Transform a number in symbols in a MySql SELECT I want to know if is possible to transform a numeric return (INT column) in a sequence of symbols direct in a MySQL SELECT.

My table is like below:

| ID        | category |
|-----------|----------|
| product_1 | 5        |
| product_2 | 4        |
| product_3 | 3        |


I want a SQL SELECT like SELECT ID, some_mysql_fancy_func(category,'*') AS symbol_category FROM MyTable that could returns the following:

| ID        | symbol_category |
|-----------|-----------------|
| product_1 | *****           |
| product_2 | ****            |
| product_3 | ***             |


Is it possible?

I can do it programmatically, but this is not my intention, I want some built-in (or even custom) function that can achieve this result direct in the SELECT statement.
SELECT ID,
       REPEAT('*', IFNULL(category, 0)) AS SymbolCategory
    FROM ...


This assumes you want NULL to be equivalent to 0.