Character Cross

Question

I was expecting to post something more complex as my first puzzle in PCG, but a particular, uh... homework question on Stack Overflow inspired me to post this. They want to:

print the following pattern for any given word that contains odd number of letters:

P           M
  R       A   
    O   R    
      G       
    O   R      
  R       A   
P           M 

c++

---

Notice that letters are a knight's move apart in the pattern you need to print. So, every other column is empty. -- (Thanks xnor for pointing this out.)

Rules

1. Using C++ is prohibited. As I may link this question there.
2. You may use stdout, or any means of quickly outputting a string (e.g. alert() in JavaScript).
3. As always, shortest code wins.

Answer 1

Pyth, 22

Vzjdm?@zd}N,dt-lzd\ Uz

Test:

$ pyth -c 'Vzjdm?@zd}N,dt-lzd\ Uz' <<< "CODE-GOLF"
C               F
  O           L  
    D       O    
      E   G      
        -        
      E   G      
    D       O    
  O           L  
C               F

Explanation:

(Implicit)                  z = input()
(Implicit)                  d = ' '
Vz                          for N in range(len(z)):
  jd                            print(d.join(
    m                               map(lambda d:
     ?@zd                                        z[d] if
         }N                                      N in
           ,dt-lzd                                    (d,len(z)-d-1) else
      \                                          " ",
     Uz                                          range(len(z)))))

Answer 2

APL (37 35 34 27)

↑{∊2↑¨⍵↑¨I}¨↓(+∨⌽)∘.=⍨⍳⍴I←⍞

It takes input from the keyboard, like so:

      ↑{∊2↑¨⍵↑¨I}¨↓(+∨⌽)∘.=⍨⍳⍴I←⍞
CODE-GOLF
C               F 
  O           L   
    D       O     
      E   G       
        -         
      E   G       
    D       O     
  O           L   
C               F 

Answer 3

Python 2 - 94 90 89 88

s=input()
L=len(s)
R=range(L)
for i in R:print" ".join([s[j]," "][j!=i!=L+~j]for j in R)

Input:

"CODE-GOLF"

Output:

C               F
  O           L  
    D       O    
      E   G      
        -        
      E   G      
    D       O    
  O           L  
C               F

Answer 4

Python 3: 75 chars

s=input()
i=n=len(s)
while i:i-=1;a=[" "]*n;a[i]=s[i];a[~i]=s[~i];print(*a)

For line i, we start with a list of spaces and set the entries i from the front and back to be equal to the letters of the input string. Then, we print the result.

Python strings are immutable, so a must be a list of characters instead. The list a must be initialized inside the loop or the modifications will carry over between loops. We use print(*a) to print each character in the list, space separated, which requires Python 3.

The output lines are symmetrical, so we can have i count down rather than up using a while loop.

>>> CODE-GOLF
C               F
  O           L  
    D       O    
      E   G      
        -        
      E   G      
    D       O    
  O           L  
C               F

It also works for an even number of letters.

>>> CODEGOLF
C             F
  O         L  
    D     O    
      E G      
      E G      
    D     O    
  O         L  
C             F

Answer 5

CJam, 27 25 bytes

l_,S*:Sf{W):W2$tW~@tS}zN*

Try it online.

Example run

$ cjam <(echo 'l_,S*:Sf{W):W2$tW~@tS}zN*') <<< CROSS; echo
C       S 
  R   S   
    O     
  R   S   
C       S 

As the example in the answer, each line has trailing whitespace.

How it works

                             " N := '\n'; R := []; S = ' '; W := -1 ";
l                            " Q := input()                         ";
 _,S*:S                      " S := len(Q) * S                      ";
       f{            }       " for each C in Q:                     ";
                             "   T := S                             ";
         W):W                "   W += 1                             ";
             2$t             "   T[W] := C                          ";
                W~@t         "   T[~W] := C                         ";
                             "   R += [T]                           ";
                    S        "   R += [S]                           ";
                      z      " R := zip(R)                          ";
                       N*    " R := N.join(R)                       ";
                             " print R                              ";

Answer 6

JavaScript (E6) 101 95 129 136

Edit Wrong letter spacing. Fixed.
Edit Simpler and shorter using classic for loops
As a function, output via popup.

