Spiral Hourglass of Stars

This program prints an hourglass filled with stars in spiral order.

Problem Statement

Write a Java program that prints an hourglass of stars arranged in spiral order with 7 rows.

Source Code

1 public class SpiralHourglassStars {
2 public static void main(String[] args) {
3 int n = 7;
4 char[][] arr = new char[n][n];
5 int top=0, left=0, bottom=n-1, right=n-1;
6 while(top<=bottom && left<=right) {
7 for(int i=left; i<=right; i++) arr[top][i]='*';
8 top++;
9 for(int i=top; i<=bottom; i++) arr[i][right]='*';
10 right--;
11 for(int i=right; i>=left; i--) arr[bottom][i]='*';
12 bottom--;
13 for(int i=bottom; i>=top; i--) arr[i][left]='*';
14 left++;
15 }
16 for(int i=0; i<n; i++) {
17 for(int j=0; j<n; j++) {
18 if(i<=j && i+j>=n-1) System.out.print(arr[i][j] + " ");
19 else System.out.print(" ");
20 }
21 System.out.println();
22 }
23 }
24 }

Program Output

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

Explanation

A full square spiral outline of stars is generated, then the hourglass printing condition selects only relevant cells to display, revealing an hourglass-shaped section of the star spiral.

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