I need help to writing a program that prints out shape that takes number of rows from user

Question

The shape should look like this: shape

For example, this figure has 10 lines. And the shape should continue with this pattern.

Here is my code so far:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    int rows, a, b, c, d;
    cout << "Enter the number of the rows: ";
    cin >> rows;
    for (a = 1; a <= rows; a++) {
        for (b = 1; b <= a; b = a + 4) {
            cout << "   ******" << endl;
        }
        for (c = 2; c <= rows; c += 2) {
            cout << " **********" << endl;
        }
        for (d = 3; d <= rows; d += 4) {
            cout << "************" << endl;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

I'm having trouble getting it back in order. For example, when I enter the value 5, each row repeats 5 times, but I want the number of rows to be 5.

Answer 1

Here is a solution:

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>


int main( )
{
    std::cout << "Enter the number of the rows: ";
    std::size_t rowCount { };
    std::cin >> rowCount;

    constexpr std::size_t initialAsteriskCount { 6 };
    std::size_t asteriskCount { initialAsteriskCount };
    bool isIncreasing { };
    int fieldWidth { initialAsteriskCount + 3 };

    for ( std::size_t row = 0; row < rowCount; ++row )
    {
        std::cout << std::right << std::setw( fieldWidth ) << std::setfill(' ')
                  << std::string( asteriskCount, '*' ) << '\n';

        switch ( asteriskCount )
        {
            break; case 6:
                isIncreasing = true;
                asteriskCount += 4;
                fieldWidth = 11;
            break; case 10:
                asteriskCount += ( isIncreasing ) ? 2 : -4;
                fieldWidth = ( isIncreasing ) ? 12 : 9;
            break; case 12:
                isIncreasing = false;
                asteriskCount -= 2;
                fieldWidth = 11;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

This can probably be simplified a bit more. But it's working properly.

Also, note that the syntax of the switch statement might seem a bit strange at first sight. But it's the new and safer way of writing a switch block and recommended by experts.