F=a=>{
  for(l=a.length+1,i=s=o='';++i<l;s='\n')
    for(j=0;++j<l;)
      o+=s+((s=' ')+a)[j==i|i+j==l&&j]
  alert(o)
}

Previous version using .map

F=a=>alert([...a].map((c,p)=>
  --q<p
  ?B(q)+a[q]+B(p-q-1)+c 
  :B(p)+c+(p-q?B(q-p-1)+a[q]:'')
,B=n=>' '.repeat(n),q=a.length).join('\n'))

Test In FireFox/FireBug console

F('Java-Script')

Output

J                   t
  a               p  
    v           i    
      a       r      
        -   c        
          S          
        -   c        
      a       r      
    v           i    
  a               p  
J                   t

Answer 7

Ruby, 64

f=->w{x=w.size
x.times{|i|y=" "*x
y[i],y[~i]=w[i],w[~i]
puts y}}

Explanation

• Input is taken as the argument to a lambda. It expects a String.
• In a loop that loops trough every character in the word (n in total):
  • Create a String consisting of n spaces.
  • Replace the ith and n-ith (~i, thanks xnor) space with the ith and n-ith character of the input.
  • Print the line

Answer 8

Java - 168

A simple nested loop, there's nothing really special going on here.

class C{public static void main(String[]a){int b=-1,c=a[0].length()-1,d;for(;b++<c;)for(d=-1;d++<c;)System.out.print((b==d|b==c-d?a[0].charAt(d):" ")+(c==d?"\n":""));}}

With line breaks:

class C{
    public static void main(String[]a){
        int b=-1,c=a[0].length()-1,d;
        for(;b++<c;)
            for(d=-1;d++<c;)
                System.out.print(
                    (b==d|b==c-d?a[0].charAt(d):" ")+
                    (c==d?"\n":""));
    }
}

Answer 9

Pure Bash, 94 bytes

l=${#1}
for((;t<l*l;t++));{
((x=t%l))||echo
((x-t/l&&x+t/l+1-l))&&printf \ ||printf ${1:x:1}
}

Answer 10

Javascript 102 84 85

Edit: Had to fix spacing. Not so small anymore.

function p(s){for(i in s){o='';for(n in s)o+=(n==i?s[n]:n==s.length-1-i?s[n]:' ')+' ';console.log(o)}}

p('Thanks-Dennis')

T                       s
  h                   i
    a               n
      n           n
        k       e
          s   D
            -
          s   D
        k       e
      n           n
    a               n
  h                   i
T                       s

Answer 11

Befunge-93, 68 71

:~:84*-!#@#v_\:2*\4+p1+
::+\4+g:!| >$1+0:>p1-::
00+4\*2:\<>0p#:- ^#2g

You can test it here. It'll come up with an input dialog box on each pass through ~; enter your word one character at a time (it does say the input is 'klunky' after all), ending with a space.

It won't print to the console; this wouldn't be Befunge without a hint of self-modification, after all! Instead it will modify its own grid to display the message. After it's done, the grid will look something like this:

 ~:84*-!#@#v_\:2*\4+p1+
::+\4+g:!| >$1+0:>p1-::
00+4\*2:\<>0p#:- ^#2g

c               f      
  o           l        
    d       o          
      e   g            
        -              
      e   g            
    d       o          
  o           l        
c               f

(Note the noble sacrifice of the cell at (0,0), after we know the pointer won't go there anymore, for the purpose of storing a piece of data.)

It also works with inputs of even length. Note that, since Befunge-93 is limited to an 80x25 grid, the input size is limited to 21 characters if you run it in a Befunge-93 interpreter. Running it as Befunge-98 should remove this limit.

Edit - Now it works more along the lines of the intended output, at the expense of only three characters of length.

Answer 12

R, 99 98 93 89 bytes

m=ifelse(diag(l<-length(w<-el(strsplit(scan(,''),'')))),w,' ')
write(pmax(m,m[,l:1]),1,l)

Try it online!

Line 1 reads input string, splits it into characters, stores its length and creates a matrix with the word on its main diagonal – letters of the word are superposed on an identity matrix (and repeated by default to match its length) and only those matching 1's are retained, others being replaced by spaces.

Line 2 prints a matrix formed by elements of either the diagonal matrix or its horizontally mirrored version, whichever are greater.

−2 + 1 = −1 byte thanks to JayCe

−4 bytes thanks to Giuseppe

Answer 13

Canvas, 5 bytes

＼＼：⇵ｎ

Try it here!

