Diamond diplay

I'm having trouble getting this to work with only 2 cout statements. I have 4 at the moment. This is my first class in programming. Any help would be appreciated, to shine some light on my frustrated head.

Code:

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int const MAXSTARS = 9;
int i , j ;

class Diamond
{
private:

public:
	Diamond(){
		
		// top half of diamond
		for(i = 0 ; i < (MAXSTARS/2 + 1) ; i++)
		{
		for(j = i ; j < (MAXSTARS/2) ; j++)    // used to align, putting in spaces
			cout << " " ;

		for(j = 1 ; j <= (i*2 + 1) ; j++)  // puts in the actual astericks
			cout << "*" ;

		cout << endl ;
		}

	// bottom half of diamond
		for(i = (MAXSTARS/2) ; i > 0 ; i--)
		{
		for(j = (MAXSTARS/2 + 1) ; j > i ; j--)  // used to align, putting in spaces
			cout << " " ;

		for(j = (i*2 - 1) ; j > 0 ; j--) // puts in the actual astericks
			cout << "*" ;

		cout << endl ;
		}

	}



};
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
	Diamond DM;

	return 0;
}

you can just make a string, and everytime you want to add something to it instead of using cout

Hello,

Maybe you get a idea from this code which made a triangle.
Your Diamond is two triangles.

Code:

#include <string>

using namespace std ;


int main()
{


  // hoe groot moet de driehoek worden
  int height = 31 ;

  // Hoeveel rijen heeft de driehoek nodig

  int rijen = height - (height/2);

  for (int r = 0; r != rijen; ++r) {

		string::size_type c = 0;

		// invariant: we have written `c' characters so far in the current row
		while (c != height ) {

                // are we on the border?
				if (r==0 || c==r || c == height -r -1)
				    {
				       cout << "*";
                        c++ ;
				    }
				else
				    {
                      cout << ' ' ;
                      c++ ;
				    }
		}

		cout << endl;
	}

}

Roelof