Alphabetic Pattern Pyramid

Question

I want to know if I can improve this program. Its goal is to print a pattern in a pyramid form, by first receiving a letter. The first row is always 'A', only. Then 'ABA', then 'ABCBA'. Increasing order, then decreasing.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
 char alphabet[26] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
 char letter;
 printf("Enter an uppercase letter: ");
 scanf("%c", &letter);
 letter -= 65;
 for (int row = 0; row <= letter; row++)
 {
 for (int spaces = letter; spaces > row; spaces--)
 printf(" ");
 for (char letter2 = 0; letter2 <= row; letter2++)
 printf("%c", alphabet[letter2]);
 for (char letter3 = 0 + row; --letter3 >= 0; )
 printf("%c", alphabet[letter3]);
 printf("\n");
 }
}

Answer 1

Instead of having a static array of chars You could just use ASCII values from 0x41 to 0x5A. If You still insist having a static array, please consider marking it as a const.

Leaving Your int main() without any return value --- sign of the bad taste, to say the least. Consider having some proper error codes or at least return 0 on proper exit.

Your index of chars (letter2, letter3) can't be negative, so why would You use int instead of uint_* or size_t? Same applies to row and spaces variables.

In case of single char, putchar() is way faster then printf("%c", character).

• Lúcio Cardoso: Thanks for the answer. I didn't return something because someone told me main() automatically returns 0. Is that actually true?
• THE AMAZING: No, functions will not return anything unless you explicitly tell it to do so.

Answer 2

I assume you are requesting a 2d ASCII representational filling of an equilateral triangle using an incremental basic Latin ascended alphabetical array.

Array("a","b","c"...)

First we need to determine the parameters of the 'pyramid' I will use 25 x 13. I will also assume you want to draw down from the top.

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][A][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U][ ][ ]
[ ][A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U][V][W][ ]
[A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U][V][W][X][Y]

Notice the [ ] these will need to be empty spaces for design purposes.

int main(void){
 unsigned short int dimensions[2] = [25, 13];
 unsigned short int n_characters = 1;
 for(unsigned short int row=0; row <= dimensions[1]-1; row++){
 printf("%c", alpha_string(n_characters);
 n_characters += 2;
 }
 return 0;
}
char* alpha_string(unsigned short int n_characters, unsigned short int width){
 char label[26] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
 char ret[n_characters];
 for (unsigned short int i= 0; i<= width-n_characters; i++){
 ret[i] = " ";
 }
 for (unsigned short int i= 0; i<= n_characters; i++){
 ret[i] = label[i];
 }
 return ret;
}

Consider this pseudo code, i free handed this without error checks.