Explanation:

\      create a diagonal of the input
 \     create an even steeper diagonal of that
  :⇵   reverse a copy of it vertically
    n  overlap the two

Answer 14

CJam, 38 36 35 34 32 bytes

l:I,,_f{f{_2$=@2$+I,(=|\I=S?S}N}

Test it here. This reads the input word from STDIN. It also works for an even number of characters. This prints a trailing column of spaces, but I don't see anything in the rules against that.

Explanation

l:I,,_f{f{_2$=@2$+I,(=|\I=S?S}N}
l:I                              "Read input and store it in I.";
   ,                             "Get string length.";
    ,_                           "Turn into range and duplicate.";
      f{                       } "Map block onto first range, with second range on the stack.";
        f{                   }   "Map block onto second range, with first iterator in stack.
                                  Each invocation of this block will start with grid coordinates
                                  y and x on the stack (x on top).";
          _2$=                   "Duplicate x, duplicate y, check for equality.";
              @2$+               "Pull up y, duplucate x, add,";
                  I,(=           "Check if that's one less than the string length.";
                      |          "Bitwise or between conditions.";
                       \         "Swap condition and x.";
                        I=       "Take x'th character from the string.";
                          S?     "Push a space and select character depending on condition.";
                            S    "Push another space.";
                              N  "Push a line feed.";

The contents of the stack are printed automatically at the end of the program.

Answer 15

C, 105

two slightly different ways of doing it.

c,i,j;main(int l,char**v){for(l=strlen(v[1]);j-l;)putchar((c=v[1][i++])?i-1-j&&l-i-j?32:c:(i=0,j++,10));}

i,j;main(int l,char**v){for(l=strlen(v[1]);j-l;i++)putchar((l-i)?i-j&&l-i-j-1?32:v[1][i]:(i=-1,j++,10));}

If you want to add extra spaces, replace putchar( with printf(" %c", for an extra 5 characters.

Answer 16

J - 36 30 bytes:

Edit: 6 characters shorter, credits go to @algorithmshark .

(1j1#"1' '&,({~](*>.*&|.)=)#\)

eg:

   (1j1#"1' '&,({~](*>.*&|.)=)#\) 'Code-Golf'
C               f
  o           l  
    d       o    
      e   G      
        -        
      e   G      
    d       o    
  o           l  
C               f

Bonus: works with even length strings too:

   (1j1#"1' '&,({~](*>.*&|.)=)#\) 'CodeGolf'
C             f
  o         l  
    d     o    
      e G      
      e G      
    d     o    
  o         l  
C             f

Answer 17

Prolog - 240 bytes

:-initialization m.
+[]. +[H|T]:-(H=' ';!),+T.
+[H|T]+I+X:-0=:=I,X=H;+T+(I-1)+X.
+L+I+C+S:-L=:=I;S=[D|E],+C+I+B,+C+(L-I-1)+B,+B+2*I+D,+L+(I+1)+C+E,+B,writef('%s\n',[B]).
-X:-get_char(C),(C='\n',X=[];X=[C|Y],-Y).
m:- -X,length(X,L),+L+0+_+X.

Invocation:

$ echo "Code-Golf" | swipl -qf c.pl
C               f
  o           l
    d       o
      e   G
        -
      e   G
    d       o
  o           l
C               f

Readable:

:- initialization(main).

vars_to_spaces([]).
vars_to_spaces([' '|T]) :- vars_to_spaces(T).
vars_to_spaces([_|T]) :- vars_to_spaces(T).

get_index([Head|_], Index, Result) :-
    0 =:= Index,
    Result = Head.
get_index([_|Tail], Index, Result) :-
    get_index(Tail, Index-1, Result).

print_loop(Length, Index, Board, String) :-
    Length =:= Index;
    String = [FirstChar|RestString],
    get_index(Board, Index, Line),
    get_index(Board, Length-Index-1, Line),
    get_index(Line, 2*Index, FirstChar),
    print_loop(Length, Index+1, Board, RestString),
    vars_to_spaces(Line),
    writef('%s\n', [Line]).

get_line(Line) :-
    get_char(C),
    (   C = '\n', Line = [];
        Line = [C|More], get_line(More)).

main :-
    get_line(String),
    length(String, Length),
    print_loop(Length, 0, _, String).

