program AlphabetRangoli;
// Function to generate and print the alphabet rangoli of size N
procedure printAlphabetRangoli(n: Integer);
var
total_width: Integer;
i, j, current_row_dist: Integer;
line_chars, standard_row, side_hyphens: string;
k: Integer;
total_padding: Integer;
begin
if n <= 0 then Exit;
// Total width of the grid based on character and hyphen spacing
total_width := 4 * n - 3;
// Loop from -(n-1) to (n-1) to handle top/bottom symmetry mathematically
for i := -(n - 1) to (n - 1) do
begin
current_row_dist := Abs(i); // Distance from the center row
line_chars := '';
// 1. Build the left/descending side of characters (e.g., e -> d -> c)
for j := 0 to n - current_row_dist - 1 do
line_chars := line_chars + Chr(Ord('a') + n - 1 - j);
// 2. Build the right/ascending side of characters (e.g., d -> e)
for j := n - current_row_dist - 2 downto 0 do
line_chars := line_chars + Chr(Ord('a') + n - 1 - j);
// 3. Insert hyphens between characters
standard_row := '';
for k := 1 to Length(line_chars) do
begin
standard_row := standard_row + line_chars[k];
if k <> Length(line_chars) then
standard_row := standard_row + '-';
end;
// 4. Calculate necessary hyphen padding for centering
total_padding := total_width - Length(standard_row);
side_hyphens := StringOfChar('-', total_padding div 2);
// 5. Print the complete constructed row
WriteLn(side_hyphens + standard_row + side_hyphens);
end;
end;
var
n: Integer;
begin
n := 5;
printAlphabetRangoli(n);
end.
(*
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--------
*)
