Loop Statement-how to alternate on both sides

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to alternate the "*" symbol on both sides of the string "a" within my do..while loop. I've changed a few things around, but ultimately no dice- I'm stumped on how to get the desired result. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do? This is the code I came up with:

function padIt(str,n){
  
  var str="a", n= "*"
    
    do{
       str+=n;
      n++;
      
  } while(n<=5)
    
  
    return str;
  }
   

Answer 1

function padIt(str = "a", n = 0){
    var pad = "*";
    
    do {
        if (n%2 === 0) str+=pad;
        else str = pad + str;
        n++;
    } while(n<=5)
    
    return str;
}

Padding alternation starts at the end when n is odd. You can swap the operations on the if and else statement if you want it to behave the other way.

padIt() // Output: '***a***'
padIt('TESTING',1) // Output: '***TESTING**'
padIt('TESTING',2) // Output: '**TESTING**'
padIt('TESTING',3) // Output: '**TESTING*'
padIt('TESTING',4) // Output: '*TESTING*'
padIt('TESTING',5) // Output: '*TESTING'
padIt('TESTING',6) // Output: 'TESTING*'
padIt('TESTING',7) // Output: '*TESTING'
// ...