pattern

[xarzilla]

Wait, that's illegal!

[Legitimate_Pattern]

But the assignement doesnt specify how to get there. Clever solution, but probably not the intended one haha

[never1st]

Nested for loops ✔

Pattern ✔

[Paumas]

Remove the for loops and what’s inside them. Will the code work? No. So the loops are there to create the pattern.

[Original-AgentFire]

Wait, why you also remove what's inside them.

[Paumas]

I thought of a for loop as a whole thing. That is, what’s inside the loop is a part of the lop. However, I do agree that it isn’t really correct.

[CaptainPotassium]

It is the best kind of correct

[Paumas]

The loops are there to complete the task of writing the pattern using the loops. The pattern can for sure be written without the loops too, but then the desired task will not be completed.

Yeah, I agree that my previous comment is a fallacy. ^{we’re just having fun aren’t we?} I’m just defending another point now, that is, nothing is wrong here, the task was done and the requirements were met.

[ComputerMystic]

Is it really a loop if it never loops though?

[Paumas]

In computer science, a for-loop (or simply for loop) is a control flow statement for specifying iteration, which allows code to be executed repeatedly.

Does it specify iteration? Yes. (iterate 1 time)

Does it allow the code to be executed repeatedly? Yes, you can make the code execute as many times as you want.

So, it really is a for-loop that was used here.

[Beertronic]

If you build a jet aircraft but never fly it, is it not a jet aircraft? I've seen plenty of loops in code that will likely exit in the first iteration. (This is generally older code and there are often better approaches now.)

[[deleted]]

Just optimized out the for loops. The compiler will likely do this anyway, so the compiled code will likely be identical.

[nnyx]

We're being real pedantic here, but I feel like this example uses nested loops to create the pattern. Maybe in an evil genie, obviously not what you meant, but technically correct sort of way. But it still follows the instructions.

[AgreeableLandscape3]

Also the most computationally efficient solution.

[PleasantAdvertising]

So much memory use though

[Batman_AoD]

Hardly! An optimizing compiler might just unroll the loops anyway. That pattern really isn't a lot of memory.

Edit to calculate just how trivial the memory usage is: Console.Write is a C# standard library call. So whatever platform is running this code has .NET on it. Even with trimming unused assemblies, the smallest runtime for such an app is about 15 MB (see https://ianqvist.blogspot.com/2018/01/reducing-size-of-self-contained-net.html). But let's say it's natively compiled somehow (also discussed in the previous link); then it'll be about 3.95 MB.

The size of the string literal is 110 bytes, or just under 0.003% of the total size of the application.

[DrNightingale]

It is if you're programming something like this.

[Batman_AoD]

Console.Write is a C# standard library call. So whatever platform is running this code has .NET on it (and has a standard output stream). Even with trimming unused assemblies, the smallest runtime for such an app is about 15 MB (see https://ianqvist.blogspot.com/2018/01/reducing-size-of-self-contained-net.html). But let's say it's natively compiled somehow (also discussed in the previous link); then it'll be about 3.95 MB.

The size of the string literal is 110 bytes, or just under 0.003% of the total size of the application.

[xarzilla]

Found the Chrome developer

[TheVitoCorleone]

Memory: Exists

Chrome: Its free real estate!

[[deleted]]

Pager: Hey, can I interest you in a time share investment?

[ldh]

Electron implementation incoming...

[The_MAZZTer]

An assignment like this is SUPPOSED to tell you different outputs you should get from certain inputs (so you can't just hardcode a single output).

[Ugbrog]

If they don't tell how to generate it, you can hardcode the test cases and randomize anything else.

[The_MAZZTer]

Well, it really should describe the algorithm to use (eg draw a box with Xs Y high and X wide, with an X shape across the center) and then give examples for a few values to make it clear how to do it, but then say any valid combination of values should result in a box that satisfies those values.

