CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phplogic
Rakesh Kohali
Rakesh Kohali

Reputation: 275

Unexpected result when printing a star pattern using php

I am trying to print a star pattern using php. I am trying to print this:

    *
   **
  ***
 ****   
*****

my code:

for($i=1; $i<=5; $i++){
    for($j=1; $j<=5; $j++){
        if($j>= (6-$i)){
            echo "*";
        } else {
            echo " ";
        }

    }
    echo "<br>";
}

by doing this I should get above pattern but instead, I am getting this:

*
**
***
****
*****

Anybody can tell me why this is happening? Thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 127

Answers (2)

mickmackusa
mickmackusa

Reputation: 48021

Honestly, I'd be using str_pad(). However if you need to use loops for your class assignment, then decrementing $j seems easier.

Demo: https://3v4l.org/9aY3S

for($i=1; $i<=5; ++$i){
    for($j=5; $j>0; --$j){
        echo $i < $j ? " " : "*";
    }
    echo "\n";
}

When rendering as html, you will need to use &nbsp; to show consecutive spaces and <br> for line breaks. Or if your font is one that gives a different character width for spaces and asterisks, then you can sync the width by changing fonts or use <span style="visibility:hidden">*</span> for your non-asterisks.

Take your snippet to phptester.net to see how it is rendered as html.

Upvotes: 0

Mike
Mike

Reputation: 24393

Extra whitespace characters in HTML documents have no effect on the rendered output. If you look at the output page source, you will see that you are getting the correct result. Here are your options:

1) Send a Content-Type: text/plain header:

header('Content-Type: text/plain');

Make sure to change your <br> tags to newline characters ("\n", "\r\n", or PHP_EOL)

2) Wrap what you have there with a <pre> tag

echo '<pre>';
for($i=1; $i<=5; $i++){
    for($j=1; $j<=5; $j++){
        if($j>= (6-$i)){
            echo "*";
        } else {
            echo " ";
        }

    }
    echo "<br>";
}
echo '</pre>';

3) Use non-breaking spaces:

for($i=1; $i<=5; $i++){
    for($j=1; $j<=5; $j++){
        if($j>= (6-$i)){
            echo "*";
        } else {
            echo "&nbsp;";
        }

    }
    echo "<br>";
}

On another note, here's a one-liner that will do the same thing as what you're trying to do without the additional for loop and if/else statements:

for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++) {
    echo str_pad(str_repeat('*', $i), 5, ' ', STR_PAD_LEFT) . PHP_EOL;
}

Try it on 3v4l.org.

Upvotes: 1

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