Pattern Printing-Where am I going wrong in this C++ code? - c++

Question

I wrote a program to print a N x N square pattern with alternate 0's and 1's. For eg. A 5 x 5 square would looks like this:
I used the following code-
#include<iostream.h>
int main()
{
int i, n;
cin >> n; //number of rows (and columns) in the n x n matrix
for(i = 1; i <= n*n; i++)
{
cout << " " << i%2;
if(i%n == 0)
cout << "\n";
}
fflush(stdin);
getchar();
return 0;
}
This code works fine for odd numbers but for even numbers it prints the same thing in each new line and not alternate pattern.For 4 it prints this-
Where am I going wrong?

Answer 1

In my opinion the best way to iterate over matrix is using loop in another loop.
I think this code will be helpful for you:
for(i = 0; i < n; i++) {
for (j = 1; j <= n; j++) {
cout<<" "<< (j + i) % 2;
}
cout<<"\n";
}
where n is number of rows, i and j are ints.
Try to understand why and how it works.

Answer 2

If you're a beginner programmer, then I suggest (no offence) not trying to be too clever with your methodology; the main reason why your code is not working is (apart from various syntax errors) a logic error - as pointed out by blauerschluessel.
Just use two loops, one for rows and one for columns:
for (int row = 1; row <= n; row++)
{
for (int col = 0; col < n; col++)
cout << " " << ((row % 2) ^ (col % 2));
cout << "\n";
}
EDIT: since you wanted a one-loop solution, a good way to do so would be to set a flip flag which handles the difference between even and odd n:
bool flip = false;
int nsq = n * n;
for (int i = 1; i <= nsq; i++)
{
cout << " " << (flip ^ (i % 2));
if (i % n == 0) {
if (n % 2 == 0) flip = !flip;
cout << "\n";
}
}

Answer 3

The reason that it isn't working and creating is because of your logic. To fix this you need to change what the code does. The easiest way to handle that is to think of what it does and compare that to what you want it to do. This sounds like it is for an assignment so we could give you the answer but then you would get nothing from our help so I've writen this answer to guide you to the logic of solving it yourself.
Lets start with what it does.
Currently it is going to print 0 or 1 n*n times. You have a counter named i that will increment every time starting from 0 and going to (n*n)-1. If you were to print this number i you would get the following table for n=5
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25
Now you currently check if the value i is odd or even i%2 and this makes the value 0 or 1. Giving you the following table
1 0 1 0 1
0 1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 1
0 1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 1
Now in the case of n=4 your counter i would print out to give you a table
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16
Now if you print out the odd or even pattern you get
1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0
This pattern diffrence is because of the changing pattern of printed numbers due to the shape of the square or more accurately matrix you are printing. To fix this you need to adjust the logic of how you determine which number to print because it will only work for matrixes that have odd widths.

Answer 4

You just need to add one more parameter to print the value. Below mentioned code has the updated for loop which you are using:
int num = 0;
for(i = 1; i <= n*n; i++)
{
num = !num;
std::cout << " " << num;
if(i%n == 0) {
std::cout << "\n";
num = n%2 ? num : !num;
}
}
The complete compiled code :
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i, n, num = 0;
std::cin >> n; //number of rows (and columns) in the n x n matrix
for(i = 1; i <= n*n; i++)
{
num = !num;
std::cout << " " << num;
if(i%n == 0) {
std::cout << "\n";
num = n%2 ? num : !num;
}
}
fflush(stdin);
getchar();
return 0;
}