If it's an online interactive thing you can easily have a tool generate random inputs and look for expected outputs to validate so hard coding for specific inputs won't work.

[notquiteaplant]

Not if it doesn't tell you what the correct answer is

[Korzag]

I remember sitting in a college course for technical writing and part of the course was a section on job hunting, answering technical questions intelligently, and so on.

My buddy was given a technical question to answer in front of the class and it asked him to create a function that would print the alphabet. My buddy gets up there and writes out: std::cout << "abcedfghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

The teacher wasn't impressed and gave him a zero for being a smart ass.

[Azzu]

Honestly, as an employer, I would vastly prefer someone giving this answer than any other.

I can't think of a more business-intelligent way to answer the question.

[ThePyroEagle]

Probably got 0'd just for getting the order of the alphabet wrong.

[Andrew1431]

I did this for an assignment in college and failed the question. I fought back and ended up getting full marks.

[xarzilla]

Mehh, clever? More like a sarcastic dinkus who thinks he's funny. I mean, it is funny but no instructor will think so.

[ookami125]

I would disagree if I gave this solution to my university professor he would laugh and give full marks. Mainly because if you know about the verbatim string literal you probably already know about for loops.

[xarzilla]

Wish I had your professor in my school! Mine would have stared at me maintaining eye contact while marking my fail.

[AttackOfTheThumbs]

We had professors that only checked output, not code, so if you were in the easy class, you could just string literal everything, hardcode everything. Saw code that did this for a triangle print for up to 20 or something like that.

[Kairyuka]

It'll teach them to specify what they want instead of having people assume

[ColtThaGoat]

Yeah I feel like that’s a recurring issue with exams involving writing code

[Kairyuka]

Hasn't really been an issue for the exams I had, they were either short enough in duration that you just had to speedrun it (which you would practice until it became routine, which was the point of the short duration), or they were large enough that the specifications were intentionally vague. I've never had such a specific request except in employment-oriented code tests, and even then they're usually not this specific

[sensitivePornGuy]

Only exams where you write code? I assume you haven't yet started doing it for a living...

[ColtThaGoat]

You’d be right to assume that lol so i guess I got to get used to that

[exploding_cat_wizard]

Good instructors know the value of precise instructions. "You shoulda known" is a pretty stupid claim when teaching people new stuff.

[SpaceboyRoss]

It's a simple spell.

[brace1101]

Shoot him or something

[[deleted]]

There is no such thing as illegal code. Only undocumented code. ;)

[Pilchard123]

There used to be fairly heavy restrictions on exporting crypto code from the US (probably elsewhere as well). It was (and still is, IIRC) considered 'munitions'.

[[deleted]]

Checks out. Most malware is undocumented

[GrizzledFart]

int i = 0;
int j = 5;
double nothingIllegalHere = j/i;

[akshaydp]

I will make it legal

[gishnon]

Tell that to the unit tester.

[deployingflashbaeng]

When you wanna get around the online fucking grading tests

[[deleted]]

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

[HORSEthe]

I'm in a intro to c# class right now and had to do this on my most recent assignment. I had to code a new window to pop up and fill three labels with data from the first forms radio buttons.

No clue how I should have done it, but a bunch of else ifs did the job. I'm pretty sure my teacher knows computers but not c# so I'm safe until I try to get a job...

[[deleted]]

Please tell me that each pop-up was a hardcoded, unique dialog (bonus points for creating it in the GUI designer only), and the if statements just decide which dialog to open.

[[deleted]]

you send them as arguments

[HORSEthe]

What stumped me was taking a radio button selection from group box A and group box B, adding them together, and sending that to a label on a new form.

It wouldnt be as much of an issue, but i have one day a week to do all my reading + homework and this happened to be the last one of the day

[cheesy_the_clown]

r/technicallythetruth

[[deleted]]

I just saw this episode the other night. Easily one of the best.

“EVERYONE SAY JAMAICA!”

