#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>
/* Function to generate and print the alphabet rangoli of size N */
void printAlphabetRangoli(int n) {
if (n <= 0) return;
/* Total width of the grid based on character and hyphen spacing */
int total_width = 4 * n - 3;
/* Loop from -(n-1) to (n-1) to handle top/bottom symmetry mathematically */
for (int i = -(n - 1); i <= (n - 1); ++i) {
int current_row_dist = abs(i); /* Distance from the center row */
/* In C we build strings manually using char buffers */
char line_chars[256] = "";
char temp[4];
/* 1. Build the left/descending side of characters (e.g., e -> d -> c) */
for (int j = 0; j < n - current_row_dist; ++j) {
temp[0] = (char)('a' + n - 1 - j);
temp[1] = '\0';
strcat(line_chars, temp);
}
/* 2. Build the right/ascending side of characters (e.g., d -> e) */
for (int j = n - current_row_dist - 2; j >= 0; --j) {
temp[0] = (char)('a' + n - 1 - j);
temp[1] = '\0';
strcat(line_chars, temp);
}
/* 3. Insert hyphens between characters */
char standard_row[512] = "";
size_t len = strlen(line_chars);
for (size_t k = 0; k < len; ++k) {
temp[0] = line_chars[k];
temp[1] = '\0';
strcat(standard_row, temp);
if (k != len - 1) {
strcat(standard_row, "-");
}
}
/* 4. Calculate necessary hyphen padding for centering */
int total_padding = total_width - (int)strlen(standard_row);
int side_len = total_padding / 2;
char side_hyphens[256];
memset(side_hyphens, '-', side_len);
side_hyphens[side_len] = '\0';
/* 5. Print the complete constructed row */
printf("%s%s%s\n", side_hyphens, standard_row, side_hyphens);
}
}
int main(void) {
int n = 5;
printAlphabetRangoli(n);
return 0;
}
/*
run:
--------e--------
------e-d-e------
----e-d-c-d-e----
--e-d-c-b-c-d-e--
e-d-c-b-a-b-c-d-e
--e-d-c-b-c-d-e--
----e-d-c-d-e----
------e-d-e------
--------e--------
*/
