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Discover Ruby Programming Through Fun Examples

Solution: Printing a Diamond of Variable Size

Understand how to create a diamond shape in Ruby by taking user input to control size. Learn to implement loops and conditional logic, emphasizing problem-solving and translating patterns into scalable code.

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Courtney's version

puts "Enter the maximum number of rows (odd number):"
size = gets.chomp.to_i
space = " "
space_count = size / 2 + 1
size.times do |row|
    if row < (size / 2 + 1)
        space_count -= 1
        hash_count  = row * 2 + 1
        print space * space_count
    else
        space_count += 1
        hash_count = (size - 1 - row) * 2 + 1 
        print space * space_count
    end
    puts '#' * hash_count 
end
User defined diamond

Explanation

  • Line 2: We get input from the user and convert the string input to integer type using .to_i at the end of the gets.chomp.

  • Line 5: We iterate through size.times, which is similar to 8.times seen previously, with the row variable serving as the looping index.

Courtney says

When I first tried replacing diamond size with user input variable, I forgot to change the variables and that made the outcome completely different. It wasn’t hard to fix it though.

Know it first, then instruct computers

This an important aspect of programming. Once you figure out the pattern and logic ...