Create a string with n characters

Question

Is there a way in java to create a string with a specified number of a specified character? In my case, I would need to create a string with 10 spaces. My current code is:

Answer 1

Have a method like this. This appends required spaces at the end of the given String to make a given String to length of specific length.

public static String fillSpaces (String str) {

    // the spaces string should contain spaces exceeding the max needed
    String spaces = "                                                   ";
    return str + spaces.substring(str.length());
}

Answer 2

Likely the shortest code using the String API, exclusively:

String space10 = new String(new char[10]).replace('\0', ' ');

System.out.println("[" + space10 + "]");
// prints "[          ]"

---

As a method, without directly instantiating char:

import java.nio.CharBuffer;

/**
 * Creates a string of spaces that is 'spaces' spaces long.
 *
 * @param spaces The number of spaces to add to the string.
 */
public String spaces( int spaces ) {
  return CharBuffer.allocate( spaces ).toString().replace( '\0', ' ' );
}

Invoke using:

System.out.printf( "[%s]%n", spaces( 10 ) );

Answer 3

If you want only spaces, then how about:

String spaces = (n==0)?"":String.format("%"+n+"s", "");

which will result in abs(n) spaces;