357mag

This code asks the user how many rows he would like and how many columns he would like plus what character he wants to print. Then it uses a nested for loop to print the output:

int main()
{
int rows, columns;
char theChar;

cout << "How many rows? ";
cin >> rows;
cout << "How many columns? ";
cin >> columns;
cout << "What character? ";
cin >> theChar;

for(int i = 0; i < rows; i++)
{
for(int j = 0; j < columns; j++)
cout << theChar;

cout << "\n";
}

return 0;
}

Now the code works fine. But if I remove the opening brace and closing brace for the for loop, and say input 5 for rows and 5 for columns it will print like this:

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

I'd like to understand why it does that. Is it because there are actually 2 statements in the body of the inner loop? And without the braces only the
cout << theChar statement will run? Just like to be clear on this.

bl00dninja

it's just executing the next one line of code which is the second nested loop statement. the /n character is ignored until the very end of the program.

that's why we have those pretty braces!

__________________
i put on my robe and wizard hat...

Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?...Morons.

357mag

I noticed that if I add two more braces like this:

for(int i = 0; i < rows; i++)
{
for(int j = 0; j < columns; j++)
{
cout << theChar;
cout << "\n";
}
}

It will print just the opposite like this:
*
*
*
*
*
*
and all the way down to 25.

Why?

bl00dninja

cuz you print the "*" and then new-line it 25 times. you need to print your whole inner loop before executing the \n and then return to the next iteration of the outer loop.

__________________
i put on my robe and wizard hat...

Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?...Morons.