Question

I’m writing a program where I need to make a hollow box of asterixs’. The program works fine when I enter dimensions for a square but it doesn’t work when I enter dimensions for a rectangle.

import java.util.Scanner;
public class asterix {
    public static void main(String[] args) { 

    Scanner input = new Scanner( System.in );

 int stars; // length of side
 int column; // width of box
 int row = 1;

// prompt user to enter the length and width of box

 System.out.print("Enter the length: ");
 stars = input.nextInt();

 System.out.print("Enter the width: ");
 column = input.nextInt();



 while ( row <= stars ) {
     column = 1;

 // and for as many columns as rows 
while ( column <= stars ) {

    if ( row == 1)
    System.out.print( "*" );

    else if ( row == stars )
    System.out.print( "*" );

    else if ( column == 1 )
    System.out.print( "*" );

    else if ( column == stars )
    System.out.print( "*" );

    else
    System.out.print( " " );

column++; } // end inner while loop

System.out.println();
 row++;


      } // end output
    } // end of main
} // end of Stars

The ideal output I would want is as follows:

Say its 3 by 3:

   ***
   * *
   ***

and say its 4 by 3:

   ****
   *  * 
   ****

Answer 1

You need to modify the following lines.

System.out.print("Enter the width: ");
int numberOfColumns = input.nextInt();

and

while ( column <= numberOfColumns )

You compare both loops to the number of lines, and therefore get a square. You should use the number of columns in your inner-loop.

I’m sure it’s just a slip-up, you would have caught it.