blank} string of given string length.
8
9  M.M. is now \sQuote{\emph{mentally deprecating}} \code{bl.string} in
10  favor of using \code{repChar()} in all cases.
11
12  With \R 3.3.0 (May 2016), the \emph{new} function
13  \code{\link{strrep}()} was introduced; it is faster typically, and more
14  flexible, e.g. accepting a \emph{vector} for the 2nd argument.
15  \cr
16  This (for now informally) deprecates all uses of \code{repChar()} and \code{bl.string()}.
17}
18\usage{
19repChar(char, no)
20bl.string(no)
21}
22\arguments{
23  \item{char}{single character (or arbitrary string).}
24  \item{no}{non-negative integer.}
25}
26\value{
27  One string, i.e., \code{\link{character}(1)}), for \code{bl.string} a
28  blank string, fulfilling \code{n == nchar(bl.string(n))}.
29}
30\author{Martin Maechler, early 1990's (for \code{bl.string}).}
31\seealso{\code{\link{paste}}, \code{\link{character}}, \code{\link{nchar}}.}
32\examples{
33r <- sapply(0:8, function(n) ccat(repChar(" ",n), n))
34cbind(r)
35
36repChar("-", 4)
37repChar("_", 6)
38## it may make sense to a string of more than one character:
39repChar("-=- ", 6)
40
41## show the very simple function definitions:
42repChar
43bl.string
44}
45\keyword{character}
46