public static String repeat(final String str, final int repeat) {
        // Performance tuned for 2.0 (JDK1.4)

        if (str == null) {
            return null;
        }
        if (repeat <= 0) {
            return EMPTY;
        }
        final int inputLength = str.length();
        if (repeat == 1 || inputLength == 0) {
            return str;
        }
        if (inputLength == 1 && repeat <= PAD_LIMIT) {
            return repeat(str.charAt(0), repeat);
        }

        final int outputLength = inputLength * repeat;
        switch (inputLength) {
            case 1:
                return repeat(str.charAt(0), repeat);
            case 2:
                final char ch0 = str.charAt(0);
                final char ch1 = str.charAt(1);
                final char[] output2 = new char[outputLength];
                for (int i = repeat * 2 - 2; i >= 0; i--, i--) {
                    output2[i] = ch0;
                    output2[i + 1] = ch1;
                }
                return new String(output2);
            default:
                final StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder(outputLength);
                for (int i = 0; i < repeat; i++) {
                    buf.append(str);
                }
                return buf.toString();
        }
    }
<p>Repeat a String {@code repeat} times to form a
new String.</p>

<pre>
StringUtils.repeat(null, 2) = null
StringUtils.repeat("", 0)   = ""
StringUtils.repeat("", 2)   = ""
StringUtils.repeat("a", 3)  = "aaa"
StringUtils.repeat("ab", 2) = "abab"
StringUtils.repeat("a", -2) = ""
</pre>

@param str    the String to repeat, may be null
@param repeat number of times to repeat str, negative treated as zero
@return a new String consisting of the original String repeated,
{@code null} if null String input
tika-core/src/main/java/org/apache/tika/utils/StringUtils.java