Asterisk art in python

Question

I would like to produce this picture in python!

         *
        **
       ***
      ****
     *****
    ******
   *******
  ********
 *********
**********

I entered this:

x=1
while x<10:
 print '%10s'    %'*'*x
 x=x+1

Which sadly seems to produce something composed of the right number of dots as the picture above, but each of those dot asterisks are separated by spaced apart from one another, rather than justified right as a whole.

Anybody have a clever mind on how I might achieve what I want?

what about Obelix?

Ruslan
– Ruslan

2011-09-05 12:52:13 +00:00
Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 12:52 — Ruslan
– Ruslan, Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 12:52
3 edits and none have corrected Asterix->Asterisk =)

Ruslan
– Ruslan

2011-09-05 12:53:17 +00:00
Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 12:53 — Ruslan
– Ruslan, Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 12:53

user1114 · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-05 13:11:30Z

13

 '%10s'    %'*'*x

is being parsed as

('%10s' % '*') * x

because the % and * operators have the same precedence and group left-to-right^[docs]. You need to add parentheses, like this:

x = 1
while x < 10:
    print '%10s' % ('*' * x)
    x = x + 1

If you want to loop through a range of numbers, it's considered more idiomatic to use a for loop than a while loop. Like this:

for x in range(1, 10):
    print '%10s' % ('*' * x)

for x in range(0, 10) is equivalent to for(int x = 0; x < 10; x++) in Java or C.

edited Sep 5, 2011 at 13:11

answered Sep 5, 2011 at 12:53

user1114

1

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2 Comments

Azz Over a year ago

Superb! Walla! What a nice answer! Thank you so much - works perfectly! - this is the first answer I see so I'm commenting to thank you but of course many many thanks to everyone else! My deepest appreciation of course!

PaulMcG Over a year ago

I think you mean "Voila!", French for "There it is!", "Presto!", or "Woot, doggie!"

wim · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-07 04:31:11Z

8

string object has rjust and ljust methods for precisely this thing.

>>> n = 10
>>> for i in xrange(1,n+1):
...   print (i*'*').rjust(n)
... 
         *
        **
       ***
      ****
     *****
    ******
   *******
  ********
 *********
**********

or, alternatively:

>>> for i in reversed(xrange(n)):
...   print (i*' ').ljust(n, '*')
... 
         *
        **
       ***
      ****
     *****
    ******
   *******
  ********
 *********
**********

My second example uses a space character as the printable character, and * as the fill character.

The argument to ljust or rjust is the terminal width. I often use these for separating sections with headings when you have chatty debug printout, e.g. print '--Spam!'.ljust(80, '-').

edited Sep 7, 2011 at 4:31

answered Sep 5, 2011 at 12:53

wim

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Comments

Karoly Horvath · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-05 12:55:04Z

2

It's because of the operator precedence, use this one:

x=1
while x<10:
 print '%10s' % ('*'*x)
 x=x+1

answered Sep 5, 2011 at 12:55

Karoly Horvath

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Comments

develerx · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-05 13:07:04Z

1

print '\n'.join(' ' * (10 - i) + '*' * i for i in range(10))

edited Sep 5, 2011 at 13:07

answered Sep 5, 2011 at 12:54

develerx

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Comments

MatthieuW · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-05 13:09:44Z

1

To be exact, as your picture ends with 10 asterisks, you need.

for i in range(1, 11):
    print "%10s"%('*' *i)

answered Sep 5, 2011 at 13:09

MatthieuW

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