C Program to Print Hollow Square Star Pattern

Here is a C program to print outline or boundary of a square pattern by star character using loop. For a hollow square star pattern of side 5 stars. Program's output should be:

C program hollow square star pattern

Printing hollow square star patterns is a common programming exercise that helps beginners understand loops, conditional statements, and basic arithmetic operations in C.

Required Knowledge

Algorithm to print hollow square star pattern using loop
The algorithm of this pattern is similar to square star pattern except here we have to print stars of first and last rows and columns. At non-boundary position, we will only print a space character.
  • Take the number of stars in each side of square as input from user using scanf function. Let it be N.
  • We will use two for loops to print square star pattern.
    • Outer for loop will iterate N times. In one iteration, it will print one row of pattern.
    • Inside inner for loop, we will add a if statement check to find the boundary positions of the pattern and print star (*) accordingly.

Here is the matrix representation of the hollow square star pattern. The row numbers are represented by i whereas column numbers are represented by j.

C program hollow square star pattern

C program to print hollow square star pattern

#include<stdio.h>

int main(){
    int side, i, j;
    
    printf("Enter side of square\n");
    scanf("%d", &side);
    
    /* Row iterator for loop */
    for(i = 0; i < side; i++){
     /* Column iterator for loop */
        for(j = 0; j < side; j++){
            /* Check if currely position is a boundary position */
            if(i==0 || i==side-1 || j==0 || j==side-1)
                printf("*");
            else 
                printf(" ");
        }
        printf("\n");
    }
    return 0;
}
Output
Enter side of square
5
*****
*   *
*   *
*   *
*****

Importance of Practicing Hollow Square Star Pattern Printing Programs for Beginners

  • Understanding Nested Loops and Conditional Statements : This program helps people who are just starting out understand nested loops and conditional statements, which are very important for controlling how a program runs.

  • Boosting Confidence : Writing and running this program successfully can boost a beginner's confidence by showing that they can use programming ideas in the real world.

  • Learning Basic Programming Ideas : This program teaches basic programming ideas like loops, conditional statements, and manipulating variables, which are the building blocks of programming.

Conclusion

Finally, the Hollow Square Star Pattern Printing Program in C is a good practice for beginners to help them learn more about loops, solve problems, find bugs, and be more creative in their programming. Beginners should use this program to get a feel for basic programming ideas and boost their confidence in their programming skills. Beginners can write this program well and build a strong base for their programming journey by following the tips given.


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