Thread: Can someone help me reverse the iteration of this loop?

I'm writing a program to print an ASCII image using nested for loops.
The output is a rocket ship that looks like this.

/**\
//**\\
///**\\\
////**\\\\
/////**\\\\\
+=*=*=*=*=*=*+
|../\..../\..|
|./\/\../\/\.|
|/\/\/\/\/\/\|
|\/\/\/\/\/\/|
|.\/\/..\/\/.|
|..\/....\/..|
+=*=*=*=*=*=*+
|\/\/\/\/\/\/|
|.\/\/..\/\/.|
|..\/....\/..|
|../\..../\..|
|./\/\../\/\.|
|/\/\/\/\/\/\|
+=*=*=*=*=*=*+
/**\
//**\\
///**\\\
////**\\\\
/////**\\\\\

I'm having problems with the mid section of the rocket, specifically the bottom part of the mid section:
|../\..../\..|
|./\/\../\/\.|
|/\/\/\/\/\/\|
I'm having difficulty writing the for loop to correctly print the dots. You're supposed to incorporate a constant which allows you to adjust the size of the overall figure. The loop doesn't work when I adjust the size, only when the value of HEIGHT is 3.
The loop, however, for some reason works with the top part of the mid section.

This is the for loop for the top section.
for (int dots = 1; dots <= -1 * line + 1 * HEIGHT; dots++) {
System.out.print(".");
}
This is the for loop for the bottom section.
for (int dots = -1 * line + 1 * HEIGHT; dots <= 1; dots++) {
System.out.print(".");
}
Usually reversing the iteration of the loop just requires flipping the conditions, right? But it didn't work this time for some reason. Could someone explain to me why this doesn't work? I can post the code to my entire program if it helps for compiling.

Welcome to the forum! Please read this topic to learn how to post code in code or highlight tags and other useful info for new members.

Please post your code correctly using code or highlight tags per the above link.

Code tags will also preserve the formatting of ASCII art.

What I think you need it this:

- Provide a constant like defaultAmmoutOfCharactersOnLine;
- Read next line.
- Calculate ammountOfCharacters in line (rocket/figure)
- defaultAmmoutOfCharactersOnLine - ammountOfCharacters (substraction)
-- You now have the ammount of dots you need to display, dotCharsNeeded
-- Devide dotCharsNeeded by 2.
-- Before printing out line, print dotsCharsNeeded ammount of dots
-- Print out line (of rocket/figure).
-- Print out other half of dots, dotsCharsNeeded.

So your first line:

/**\

This line has 4 characters (ammountOfCharacters = 4). The max is the imaginary value of 12 (defaultAmmountOfCharacters =12)
Substract 4 from 12. (dotCharsNeeded = 8). Devide this value by 2 (=4), print out 4 dots before /**\ and 4 dots afterwards.

..../**\....

I'm having trouble with the height thing though. I beleive it's unessecary since you're just gonna print out per line anyway.