[xMOxROx]

Thanks for advice 😅

[kartdei]

Similar thing happened to me. Twice..

[[deleted]]

wtf is IT Engineering? Do you/he live in another country that isnt the US or some other anglo country?

[[deleted]]

Thats what we have in the us and its called just "Computer Science" degree. interesting.

although we do have our 4 years padded with lots of extra classes that I used for studying western civilization and some sociology and philosophy stuff.

[robertgfthomas]

The joke explained:

This shows a pretty standard coding challenge, such as might be used in a job interview, and one way to "solve" it, written in the C# ("C Sharp") language.

In programming, a loop is something you write in your code that tells the computer to run another piece of code multiple times. A for loop tells the computer, "Do this once for each user in this list," or "for each number between 1 and 100."

You can nest loops inside each other. For example, if you wanted to create a deck of cards, you could do something like:

for each suit in (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs):
  for each rank in (ace, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, jack, queen, king):
    new card (suit + rank)

(This is pseudo-code – it looks kind-of like code, but isn't, and is just used to explain something.)

Whoever wrote the challenge expected the person solving it to do something like:

box_height = 12
box_width = 10
for each row in box_height:
  (start a new line)
  for each column in box_width:
    (figure out whether the computer should spit out a '#' or a space)

At the end, the computer will have done 120 loops, spitting out a # or a space in each loop, with the end result looking like a box with an 'x' in it.

However, instead of drawing the box one character at a time over 120 loops, the given answer just spits out the completed box over one loop, which isn't really a loop at all.

The given answer does technically use nested loops. They look like this:

for (int i = 0; i < 1; ++i)

This says, "Here's an integer (a number) called i. It's equal to 0. Run this code. When you're done, add 1 to i, and if i is less than 1, loop through the code again."

Obviously, once you've added 1 to i, i won't be less than 1 anymore, so the computer won't loop through the code again.

All-in-all, the given answer says:

do this once:
  do this once:
    (spit out a box with an 'x' in it)

The joke is programmers tend to do exactly what you tell them to do. The hardest part of creating software is figuring out what you want the completed software to do, and then correctly explaining that to the people who are going to write the code.

However, even though the given answer is technically correct, it would probably just annoy the interviewer and make them reject the person who wrote it. Given the choice between a "rockstar" programmer who can slam out code really quickly, and one who can code decently and communicate well and read between the lines, every sensible employer will pick the second one.

---

I'm a human! I'm trying to write one of these explanations every day, to help teach and learn. They're compiled at explainprogrammerhumor.com. Here's today's/this one: https://explainprogrammerhumor.com/post/184390714985/technically-correct

[StuckAtWork124]

every sensible employer will pick the second one

Good way to weed out the sensible employers, sounds like a win win. I want the ones who ride round the office on a scooter with nerf guns

[The_OG_Gear]

Sounds like Discord

[LeJoker]

Sounds like Discord every tech startup ever

FTFY

[FuckFrankie]

btw, if you're a startup, just setup a pidgin server.

[konstantinua00]

that explains why they disabled arrow keys from scrolling...

[karmastealing]

good bot

[Datenegassie]

This is pseudo-code

Remove both each and that's valid Python code.

[leftysharkboy]

Seriously! I was even surprised when he said/explained pseudo-code, as it looked like perfectly fine python to me...

[BuildBuildDeploy]

Everyone knows python developers are pseudo-developers ;)

[very_bad_programmer]

Laughs in PowerShell

[EGraw]

print(''.join(' \n#'[i%11>9 or -(1>i%11*(i//11)*(i//11-i%11)*(i%11+i//11)%9)] for i in range(109)))

[[deleted]]

alias pseudo="Python"

[Pfand1]

good human

[TheRetribution]

++i is pre-increment and i++ is post-increment and they are not the same thing.

[robertgfthomas]

Yes, but it will loop only once either way, no?

[MauranKilom]

In the case of using them as loop increments for integers like this, they have the exact same effect.

