For() loop with constant variable isn't printing any output

Question

The problem is that there is no output happening, not an extra println(). This is odd, because doing this programming without a static SIZE var, it works just fine.

public class SlashFigure2
{
    public static final int SIZE = 4;
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        for(int i = 1; i <= SIZE; i++)
        {
            for(int j = 1; j <= 2 * i - (2 * SIZE + 2); j++)
            {
                System.out.print("\\");
            }
            
            for(int j = 1; j <= -4 * i + (-4 * SIZE + 2); j++)
            {
                System.out.print("!");
            }
            
            for(int j = 1; j <= 2 * i - (2 * SIZE + 2); j++)
            {
                System.out.print("/");
            }
            
            System.out.println();
        }      
    }  
    
}

In case anyone needs it, here's what the program prints:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
\\!!!!!!!!!!//
\\\\!!!!!!////
\\\\\\!!//////

EDIT: Here's what the site keeps saying is the error

EDIT 2: The site is practiceit.csu.washington.edu

Here is the question's wording:

Modify your DollarFigure program from the previous exercise to become a new program called DollarFigure2 that uses a global constant for the figure's height. (You may want to make loop tables first.) The previous output used a constant height of 7. The outputs below use a constant size of 3 (left) and 5 (right)

Here are the outputs below they are talking about

(You must solve this problem using only ONE public static final constant, not multiple constants; and its value must be used in the way described in this problem.)

Answer 1

Simply do this:

if (i != SIZE) {
    System.out.println();
}

Because i will be equal to SIZE in the last iteration, and you want to skip the println() in that case.

UPDATE

From the comments and the image, it's clear that you're not supposed to define SIZE as a constant, apparently you should be able to pass n as a parameter to your program, it's not a hardcoded value. Check the rules of the "site" you keep referring to, how's the input supposed to be received?

Answer 2

You can make this change in your code to make it work.You should not execute the statement when i is equal to SIZE

if(i<SIZE){
    System.out.println();
    }

Answer 3

Somewhat Jeopardy to find out the actual problem/quest you want to solve by algorithmically print a specific ASCII-art only denoted by a constant ROW-size (e.g. 4 or 6 as depicted on the attached image).

Tests & sample output

Derived specification

Draw a specific figure varying only in its height:

• only single parameter is passed: rows of ASCII-art to draw
• figure to draw should resemble a downward-arrow
• bordered by double-slashes left and right, i.e. \\ respective //
• no border/slashes on the first row
• inner/rest of the rows filled with exclamation-marks !!
• at least 2 exclamation-marks !! on the inner last row

Java method with single parameter: ROWS

private static void drawAsciiArt(int rows) {
    int columns = (rows-1)*4+2;

    for(int i = 1; i <= rows; i++) {
        int borderSize = (i-1)*2;
        int fillSize = columns - borderSize*2;

        for(int j = 1; j <= borderSize; j++) {
            System.out.print("\\");
        }

        for(int j = 1; j <= fillSize; j++) {
            System.out.print("!");
        }

        for(int j = 1; j <= borderSize; j++) {
            System.out.print("/");
        }

        if (i < rows) {
            System.out.println();
        } // if not last row

    } // end of row-loop
}

Try this online

Answer 4

Figured it out! It turns out that for both the '\' and '/' characters, I didn't need to use that (x * SIZE + y) formula after all. They both needed the regular formula while the '!' is the only character that needed the SIZE formula

public class SlashFigure2
{
    public static final int SIZE = 4;
    //program works no matter what value SIZE holds
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        for(int i = 1; i <= SIZE; i++)
        {
            for(int j = 1; j <= 2 * i - 2; j++)
            {
                System.out.print("\\");
            }
            
            //note the SIZE formula in here
            for(int j = 1; j <= -4 * i + (4 * SIZE + 2); j++)
            {
                System.out.print("!");
            }
            
            for(int j = 1; j <= 2 * i - 2; j++)
            {
                System.out.print("/");
            }
            
            System.out.println();
        }      
    }  
    
}