C - Attempting to add one more space than the previous line in a loop

Question

I want to add an additional space to the beginning of each new line. the current output is:

$****
 $***
  $**
   $*
    $
     Press any key to continue . . .

What I want is:

$****
 $***
  $**
   $*
    $
Press any key to continue . . .

I added the for-loop! it looks almost perfect except the "press any key to continue..." message is tabbed. How can this be fixed?

Code:

for(r=1; r<=5; r++) {
  printf("$");
  for(c=1; c<=5;c++) {
    if(6-r<=c) {
      printf(" ");
    } else {
      printf("*");
    }
  }
  printf("\n");
  n++;
  for (f=0;n>f;f++)
    {
        printf(" ");
    }
}

http://stackoverflow.com/a/276869/986924 has an example and helpful links. — Ben Graham, Oct 24 '12 at 01:55
Can you give us the code segment where you printf the "Press any key" statement? — davepmiller, Oct 24 '12 at 02:07
I'm using Visual studio and "running w/o debugging" after the code is executed in a command prompt window it says; "Press any key to continue . . .". My program doesn't say to do that. — CorySTG, Oct 24 '12 at 02:11
so you don't want it to say "Press any key to continue" at all? — davepmiller, Oct 24 '12 at 02:16
we haven't learned to have it not say that, so I'd rather it stay there. I just don't want it tabbed over like it is. I want it flush to the left-hand side of the screen. — CorySTG, Oct 24 '12 at 02:18
I just updated my question. It now reflects what I want. sorry for the misleading info. — CorySTG, Oct 24 '12 at 02:20
well, see [link](http://codepad.org/gicD3WyG) the solution is here, just go to the page and hit the submit button, the code will run and you can check the output. — NANDAGOPAL, Oct 24 '12 at 02:23

FrankieTheKneeMan · Answer 1 · 2012-10-24T02:10:21.227

1

In its simplest form: just print spaces, then the '$', then the asterisks.

int r, c;
for(r=0; r<5; r++) {
  for(c=0; c<r; c++){
    printf(" ");
  }
  printf("$");
  for(c=r+1; c<5;c++) {
      printf("*");
  }
  printf("\n");
  n++;//What is this here for?
}

You can pare that down with a great printf trick (already submitted by someone else, so I won't go into it here:

int r, c;
for(r=0; r<5; r++) {
  printf("%*s", r+1, "$");
  for(c=r+1; c<5;c++) {
      printf("*");
  }
  printf("\n");
  n++;//What is this here for?
}

But wait, there's more! using a period (.), you can force a string to truncate, so:

int r;
for(r=1; r<6; r++) {
  printf("%*s%.*s\n", r, "$", 5-r, "*****");
}

Bam! Got the whole thing down to one statement!

edited Oct 24 '12 at 02:10

answered Oct 24 '12 at 01:58

FrankieTheKneeMan

6,645
2
26
37

the n is there as a counter. It makes more sense because I partially solved my problem. Now the "Press any key" message is tabbed and I'd like it to be left-align. – CorySTG Oct 24 '12 at 02:06
@CorySTG Check out the new version of my answer. – FrankieTheKneeMan Oct 24 '12 at 02:12
Also, in the future I want to alter this so it allows the user to enter the number of rows to have this pattern continue. and since I haven't learned strings yet, I'd rather stay away from this unless it's stupid simple to understand. – CorySTG Oct 24 '12 at 02:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 24 '12 at 01:58

1

You can use the trick of variable left-padding when you write the $:

printf("%*s", r, "$");

The * in the string format field lets you specify a padding width.

answered Oct 24 '12 at 01:58

paddy

60,864
6
61
103

This won't print the asterisks, but it's a good step in the right direction. – FrankieTheKneeMan Oct 24 '12 at 02:00
I haven't learned anything about strings or how to use them in my class. I'm sure this is a good way to do it, but I have no clue what is actually going on or how to implement it. – CorySTG Oct 24 '12 at 02:15
Both of you... This was a replacement for the line where you print a single `$`. I didn't see it necessary to include the rest of the code that prints the `*`s because I didn't need to modify that: http://ideone.com/uftrQ2 – paddy Oct 24 '12 at 02:32

Dair · Answer 3 · 2012-10-24T02:09:59.077

Currently your n++; does nothing. To print(" ") n times you need to use something like a for loop. One way of doing this: Print the amount of spaces, Then print the amount of stars you need which should be 4 - n.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    int r;
    int c;
    int n = 0;
    for(r=1; r<=5; r++)
    {
        for (int i = 1; i<=n; i++) { //Print " " n number of times.
            printf(" ");
        }
        printf("$"); //Print dollar sign.
        for(c=0; c<(4-n);c++) //Print * 4-n times.
        {
            printf("*");
        }
        printf("\n");
        n++;

    }
}

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 24 '12 at 02:10

Well you got the answer in your question itself, "how to say printf(" "); 'n' times" the easiest way to say printf 'n' times is to run it 'n' times, just like how you asked the program to print '*' (6-r) times!

well here is a very simple code to help you get the output you wanted

#include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
    int r,c,n=0;

    for(r=1; r<=5; r++)
    {
        for(c=n;c>0;c--)
        {
            printf(" ");

        }
        printf("$");
        for(c=1; c<=5;c++)
        {
            if((6-r)<=c)
            {
                printf(" ");
            }
            else
            {
                printf("*");
            }
        }

        printf("\n");
        n++;

    }
}

If you want to check out the code just go to Codepad.org here you can run your code and see the output

Thank you and everyone else! You were all very helpful. – CorySTG Oct 24 '12 at 02:35 — CorySTG, Oct 24 '12 at 02:35

C - Attempting to add one more space than the previous line in a loop

4 Answers4