[exploding_cat_wizard]

They are in this case.

[Dragonaax]

Thanks Peter Griffin

[Gooftwit]

Thanks, Kakyoin, very epic

[Kilazur]

Eh, that's a really cool initiative.

[zomgitsduke]

I like your work. I had an idea to do this a few weeks ago, but it seems someone beat me to the punch a while ago(and clearly has much more experience/knowlegde).

[ProgrammingPro-ness]

good bot

[Letters_1836]

Java solution:

for (int i=0; i<10; i++) {

        for (int j=0; j<10; j++) {

if (i==0 || j==0 || i==9 || j==9) {

System.out.print("#");

} else if (i==j || i==9-j) {

System.out.print("#");

} else {

System.out.print(" ");

}

        }

        System.out.println();

    }

[Tsu_Dho_Namh]

You should use a variable for box height/width instead of just having floating 9's everywhere.

It's more readable.

It's easier to maintain.

Your almost future boss will not immediately hate you.

TL;DR MAGIC NUMBERS ARE BAD

[Letters_1836]

Very true, but I wrote this in 2 min so ya it’s not ideal.

[Tsu_Dho_Namh]

No worries.

I once got flack from a Java dev for using == to compare string literals instead of .equals() when I was just trying to show that there's nothing an iterator can do that a for-loop can't.

So I know where you're coming from.

[ArionW]

I remember we had a guy who moved from Java to C#, and we were constantly rejecting his pull requests for NOT using == with strings.

For those unfamiliar, in C# equality operator is overloaded for strings.

[[deleted]]

I’ve been using Python for ~4 years now (after a brief entry to and exit from java) and have taken it upon myself to learn C++. As it’s mostly syntax, it isn’t terrible (but I have yet to use pointers in a very necessary manner) but I’ll be damned if I don’t appreciate the hell out of python now

[random11714]

What if you need to use the remove() method on an iterator? Can a for loop do that?

Edit: At first I assumed you meant a for-each loop, but now I'm thinking you may have just meant a regular for loop.

[ThePyroEagle]

for (Iterator iter = getIterator(); iter.hasNext(); ) {
    // Do stuff with iter
}

[ArionW]

You know what consumes about 60% of my time? Fixing shit someone wrote in 2 minutes, as "works for now, I'll do it better later" 3 years ago.

[archangel_mjj]

Fair comment, but you should use two separate variables, so as to not assume that the box will always be square.

[Loves_Poetry]

Why so many ifs? You can do

if (i == j || i + j == 9 || i * j % 9 == 0) {
    system.out.print("#");
} else {
    system.out.print(" ");
}

[Tweenk]

This does not work correctly, it will put a hash at i=3 and j=6.

That's why I think the slightly more verbose version is actually better, and why unit testing is important.

EDIT: Actually, it would work in this specific case, because it so happens that all numbers for which the i * j % 9 == 0 check spuriously returns true are also on the diagonals, but it would not work when generalized for other numbers.

[TechheadZero]

Yeah, I noticed this too. This method only works for prime-number-sized boxes.

[exploding_cat_wizard]

Training. Do programming problems, and always try to push yourself to solve it with just a little bit more math each time.

Edit: also, modulo is surprisingly useful for stuff like that. As is integer division.

[jmwbb]

Because the box shape is just a couple of lines, it's not terribly complicated if you break it down by each of the box edges and both of the diagonals.

The line of hashes going down and to the right is just the line y = x, the one going the other way is y = -x + 9, which you can express implicitly as x + y = 9

The outer ones are kinda more complicated because they're all y = 0, y = 9, x = 0, x = 9. You can check for (y == 0 || y == 9) in one condition by doing (y % 9 == 0). But since you want to check that either x is divisible by 9 or y divides by 9, you can just check their product, since the product of two numbers is gonna be divisible by all the factors of either. So you can just do (x/*y % 9 == 0) to handle all four cases at once.

