## Copyright (C) 1996 Kurt Hornik
##
## This file is part of Octave.
##
## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
## any later version.
##
## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
## General Public License for more details.
##
## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
## Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
## 02111-1307, USA.

## usage:  blanks (n)
##
## Returns a string of n blanks.

## Author: Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at>
## Adapted-By: jwe

function s = blanks (n)

  if (nargin != 1)
    usage ("blanks (n)");
  endif

  if (is_scalar (n) && n == round (n) && (treat_neg_dim_as_zero || n >= 0))
    s = setstr (ones (1, n) * toascii (" "));
  else
    error ("blanks: n must be a non-negative integer");
  endif

endfunction