When we want to create a star rating in Excel, there is at least one possible solution.
We want to use stars from the Unichars, Unicode. We just need to use the UNICHAR function and a proper unicode (Fig. 1).
In older versions of Excel, copying those stars from the Internet should also work. We just have to have the signs we want to repeat. As we can see, we already have number rating. The biggest number is five, and the lowest is zero and there is a proper number of stars next to them. Let’s delete them however, and start creating a proper formula from the beginning. We start with the REPT function. We write G4 because our text string is there, then press the F4 key to lock it. When we want to add the number of times we want to repeat, we write C2, which is in the Rating column. Then, we close the formula (Fig. 2).
=REPT($G$4,C2)
We can copy it down and we have our black stars (Fig. 3).
However, we assumed that we always want to have five stars. It means that if the rating is lower than five, we have to add some white stars. In such a case, we just have to combine one REPT function with another REPT function using an ampersand. In the second REPT function, we have to write G5 and press the F4 key to lock it. In the place on the number of repeats, we have to write five minus C2 - a cell from the Rating column.
=REPT($G$4,C2) &REPT($G$5,5-C2)
When we tell the REPT function to repeat zero times, it won’t repeat anything, i.e. it will return an empty text string. In the case of a 5‑star rating, we have five stars. However, then it comes to a cell with zero, the REPT function treats it the same as an empty cell in most situations (Fig. 5).
