public class AlphabetRangoli {
// Function to generate and print the alphabet rangoli of size N
static 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 = Math.abs(i); // Distance from the center row
StringBuilder line_chars = new StringBuilder();
// 1. Build the left/descending side of characters (e.g., e -> d -> c)
for (int j = 0; j < n - current_row_dist; ++j) {
line_chars.append((char) ('a' + n - 1 - j));
}
// 2. Build the right/ascending side of characters (e.g., d -> e)
for (int j = n - current_row_dist - 2; j >= 0; --j) {
line_chars.append((char) ('a' + n - 1 - j));
}
// 3. Insert hyphens between characters
StringBuilder standard_row = new StringBuilder();
for (int k = 0; k < line_chars.length(); ++k) {
standard_row.append(line_chars.charAt(k));
if (k != line_chars.length() - 1) {
standard_row.append("-");
}
}
// 4. Calculate necessary hyphen padding for centering
int total_padding = total_width - standard_row.length();
String side_hyphens = "-".repeat(total_padding / 2);
// 5. Print the complete constructed row
System.out.println(side_hyphens + standard_row + side_hyphens);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
printAlphabetRangoli(n);
}
}
/*
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--------
*/
