REPT Function in Excel: Repeat Text (In-Cell Bar Charts)

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

TextLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article

1. Syntax
2. Examples
3. Example 1
4. Example 2
5. REPT in practice
6. Where you will use it
7. Worked example
8. Mistakes people make
9. Related functions
10. Continue learning

REPT repeats text a number of times — best known for quick bar charts inside cells.

Syntax

=REPT(text, number_times)

Argument	What it means
number_times	How many times; decimals are truncated.

Examples

Example 1

=REPT("█", B2/1000)

One block per ₹1,000 of sales.

Example 2

=REPT("0", 6-LEN(A2)) & A2

Pad a code with leading zeros to six digits.

REPT in practice

Where you will use it

• In-cell bar charts
• Pad codes with zeros
• Star ratings

Worked example

Rating	Formula	Result
5	=REPT("★",A2)&REPT("☆",5-A2)	★★★★★
3	=REPT("★",A3)&REPT("☆",5-A3)	★★★☆☆
1	=REPT("★",A4)&REPT("☆",5-A4)	★☆☆☆☆

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

Mistake	What to do instead
Too many repeats	Result over 32,767 characters gives #VALUE!
Decimals	Truncated

Related functions

TEXT · LEN

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📎 Practice files for this article

• 📗
  Practice workbook: Text & cleaning24 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
  ⬇ XLSX · 35 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.