How to Make In-Cell Bar Charts with REPT in Excel

REPT repeats a character any number of times — build star ratings, in-cell bar charts and rating gauges for a sales team.

You will learn to

• Repeat a character with REPT
• Scale a bar so one character equals a unit
• Combine two REPTs into a filled/empty gauge

How it works

=REPT(text, number_times) repeats text as many times as you ask: =REPT("*",4) returns "****". Point the count at a number in your sheet and you get an instant in-cell bar chart that grows and shrinks with the data — no chart object needed.

For large numbers, scale first: =REPT("|",ROUND(B2/1000,0)) draws one bar per thousand. REPT ignores decimals (it truncates), so rounding gives a fairer bar. Two REPTs side by side, such as =REPT("★",C2)&REPT("☆",5-C2), make a rating gauge with filled and empty stars.

=REPT("|",ROUND(B2/1000,0))