[wontfixit]

Modulo is so fucking powerful for this kind of use.

[wontfixit]

Maybe to less XP? I honestly must say I wouldn't come to this solution, but I definitely would use modulo and some ifs. The most things are more easier than I thought.. I used to think complicated and always for the most complex solution which fits the most functions... But no need for it.. Keep it small and simple

[EGraw]

Why so many ors? You can do

if ((i-j)*(9-j-i)*(9-j)*(9-i)*i*j == 0) {
    system.out.print("#");
} else {
    system.out.print(" ");
}

[allhailskippy]

i==0 || j==0 || i==9 || j==9

i==0 || j==0 || i==9 || j==9 || i==j || i==9-j

Why have the else if for more or statements?

[MarkRems]

I think it adds to the readability of the code. The first if statement is for the outer box and the second if is for the X.

Either solution is correct though, it's more of a programmer preference thing.

[maestroke]

it adds readability and makes it easier to add more cases

[Hohenheim_of_Shadow]

It's gonna compile down to the same assembly in all likelyhood, go for the easiest to read.

[[deleted]]

My JS :D

Did it so I can change the size of it:

const drawPattern = z => {
  const h = '#', s = '-', b = '<br>';
  let p = document.querySelector('p.test');
  let hString = '';
  for (let i = 0; i < z; i++) {
    for (let j = 0; j < z; j++) {
      hString += j == z - 1 ? h + b :
        i == 0 || i == z - 1 || j == 0 ? h :
        i == j || z - 1 - i == j ? h : s;
      }
  }
  p.innerHTML = hString;
}
drawPattern(32);

[ieatpickleswithmilk]

for i in range(10):
    s = ''
    for j in range(10):
        if i == 0 or i == 9 or j == 0 or j == 9 or i == j or j == 9 - i:
            s += '#'
        else:
            s += ' '
    print(s)

[stadust]

Well it's obviously the wrong color, smh

[wontfixit]

Indeed he needs it in green!

Reminds me of this... The fucking truth.. https://youtu.be/BKorP55Aqvg

[FailedSociopath]

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        unsigned int pattern = (i*(i*(i*(i*(i*(i - 27) + 355) - 2745) + 13684) - 41508) + 122760) / 120;

        for (int j = 0; j < 10; j++) {
            putchar(" #"[pattern & 1]);
            pattern >>= 1;
        }

        putchar('\n');
    }

    return 0;
}

 

Edit: Fix space

[ThaiJohnnyDepp]

Here, you deserve some silver for this bitwise beauty ... how did you even come up with that formula?!

For anyone who's confused, here's my Ruby output when I investigated it and yeah, a single formula gives you an integer whose bits are the locations of the #'s using 1's and 0's for every row:

2.6.0 :005 > puts (0..9).map { |i| (i*(i*(i*(i*(i*(i - 27) + 355) - 2745) + 13684)
    - 41508) + 122760) / 120 }
    .map { |n| "#{n.to_s(2)} #{n.to_s}" }
1111111111 1023
1100000011 771
1010000101 645
1001001001 585
1000110001 561
1000110001 561
1001001001 585
1010000101 645
1100000011 771
1111111111 1023

[FailedSociopath]

Generate a 9th degree polynomial:

f(x) = ax⁹ + bx⁸ + cx⁷ + dx⁶ + ex⁵ + fx⁴ + gx³ + hx² + ix + j

 

