Thread: Can't get a specifically ordered list to print properly

I'm writing a program where the user inputs a number of rows, and that many rows of @ symbols are printed, where the first row has the same number of columns as rows, and each next row decrements the number of columns by 1. It prints out a totally wrong output and whatever I try it won't print the right thing- currently when I input 4 it prints out 5 @ symbols on the first row, and then 3 on all the other rows. Here is the code:

Code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ( ) {
    int rows;
    cout << "How many rows? ";
    cin >> rows;
    int columns = rows;
    cout << endl;
    for( int r = 0; r < rows; r++ )
    {
         for( int c = 0; c < columns; c++) { 
            cout << "@";
            }
         for(int useless = 0; useless < columns; columns--) {
                 if(columns = rows - 1) {
                            useless = 1000;
                            }
                 cout << "@";
                 cout << endl;
                    }
        cout << endl;
    }
}

I hope someone can help!

Thank you for your help. I still don't understand this part of your psuedocode explanation:
for i from 0 until nRows exclusive:
Here is what I currently have (The comments of the content of the 3rd for loop are intentional):

Code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ( ) {
    int rows;
    cout << "How many rows? ";
    cin >> rows;
    int columns = rows;
    cout << endl;
    for( int r = 0; r < rows; r++ )
    {
         for( int c = 1; c < columns; c++) { 
            cout << "@";
            }
         for(int useless = 1; useless < columns; columns--) {
             //    if(columns = rows - 1) {
               //             useless = 1000;
                 //           }
                            
             //   cout << "@";
               // cout << endl;
                    }
         
         cout << "@";
         cout << endl;           
    }
}

Also, useless does nothing. I don't really remember why I put it in there in the first place, but I prefer commenting out unused code to removing it.