Useful method – 1 of N – Multiply string June 13, 2008

Here is an extension method on the string class. We can generate strings that can be used in many scenarios.

public static string Times(this string value, int n)
{
    return value.Times(n, string.Empty);
}

public static string Times(this string value, int n, string separator)
{
    if (value == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("value");
    }
    if (n < 0)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException("Must be a positive number.", "n");
    }
    if (value.Length > 0 && n > 0)
    {
        return string.Join(separator, Enumerable.Repeat(value, n).ToArray());
    }
    return value;
}

Possible usage can be:

            string sample = "many";
            string value = word.Times(3, ", ");
            // value = "many, many, many"

or probably this:

            string sample = "+-";
            string value = sample.Times(30);
            // value = "+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-"

Of course we can chain the Times() method. Doing so we can have some interesting results:

            string sample = "5";
            string value = sample.Times(2).Times(2, ", ").Times(2, "-").Times(2, ":");
            // value = "55, 55-55, 55:55, 55-55, 55"