note choroba No explicit loop, just recursion and repetition:<c> $p=1;sub p{my$x=shift;$x||exit;say" "x(3-$x),"*"x$x;$p=-1if$x>2;p($x+$p)}p 1 </c> Update: Not so funny in C:<c>#include<stdio.h> int p,n;void q(int x){int j;if(!x)return;for(j=1;j<=n-x;j++)printf(" ");for(j=1;j<=x;j++)printf("*");printf("\n");if(x>=n)p=-1;q(x+p);}void main(){printf("Enter the number of columns: ");scanf("%d",&n);p=1;q(1);} </c>(I've never really used C, anyway.) 934101 934101