Excel REPT Function — How to Use It (with 3 Examples)

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What does REPT do?

REPT repeats a given text string a specified number of times and joins the repetitions together with no separator.

A popular creative use is building a simple text-based bar chart directly inside a cell, using a repeated character like █ scaled to a value.

=REPT(text, number_times)

Argument	Description
text required	The text to repeat.
number_times required	How many times to repeat it.

Example 1

Repeat a character

=REPT("-",10)

Returns "----------", a simple divider line.

Example 2

In-cell bar chart

=REPT("█",B2/10)

If B2 is 85, this draws 8.5 (rounded down) block characters — a crude but effective visual bar proportional to the value.

Example 3

Pad a number with leading characters

=REPT("0",5-LEN(A2))&A2

Pads A2 with leading zeros up to 5 digits total — useful for ID codes.

⚠️ Using a non-integer for number_times

Excel rounds down automatically, so 8.5 repetitions becomes 8 — worth knowing if your bar-chart trick looks slightly off.

Is REPT useful for anything beyond visual tricks?

Yes — it is genuinely useful for padding codes, building separators, and generating test data with repeated patterns.

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