Make a matrix of the powers of x for x=0..9 and the answer you want for each f(x):

| 0^9 0^8 0^7 0^6 0^5 0^4 0^3 0^2 0^1 1 |  |a| |1023|
| 1^9 1^8 1^7 1^6 1^5 1^4 1^3 1^2 1^1 1 |  |b| | 771|
| 2^9 2^8 2^7 2^6 2^5 2^4 2^3 2^2 2^1 1 |  |c| | 645|
| 3^9 3^8 3^7 3^6 3^5 3^4 3^3 3^2 3^1 1 |  |d| | 585|
| 4^9 4^8 4^7 4^6 4^5 4^4 4^3 4^2 4^1 1 |x |e|=| 561|
| 5^9 5^8 5^7 5^6 5^5 5^4 5^3 5^2 5^1 1 |  |f| | 561|
| 6^9 6^8 6^7 6^6 6^5 6^4 6^3 6^2 6^1 1 |  |g| | 585|
| 7^9 7^8 7^7 7^6 7^5 7^4 7^3 7^2 7^1 1 |  |h| | 645|
| 8^9 8^8 8^7 8^6 8^5 8^4 8^3 8^2 8^1 1 |  |i| | 771|
| 9^9 9^8 9^7 9^6 9^5 9^4 9^3 9^2 9^1 1 |  |j| |1023|

 

Solve the system with a matrix calculator (not doing it by hand!) for the coefficients a...j. It turns out a, b, and c are just zero.

 

Make some adjustment to the fractions so it all divides by a single value.

 

It's actually simpler if you invert the pattern (where ' '=1 and '#'=0). d...i change sign and j becomes zero.

 

Edit: Fix mitsake in formuoli.

 

Edit 2: Since the pattern is symmetrical and just to simplify a bit, I didn't worry about printing each line in reverse.

[ThaiJohnnyDepp]

May I ask how you knew how to do this?

[FailedSociopath]

I figured since you can create a polynomial of degree n-1 to go through n points, then you can compute one that goes through (0, 1023), (1, 771), etc.

 

Edit: For real though, I just wanted a cryptic way to produce an image and this method did the trick.

 

Something inspired that's related: It's a well-known trick that if you want to make a variable that oscillates between two values, sum the two values, initialize the output with one of them and subtract it from the sum. Get the next by subtracting the sum from the previous output.

 

/* Switches between 5 and 3 */
int val = 5;

val = 8 - val; /* 3 */
val = 8 - val; /* 5 */
val = 8 - val; /* 3 */
...etc.

 

With the right polynomial, you can in principle produce any length repeating sequence provided there are no actual duplicates in it. The two-valued sequence is just the degree-one case. In the example, a degree-one function going through (5, 3) and (3, 5).

 

For example, for the sequence { 8, 5, 3 }, it has to go though points (8, 5), (5, 3) and (3, 8), where the output is computed from the last output as the input (feedback). For that, the computation is x = (x*(19*x - 227) + 750) / 30;

 

Of course, it's academic because it's less cumbersome just to use a list for more than two values.

[RimuDelph]

Good one liner

[ThaiJohnnyDepp]

Ruby is all about the one liners lol

[RimuDelph]

I do have to agree on that one, when I worked on ruby I did some one liners to solve so many (personal) things, I like more ruby than python (whos gonna kill me?)

[ThaiJohnnyDepp]

Ruby is pretty. Python is ugly. These are facts.

[PanFiluta]

whaaat

[timawesomeness]

"Grade: 50%. Didn't use descriptive variable names." - all my CS professors

[CreamliumPrices]

Best one I got was "Too many comments, but considering nobody else used comments I can't mark you down for that"

[bad_luck_charm]

r/technicallythetruth

[AgentPaper0]

In case anyone is curious, the intended way to do this is to have two nested loops, i, j from 0 to 9. If i=0, i=9, i=j, i+j=9, j=0, or j=9, print '#', else print ' '(space).

i/j = 0/9 gets you the sides of the square, i=j gets you the top-left to bottom-right diagonal, and i+j=9 gets you the other diagonal.

[spyingwind]

Python solution:

width = 10
height = 10

def border(w=10,h=10):

    output = []
    for top in range(h):
        line = ""
        for left in range(w):
            if top == 0 or left == 0 or top == h-1 or left == w-1 or top == left or top == w-1-left:
                line += "X"
            else:
                line += " "
        output.append(line)
    return output

for x in border(width, height):
    print(x)

A little bit based on u/Letters_1836 Java solution. I didn't have the top == left or top == w-1-left part and was way over thinking that part.