Answer 18

Jelly, 11 bytes

LḶḤ⁶ẋ;"µ»ṚY

Try it online!

Answer 19

JavaScript (Node.js), 81 bytes

f=s=>[...s].map((_,i,a)=>a.map((c,j)=>j==i|j==s.length+~i?c:' ').join` `).join`
`

EDIT: -1 Thanks Joe King. I didn't see the TIO gives preformatted direct paste for CG.

Try it online!

Answer 20

C# (214 212)

(Certainly badly) Golfed version:

using System;class A{static void Main(){char[]a,w=Console.ReadLine().ToCharArray();int l=w.Length,i=0;for(;i<l;i++){a=new string(' ',2*l-1).ToCharArray();a[2*i]=w[i];a[2*l-2*i-2]=w[l-i-1];Console.WriteLine(a);}}}

Ungolfed version:

using System;

class A
{
  static void Main()
  {
    char[] a, w = Console.ReadLine().ToCharArray();
    int l = w.Length, i = 0;
    for (; i < l; i++)
    {
      a = new string(' ', 2 * l - 1).ToCharArray();
      a[2 * i] = w[i];
      a[2 * l - 2 * i - 2] = w[l - i - 1];
      Console.WriteLine(a);
    }
  }
}

Any hints, tips, tricks or remarks are very welcome, as this is my first attempt at CodeGolf. I just wanted to try it, even though I know my C# byte length won't even come close to double the best solutions ;)

And how do you guys count your bytes? I just posted the above into a Quick Watch window and did .Length. I could write a small program to count bytes for me, but I bet there is an easier way that I don't yet know.

Answer 21

JavaScript (ES6) - 185 177 175 170 bytes

f=n=>{return s='  ',r='repeat',n=[...n],l=n.length,j=l/2-.5,[...h=n.slice(0,j).map((c,i)=>s[r](i)+c+s[r](l-2-(i*2))+' '+n[l-i-1]),s[r](j)+n[j],...h.reverse()].join('\n')}

Put this in the Firefox console and run as f('PROGRAM'):

P           M
  R       A
    O   R
      G
    O   R
  R       A
P           M

f("CODE-GOLF"):

C               F
  O           L
    D       O
      E   G
        -
      E   G
    D       O
  O           L
C               F

Answer 22

Mathematica, 149 bytes

FromCharacterCode@Flatten[Append[Riffle[#,32],10]&/@MapThread[Max,{#,Reverse@#,ConstantArray[32,Dimensions@#]},2]&@DiagonalMatrix@ToCharacterCode@#]&

Input passed as parameter to the function; function returns the output string. There is a trailing newline at the end of the output.

Explanation: We create a diagonal matrix with the string, then we create a copy of it vertically flipped using Reverse@# to reverse the rows. Then we have a third matrix of the same dimensions containing only 32 (ascii space). We use MapThread to take the element-wise max of these 3 matrices. Finally, we Riffle spaces into each row, Append a newline at the end, and Flatten the result.

Answer 23

C, 119

i,j;main(int l,char**v){l=strlen(v[1]);for(i=0;i<l;i++){for(j=0;j<l;j++)putchar((i-j)*(j-l+i+1)?32:v[1][j]);puts("");}}

This might not be compiled as C++, thus I hope, I haven't violated rules:)

Answer 24

Perl - 90

It might be possible to squeeze some more characters out of this:

($j=$i++%8)==7?++$k&&print"\n":print$j+1==$k||7-$j==$k?"$_ ":"  "for split//,($_ x y///c)

89 + 1 for -n.

Run with:

echo "program" | perl -nE'($j=$i++%8)==7?++$k&&print"\n":print$j+1==$k||7-$j==$k?"$_ ":"  "for split//,($_ x y///c)'

Output:

p           m
  r       a
    o   r
      g
    o   r
  r       a
p           m

Answer 25

PowerShell 118 102 97

($x=[char[]]"$args")|%{$i++;$y=[char[]]" "*$x.Count;$y[$i-1]=$x[$i-1];$y[-$i]=$x[-$i];$y-join' '}

Outputs:

PS C:\PowerShell> .\cross.ps1 SWORD
S       D
  W   R
    O
  W   R
S       D

Answer 26

T-SQL: 180

Taking the input from variable @i

DECLARE @s VARCHAR(MAX)=REPLICATE('  ',LEN(@i)),@ INT=1a:PRINT STUFF(STUFF(@s,@*2-1,1,SUBSTRING(@i,@,1)),LEN(@i)*2-(@*2)+1,1,SUBSTRING(@i,LEN(@i)-@+1,1))SET @+=1IF @<=LEN(@i)GOTO A

This stuffs single characters in/decrementing from the start and end into a string of spaces.

