Thread: easy question for some.. however

im suck.. I have an idea but i need a boot in the bum to get me going in the right direction.
here is the question any thoughts or ideas let me know.. im struggling to get my head round a particular bit.

Question4.
-----------
write a C program to produce the following output.

****
***
**
*

your program should contain 2 for loops and only one '*'.
-------------

i am thinking of a nested loop.. i think i would want my first one to be a line controll
and the second to print the stars.
I am going to have two or three variables as far as i can see.. but im unsure how to do this.. I dont want the answer i would like suggestions or tips to help me understand the problem.. my whole issue with programing is the problem solving part.. i need some practice. :S

thanks for any help offered.

You've already got the idea, what more do you want?

Have 3 variables, a counter for the outer loop, and a counter for the inner loop, and a 'stars' variable for the inner loop (how many stars to print, which decreases by 1 on each line -- each iteration of the outer loop).

The inner loop shouldn't go to 4. BTW %s is for strings, where stars is a char.

This is what I mean:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    int a = 0,
        b = 0,
        lines = 4;  /* initial # of lines */
    
    for(a = lines; a > 0; a--)          /* lines */
    {
        for(b = 0; b < a; b++)
        {
            putchar('*');
        }
        putchar('\n');
    }
    
    return 0;
}

There are a few ways to do this.

Originally Posted by webznz

oh thats it! nice work.. i completely overlooked putchar

Don't need to use putchar, you can use printf("*") or printf("%c", stars) for example.

["stars" is a misnomer, since the variable holds only ONE star!]

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Mats