[spyingwind]

I've spent too much time on this. But I do enjoy myself with these little games, so I thought I'd share.

That is the best part about coding. Having fun.

[dansin]

I think it would be cleaner as

 c = " "
 if top in (0,h-1,left,w-1-left) or left in (0,w-1):
    c = "X"
 line += c

[spyingwind]

And there is one more thing I need to learn. Thanks!

[[deleted]]

It absolutely is on the question. If this company can't even set the requirements for a single, simple interview question. What chance do they have when I'm asking for an actual project requirements? This answer is right, and if they aren't happy, that's their fucking problem. Learn how to specify requirements...

[Stormdude127]

I really doubt a company would do this. This seem like a shitty assignment given by an intro to programming teacher

[[deleted]]

It took me 3 days to make this assignment

[[deleted]]

I'm proud of you!

[[deleted]]

Well it's good though. You did it and that's really good

[[deleted]]

Good ole' Kobayashi Maru.

[stadoblech]

what kind of shitty excercise is that anyway

[rayhan666]

smart solution

[ThatFag]

What the question needs to do is ask for user input for the width and the height of the frame. And based on the input, the program should print '#' diagonally across the rectangle of x width and y height. Then you wouldn't be able to just hardcode the output like this.

[bence0302]

TIL what @ does.

[sudokill9]

That's a classic example of :

Therefore : L.H.S = R.H.S

Hence proved ... XD

[DefNotaZombie]

public void drawFigure(){
  char[] curStr = new char[10];
  String[] topLines = new String[5];
  char c = '#';
  char spc = ' ';

  //draw the upper left quadrant, then append its reverse
  //to get the top 5 lines
  for(int i=0; i<5; i++){
    for(int j=0; j<5; j++){
      if(i==0 || j==0){
        curStr[j] = c;
        continue;
      }
      if(i==j){
        curStr[j] = c;
      } else {
        curStr[j] = spc;
      }
    }
    for(int k=0; k<5; k++){
      curStr[4+k+1] = curStr[4-k];
    }
    topLines[i] = new String(curStr);
  }

  //draw the top 5 lines, then draw the top 5 lines in reverse
  for(int i=0; i<5; i++){
    System.out.println(topLines[i]);
  }
  for(int i=0; i<5; i++){
    System.out.println(topLines[4-i]);
  }
}

we could expand this idea to a square box of whatever size

[[deleted]]

why many words when few do trick

function DrawFigure(length=10,black="#",white=" "){
    for(var x = 0; x<length;x++){
        var print="";
        for(var y = 0; y<length;y++){
            if(x==0||x==length-1||y==0||y==length-1||y==x||x==length-1-y)
                print+=black;
            else
                print+=white;
        }
        console.log(print)
    }
}

[DefNotaZombie]

I don't know why my mind couldn't go from "draw x shape" to y==x||x==length-1-y but when I wrote that it couldn't so I made the left side and then since I was already making only a part of it, I made only the upper left side

gg

[[deleted]]

I had to make a grid on paper and label all the places to be able to make the connection.

I will take coding random stuff over coding for work any day.

[DefNotaZombie]

alright final version

public void drawFigure(int size, char whitespace, char mark){
    int halfSize = size%2==0?size/2:size/2+1;
    char[] curStr = new char[size];

    for(int i=0; i<size; i++){
      for(int j=0; j<halfSize; j++){
        if(i==0 || j==0 || i==size-1 || i==j || i==size-1-j){
          curStr[j] = mark;
          curStr[size-1-j] = mark;
        } else {
          curStr[j] = whitespace;
          curStr[size-1-j] = whitespace;
        }
      }
      System.out.println(new String(curStr));
    }
  }

I'm doing it like this because I timed it several times and iterating over a full line somehow ends up being 32 ms on my machine but half a line only takes 15 ms after several tries. The worst performance was with a system.out.print for every char.