Test Result

DECLARE @i VARCHAR(MAX)='Super Large'
DECLARE @s VARCHAR(MAX)=REPLICATE('  ',LEN(@i)),@ INT=1a:PRINT STUFF(STUFF(@s,@*2-1,1,SUBSTRING(@i,@,1)),LEN(@i)*2-(@*2)+1,1,SUBSTRING(@i,LEN(@i)-@+1,1))SET @+=1IF @<=LEN(@i)GOTO A
S                   e 
  u               g   
    p           r     
      e       a       
        r   L         

        r   L         
      e       a       
    p           r     
  u               g   
S                   e 

Answer 27

Charcoal, 9 7 17 10 bytes

↘Ｓ⟲ＯＯＬθＵＥ¹

+10 bytes because I missed the requirement of space-columns.
-7 bytes thanks to @ASCII-only.

Try it online (verbose) or try it only (pure).

Challenges like this is why Charcoal was made.

Explanation:

Print the input-string in a down-right direction:

Print(:DownRight, InputString());
↘Ｓ

Rotate it 90 degree counterclockwise, and shift it up the length of the input-string amount of times with overlap:

RotateOverlapOverlap(Length(q));
⟲ＯＯＬθ

Put a space gap of size 1 between every column:

Extend(1);
ＵＥ¹

Answer 28

Powershell, 78 bytes

+8 bytes thanks @streetster

param($s)$s|% t*y|%{$r=,' '*$s.length;$r[+$i++]=$_;$r[-$i]=$s[-$i];$r-join' '}

Explaned test script:

$f = {

param($s)               # declare a parameter $s stores a word
$s|% t*y|%{             # split $s into chars https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/168174/80745
    $r=,' '*$s.length   # create an array of spaces with length equal length of the word
    $r[$i++]=$_         # set first char
    $r[-$i]=$s[-$i]     # set last char
    $r-join' '          # join the array to string
}

}

&$f PROGRAM
''
&$f sword
''
&$f uhm
''
&$f o
''
&$f codegolf  # It works with word that contains even number of letters

Powershell, 70 bytes (if a word can be represented by an array of chars)

+8 bytes thanks @streetster

($s=$args)|%{$r=,' '*$s.count;$r[+$i++]=$_;$r[-$i]=$s[-$i];$r-join' '}

Test script:

$f = {

($s=$args)|%{$r=,' '*$s.count;$r[+$i++]=$_;$r[-$i]=$s[-$i];$r-join' '}

}

&$f P R O G R A M
''
&$f s w o r d
''
&$f u h m
''
&$f o
''
&$f c o d e g o l f  # It works with word that contains even number of letters

Output for both cases:

P           M
  R       A
    O   R
      G
    O   R
  R       A
P           M

s       d
  w   r
    o
  w   r
s       d

u   m
  h
u   m

o

c             f
  o         l
    d     o
      e g
      e g
    d     o
  o         l
c             f

Answer 29

QBasic, 91 bytes

INPUT w$
l=LEN(w$)
FOR i=1TO l
c$=MID$(w$,i,1)
LOCATE i+1,i*2
?c$
LOCATE l-i+2,i*2
?c$
NEXT

Loops through the input word and uses the LOCATE statement to place each letter (twice) on the screen.

Answer 30

K (oK), 31 bytes

Solution:

`c$a||a:(2*#x)$(-1-2*!#x)$,:'x:

Try it online!

