I STILL DON'T GET IT

[hazda]

I posted a question on how to create a triangle of asteriks and i was replied by "muzhogg".With the help he gave me i was only able to create a right angled triange of asteriks and here is the code:(please help me transform this code into an equilateral triangle)

[
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
for ( int y=0; y<=10; y++)
{
{
for ( int x=0; x<=y; x++)
cout << "*";
}
cout <<endl;
}
system("pause>nul");
}
]

[AzraelUK]

What you'd want to do is pad the asterik with space to the left. This might sound mean, but this would be better off in the Beginners forum.

#include <iostream>
#include <conio.h>
#define LINES 10

using namespace std;

typedef unsigned char byte;
// let us define single bytes - not really necessary in a small program like
// this, but it's a good practice.

int main()
{
	for (byte line = 0; line <= LINES; line++) {
		for (byte x = 0; x <= LINES - line; x++) cout << " ";
		for (byte x = 0; x <= (line * 2); x++) cout << "*";
		cout << endl;
	}
	getch();
}

Things you'll notice:

* Instead of using 10 throughout the code, I used #define to give the 'magic number' a proper name. This also means that instead of having to change it in every place it appears, you can just change it at the top.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_number_(programming)
* The line 'typedef unsigned char byte' lets you use individual bytes of memory - they can only go from 0 to 255, and they take up less memory than regular ints.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte
* Instead of system("pause >nul"); I included conio.h and used getch();. This is a much better, more cross-platform solution. Technically, the best way would be to leave out any way to make the program pause, and run it from the console.

[Aepos]

Good job explaining it, Azrael. As for hazda's code, however, shouldn't you have a

#include <cstdlib>
or
#include <stdlib>

before you can use the "system()" function, or is it included in the iostream header file?