Looping Through ASCII Art in Java: Solving a Homework Predicament

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Hiche
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..so, we have been assigned a homework to print a certain ASCII art using only loops and methods. We can also use the built-in math methods such as the exponential one and whatnot.

Basically, we have been asked to print an increasing loop that goes as follows:
Code: 
           *
          ***
        *******
       *********
     *************
..and so on, so forth. Notice how the stars increase by 2 then by 4, then by 2 then by 4. The sequence in which the stars are increasing within is 2,4,2,4,2,4,2,4...I managed to find the series for that: 3 + (-1)^n or 2 + 2 * (n % 2) where n >= 1.

Is there a way to use that in a loop? I'm slightly bewildered at the moment as this problem overwhelms my basic understanding on loops.
 

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Hiche said:
..so, we have been assigned a homework to print a certain ASCII art using only loops and methods. We can also use the built-in math methods such as the exponential one and whatnot.

Basically, we have been asked to print an increasing loop that goes as follows:
Code: 
           *
          ***
        *******
       *********
     *************
..and so on, so forth. Notice how the stars increase by 2 then by 4, then by 2 then by 4. The sequence in which the stars are increasing within is 2,4,2,4,2,4,2,4...I managed to find the series for that: 3 + (-1)^n or 2 + 2 * (n % 2) where n >= 1.

Is there a way to use that in a loop? I'm slightly bewildered at the moment as this problem overwhelms my basic understanding on loops.
Are you sure about how the numbers of asterisks in a line increase? It would make more sense to me and would make a nicer pattern if they increased by 2 each line.
 
Unfortunately, this is how our instructor assigned us to do. I tried like everything, but no avail. This is just a fraction of a larger program that prints my country's flag.

Is there a way to do that?
 
The counting loop would look something like this.

Code: 
for (int i = 0; i < ROW_LIMIT; i++}
{
   starCount = 2*i + 1;
   // The if block skips 5, 11, 17, 23, etc.
   if (starCount % 3 == 2) 
   {
      continue; 
   }
   // Code to calculate the number of spaces to print, and print starCount asterisks
}