Explanation:

Generate the diagonal, and or with the reverse of the diagonal

`c$a||a:(2*#x)$(-1-2*!#x)$,:'x: / the solution
                             x: / save input as x
                          ,:'   / enlist (,:) each-both (')
                         $      / pad (negative is right-pad)
               (        )       / do this together
                      #x        / count (#) length of x
                     !          / range (!) 0..this count
                   2*           / double it
                -1-             / subtract from -1
              $                 / pad
        (    )                  / do this together
           #x                   / count (#) length of x
         2*                     / multiply by 2
      a:                        / save as a
     |                          / reverse (|) it
   a|                           / or (|) with a
`c$                             / cast to characters                           

Answer 31

K4, 26 bytes

Solution:

a||a:(2*#x)$(-1-2*!#x)$$x:

Explanation:

Similar to my oK answer but a little shorter:

a||a:(2*#x)$(-1-2*!#x)$$x: / the solution
                        x: / save input as x
                       $   / string ($) breaks into char lists
                      $    / cast ($)
            (        )     / do this together
                   #x      / count (#) length of x
                  !        / range (!) 0..this count
                2*         / double it
             -1-           / subtract from -1
           $               / pad
     (    )                / do this together
        #x                 / count (#) length of x
      2*                   / multiply by 2
   a:                      / save as a
  |                        / reverse (|) it
a|                         / or (|) with a

Answer 32

Stax, 13 bytes

â┤▼iS╙£≥»u5V╓

Run and debug it

Unpacked, ungolfed, and commented, it looks like this.

{       begin block for mapping characters of input
  ]i^)  left-pad each character to length (i+1) where i is the index
m       map using block
r       reverse the array; this produces the southwest-northeast diagonal
m       map using the rest of the program, implicitly output result
  i     iteration index
  xi@   get the i'th character of the original input, where i is the iteration
  &     assign element to array at index
  0\    join with spaces

Run this one

Answer 33

R, 88 bytes

n=ncol(m<-diag(u<-utf8ToInt(scan(,""))-32));diag(m[,n:1])=u;write(intToUtf8(m+32,T),1,n)

Try it online!

Answer 34

C# 208

static void Main()
{
string s=Console.ReadLine(),t="";
int n=s.Length;
for(int i=0;i<n;i++)
{
for(int j=0;j<n;j++)
{
if(i==j)t+=s[i];
else if(i==n-j-1)t+=s[n-i-1];
t+=" ";
}
t+="\n";
}
Console.WriteLine(t);
}

Answer 35

No matter how long, there's always gotta be an answer in...

Java - 289 234 bytes

public static void main(String[]a){int l=a.length-1,i=0,j;for(;i<=l;i++){for(j=0;j<=l;j++){if(j==i)System.out.print(a[i]);else if(i==l-j)System.out.print(a[j]);else System.out.print(" ");System.out.print(" ");}System.out.println();}}}

Ungolfed:

    class A {

    public static void main(String[] a) {
        int l = a.length - 1, i = 0, j;
        for (; i <= l; i++) {
            for (j=0; j <= l;j++) {
                if (j == i)
                    System.out.print(a[i]);
                else if (i == l-j)
                    System.out.print(a[j]);
                else
                    System.out.print(" ");
                System.out.print(" ");
                }            
            System.out.println();
        }
    }
}

Output, lousily done, is:

P           M 
  R       A   
    O   R     
      G       
    O   R     
  R       A   
P           M 

Added the import java.util.Scanner inside the code because I never remember if the imports count towards the byte count... Damn, I really suck at this.

Answer 36

GolfScript 46 (DEMO)

:w,:l,{l,{.[.l(\-]2$?)!w@[=32]=}%\;''+' '*}%n*

Answer 37

C# (192 / 170)

using System;class P{static void Main(){var s=Console.ReadLine();int x,y,l=s.Length;for(x=0;x<l;x++){for(y=0;y<l;y++)Console.Write(x==y||l-x==y+1?s.Substring(x,1):" ");Console.Write("\n");};}}

Or, as "Main() only":

static void Main(){var s=Console.ReadLine();int x,y,l=s.Length;for(x=0;x<l;x++){for(y=0;y<l;y++)Console.Write(x==y||l-x==y+1?s.Substring(x,1):" ");Console.Write("\n");};}

Answer 38

PHP, 81 bytes

for($k=strlen($s=$argn);$k;$t[2*$i]=$s[$i++],$t[2*--$k]=$s[$k],print"$t
")$t=" ";

Run as pipe with -nR or try it online.

Answer 39

C++:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
    char a[] = {'P','R','O','G','R','A','M'};
    int length = sizeof(a)/sizeof(a[0]);
    int l = length - 1, i, j;
    for (i=0; i <= l; i++) {
        for (j=0; j <= l;j++) {
            if (j == i)
                std::cout<<a[i];
            else if (i == l-j)
                std::cout<<a[j];
            else
                std::cout<<"s";
        }            
        std::cout<<"\n";
    }
}