for loops (101)

[superjacent]

In learning Ruby I've dug out some old C++ exercises and one in particular which can be found here deals with a for loop. I'm basically converting the C++ code to Ruby code. I won't repeat the C++ code but the exercise is as follows:

Write a C++ program that asks the user to enter a number of rows to be printed. It should then display for the first row one asterisk preceded by periods. The second row should display two asterisks preceded by periods and so on until all the rows have been printed as entered by the user.

A sample run would be like so:

Enter number of rows: 5
....*
...**
..***
.****
*****

It seemed to take me ages to get my head around the structure of for loops and I ended up firstly using while loops just to get the program working. After that I eventually got this for loop version working.

# nestedforloop.rb
# 19 Apr, 2009.
print "Enter the number of rows: "
rows = gets.chomp!
rows = rows.to_i

for r in (1..rows)
  for c in (1..(rows - r))
    print "."
  end
  r == rows ? c = 1 : c += 1
  for c in (c..rows)
    print "*"
  end
  print "\n"
end

The above works but I'm thinking maybe there was a way I didn't need to use the r == rows ? c = 1 : c += 1 line, as that wasn't necessary under the C++ for loop/code. Should I stop thinking in terms of how traditional for loops are structured? I'm led to believe that for is in fact an alias (if that's the right word) of the each method. Any hints re - using the each method would be appreciated (as applied to the above).

[ReggieB]

for is an alias of each.

for a in b
  # do stuff
end

Is the equivalent of

b.each do |a|
  #do stuff
end

for .. in is in the original pickaxe book and can be read here:

http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/Program...ssions.html#UK

[superjacent]

Thanks Reggie. I transposed my for loop example to the each way of doing things and it wouldn't run, initially. The program kept stalling on the r == rows ? c = 1 : c += 1 line. Finally I determined it was a scoping issue for the c variable. Initializing the c variable prior to the looping solved the problem. Is probably easier showing the code in full.

print "Enter the number of rows: "
rows = gets.chomp!
rows = rows.to_i

c = 1 # had to initialize here re - scoping (could be any integer value)

(1..rows).each do |r|
  (1..(rows - r)).each do |c|
    print "."
  end

  r == rows ? c = 1 : c += 1  # if c not initilized above, is out of scope here.
  
  (c..rows).each do |c|
    print "*"
  end
  print "\n"
end

I think I prefer the for method, even if it is an alias of each.

[TomK32]

hehe, tricky one but I solved it by using (rows-r) instead of c:

for r in (1..rows)
  for c in (1..(rows - r))
    print "."
  end
  for c in ((rows - r)...rows)
    print "*"
  end
  print "\n"
end

[superjacent]

hehe, tricky one but I solved it by using (rows-r) instead of c:

for r in (1..rows)
  for c in (1..(rows - r))
    print "."
  end
  for c in ((rows - r)...rows)
    print "*"
  end
  print "\n"
end

Thanks, very clever. I admit it took me a little while to figure out why it wasn't printing an extra column and then I noticed the three dots.

[alexpooley]

Here's another possible solution and an example of the expressiveness of Ruby.

print "Enter the number of rows: "
rows = gets.strip.to_i

rows.times do |row|
  print '.' * (rows-row-1)
  print '*' * (row+1)
  puts ''
end

[superjacent]

Here's another possible solution and an example of the expressiveness of Ruby.

print "Enter the number of rows: "
rows = gets.strip.to_i

rows.times do |row|
  print '.' * (rows-row-1)
  print '*' * (row+1)
  puts ''
end

Thanks Alex, very clever. I've just spent the last 10 minutes going over the times method, learning that the count starts from zero and hence your rows-row-1 line. Also the print '.' * number is very useful.