I need a hint on how to do this.

I assume you meant this?

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

If so, then the first point is that the first loop would loop 9 times for each row (because the length of the bottom row is 9).

It is true that you can do it using one cout for the a ' ' and one for a '*'. However, you will need to know the width of the console window. If you do not know the width of the console window, then you will also need a cout for a new line (cout << endl).

I spent a couple of minutes solving this and would give the following pointers.

1) Set an integer variable at the start of your main function (before any loop has occurred) that will record the longest row length (the maximum number of stars in a row, which in the case you showed would be 9). I'll call this variable longestRowLength.

2) Set another integer variable at the start of your main function (before any loops) that records the number of rows (i.e. the number the first loop should count to). The number of rows can be calculated as follows, numberOfRows = (longestRowLength/2)+1.

3) Create your first loop which will be the outer loop and will count from the number of rows down to 0 - this is a decrement loop.

for (int i= numberOfRows; i--;)
{
...
}

The first thing to do inside this loop is declare two integer variables, the first one is the number of stars the current row contains, and the other is the number of spaces in the row which need to be printed first. These can be calculated as follows

int numberOfStars = longestRowLength - i*2;
int numberOfSpaces = (longestRowLength - numberOfStars)/2;

Now all you need to do is create two consecutive loops within the outer loop, but after the above variable declarations. The first loop, loops over the number of spaces (this loop contains std::cout << ' '; ). The second loop, loops over the number of stars (this loop contains std::cout << '*'; ). The last thing that you need to do is add a cout statement for a new line just before the closing curly brace of the outer loop (std::cout << std::endl; ).

The above is possibly more than a pointer, it's the solution in words, but at least you still need to code it. :) I hope this helps.

i dont understand

oh ok just wondering because thats what he just learned in class and i thought we would have to apply setw to it

nvm found the error

a *
a ***

a *****

a*******

a *********

there i hope its right this time

finally thats what its suppose to look like sry i couldnt get it to come out right in the other posts

linux3[45]% more temp.cpp

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main( int argc, char** argv )
{
for( int i = 0; i < 10; ++i )
{
if( i % 2 ) // Only print odd lines
{
// Print the *'s
for( int j = 0; j < i; ++j )
cout << "*";

// Print the ' ''s (in case you need to link triangles in the future.)
for( int x = 0; x < ( 10 - i ); ++x )
cout << " ";

cout << endl;
}
}

return 0;
}

linux3[46]% g++ -Wall temp.cpp -o temp
linux3[47]% temp
*
***
*****
*******
*********
linux3[48]%

that still doesnt work... it doesnt make this
xxxxxxx*xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxx***xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxx*****

*******xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxx*********

ive tried modifying the loops and it still gives me
*
***
*****
*******
*********