Display (print) string multiple times (repeatedly)

Question

I want to print a character or string like '-' n number of times.

Can I do it without using a loop?.. Is there a function like

print('-',3)

..which would mean printing the - 3 times, like this:

---

See also: [Repeat string to certain length](/q/3391076/) – Karl Knechtel Aug 13 '22 at 08:19 — Karl Knechtel, Aug 13 '22 at 08:19

score 222 · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-06T17:44:03.213

222

Python 2.x:

print '-' * 3

Python 3.x:

print('-' * 3)

edited Oct 06 '14 at 17:44

answered Jun 08 '09 at 01:13

1

This is mentioned in the Built-in Types section of the docs (and should be mentioned in the official tutorial) http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#sequence-types-str-unicode-list-tuple-buffer-xrange – dbr Jun 09 '09 at 03:17
1

this is the correct bookmark in the docs: https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#sequence-types-str-unicode-list-tuple-bytearray-buffer-xrange – George Birbilis Sep 13 '14 at 22:28
(seems they added -bytearray- in the bookmark name) – George Birbilis Sep 13 '14 at 22:29
Is there a way to do this with f-string? – Cardinal System Apr 08 '22 at 17:12

Olivier Melançon · Answer 2 · 2018-02-09T04:42:56.410

8

The accepted answer is short and sweet, but here is an alternate syntax allowing to provide a separator in Python 3.x.

print(*3*('-',), sep='_')

edited Feb 09 '18 at 04:42

answered Feb 09 '18 at 04:37

Olivier Melançon

This will fail if we separate using '\' Check this : `*3*('-',), sep='\'` – Rushabh Patel Oct 13 '20 at 15:06
1

@RushabhPatel This is because '\' is not a valid string, use '\\' instead or r'\' – Olivier Melançon Oct 13 '20 at 16:42
1

@OlivierMelançon: `r'\'` is not a valid string literal → `SyntaxError: EOL while scanning string literal` – martineau Feb 05 '21 at 19:28
@martineau You are right, then it should have been '\\' – Olivier Melançon Feb 05 '21 at 20:50

2 Answers2