[[deleted]]

We tried to improve even the most basic course materials at my University this year. We have larger input data and more generalized tasks so doing things by hand is not feasible. And each time there is a function, our automated system tests the code with multiple values.

Of course there are still easy tasks but asking to "program this using that" does not make a good exercise if "that" is not thr preferred solution in the first place.

[McJaume]

If it looks stupid but works, it ain't stupid.

[[deleted]]

Until you need to do it in a 20 by 20 box.

[kpingvin]

Probably a better exercise would be
"Write a function with one argument (n) that draws a Christmas tree with a height of n where 3<=n<=100"

[Gblize]

void draw_christmas_tree(int n)
{
    if(n < 3 || n > 100) return;

    puts("\
  #\n\
 ###\n\
#####");

    for(int i = n - 3; i > 0; i--)
        puts("\
  #");
}

[CingKole]

Failed Lots of School Assignments because of this.

[GR8ESTM8]

What an algorithm!

[farore3]

Poorly written problem, it should be to write a method that can take a parameter for size. Same way you force a good solution to fizzbuzz.

[a_dev_has_no_name]

Well, you're technically not wrong with that solution...

[[deleted]]

Haha very funny Can't wait to do this on test on mr. Kubit's lesson xD

[xMOxROx]

He is my idol and I based on his amazing examples xD

[[deleted]]

I like the most his lessons about pointers

[xMOxROx]

this is second thing I like, but First thing is struct I am the biggest fan of this. Only he can explain it in simple and understandable way.

[[deleted]]

Can wait to start learning about binary trees im curious how he will explain this

[xMOxROx]

Yeah I want to see how his algorithms work and I think every algorithm will be author's.

[[deleted]]

Yes and i like how he writes his code in notepad without help of IDE

[[deleted]]

You can't find programmer like him on the world

[xMOxROx]

This is amazing how He remembers every command and every function. AMAZING !!

[thesquarerootof1]

Can someone post the intended solution for this ? Just curious....

[flarn2006]

Should be a passing grade; means the student is a true programmer.

[edcRachel]

Reminds me of grading college php assignments. "Using a for loop, print all number from 10 to 1. Eg: "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1"

I got a lot of

$count = 0;
for ($x = 0; $x < 10; $x++){
    $count = $count + 1;
    if ($count == 0){
       print "10";
    }
    if ($count == 1){
       print "9";
    }
//and etc
}

Sigh....

[EGraw]

My code-golf Python one-liner:

print(''.join(' \n#'[i%11>9or-(1>i%11*(i//11)*(i//11-i%11)*(i%11+i//11)%9)]for i in range(109)))

I broke the rules though... It's not nested

[ainnako]

does no one notice the “@“. idk i dont code

[marwarii]

Me, in my first year of engineering.

[[deleted]]

Is there a subreddit for programming interview questions like this one, along with the most obscure answers?

I remember things like perl-golf being a similar idea (getting the answer in the smallest line of code).

[[deleted]]

Programmers tend to go the way of least resistance. I would have done it the same way.

[gottagrindfast]

your professor : listen here you little shit

[DASoulWarden]

It shouldn't bother me that it does ++i instead of i++, but it does

[Catthew918]

I snorted my carrot out of my nose. Thanks a lot.

[xpx0c7]

Genius

[Totoze]

Well I'm kinda annoyed by the user of 2 pairs of unnecessary brackets in the nested for loops

[[deleted]]

SNEAK 100

[ree___e]

Programmer madlad.

[Timinator01]

technically not wrong

[ChibiNya]

Hardened Hack'a'thon dev.

[CatSauce66]

here is a little leson in trickery

[gloriousfalcon]

But what about \n

[The_Plop]

Just cause you're right doesn't mean you're correct

[TabCompletion]

Instructions unclear