Printing An Hourglass Pattern Of Stars

Introduction

Creating patterns with stars is a common exercise in programming. In this article, we will focus on printing an hourglass pattern of stars using java. We will discuss the understanding of the pattern, the approach to constructing it, and provide a step-by-step solution with sample code.

Understanding the Hourglass Pattern of Stars

An hourglass pattern is a symmetric pattern that resembles the shape of an hourglass. It consists of rows of stars, gradually increasing and then decreasing in number, with a middle row containing the maximum number of stars.

Approach

To print an hourglass pattern of stars, we can follow the following approach:

1. Determine the number of rows in the pattern based on the desired size.

2. Use nested loops to iterate through the rows and columns.

3. Print the desired number of spaces followed by stars in each row, aligning them to the center.

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Input the desired number of rows for the hourglass pattern.

2. Use a loop to iterate through each row from 1 to the desired number of rows: 

a. Use another loop to print the spaces before the stars. 

b. Print the desired number of spaces. 

c. Use another loop to print the stars. 

d. Print a star for each column up to the current row number, followed by another star for the next column.

3. After printing the upper half of the hourglass, repeat the same process for the lower half by reversing the loop range.

4. After printing all the rows, the hourglass pattern will be displayed.

Code

Here's an example implementation for printing an hourglass pattern of stars: