Thread: Removing the middle cell

Originally Posted by Shyamz1

Hi guys, i have created a program that outputs and prints a rectangle when given the width and height as command line arguments. I've got it to add 1 row and column if the number of rows or columns is even, so that the rectangle as a middle cell. I want to take this cell out (i.e. replace with spaces).

How would i get it to do this? Would i need to put in a loop or as an if statement.

public class PrintHoledRectangle
{
  public static void main(String [] args)
  {
    int width = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
    int height = Integer.parseInt(args[1]);
    int count = width * height;
    int middleCell = ((width*height)/2)+ 1;
 
   if ((count % 2) == 0 && height == width)
    {
      width+=1;
      height+=1;
    }
    else if ((count % 2) == 0 && (width % 2) == 0 && (height % 2) !=0)
      width+=1;
    else if ((count % 2) == 0 && (height % 2) == 0 && (width % 2) !=0)
      height+=1;
    else if ((count % 2) == 0 && (height % 2) == 0 && (width % 2) == 0)
    {
      height+=1;
      width+=1;
    }
 
    for (int row = 1; row <= height; row++)
    {
      for (int column = 1; column <= width; column++)
        System.out.print("[_]");
 
 
      System.out.println();
    } // for
 
    for (int i = 1; i < middleCell; i++)
    {
      i = middleCell;
      System.out.print("   ");
 
    }
 
 
  } // main
} // class PrintHoledRectangle

Kind Regards

Shyam

I also tried an if statement inside the loop:

for (int i=0;i<middleCell;i++)
{
  if i==middleCell
   system.out.println("  ");

didnt work though

Hmmmm....if you want to take it out, would the width and height be 1 less then?

Do the width and height include spaces?

If not, you should be decrementing it by 1, not incrementing it.

You don't have a statement, probably an else would be best, to handle if count%2 !=0.

Also, what does your output look like so far?

Are you trying to make a grid of rectangles?

Also, your for loop:

    for (int row = 1; row <= height; row++)
    {
      for (int column = 1; column <= width; column++)
        System.out.print("[_]");
 
 
      System.out.println();
    } // for

will only print one rectangle per line.

middle cell is an int. Are you trying to make it a rectangle?

Ahhhh....I think I'm starting to see what's going on.

The thing is, if you have an even number of rectangles, you're going to have 2 middle cells.

That's why you're adding one to the number of rows and/or columns, to make it so there's only 1 middle cell.

That will make it even again.

A better way would be to make a 2D array

// first make sure that you've already added the extra cell 
String[][] array = new String[rows][columns];
 
for (int rows = 0; rows < array.length; rows++)
{
for (int columns =0; columns < array[rows].length; columns++)
 
array[rows][columns] ="[_]";
}
 
// not sure if you need a second pair of brackets after second for statement.  You'll have to check on that one.

Say for 5 rows and 5 columns

0 1 2 3 4
0 1 2 3 4
0 1 2 3 4
0 1 2 3 4
0 1 2 3 4

for a count of n * m where n and m are both odd, set the

((n*m)/2) + 1 element to " ";