Printing A Pattern in C - c

Question

I am a beginner in programming, I studied all about C, I started to solve problems from hackerrank.com, there I faced a problem to print a pattern like given below
(the output of problem program):
4 4 4 4 4 4 4
4 3 3 3 3 3 4
4 3 2 2 2 3 4
4 3 2 1 2 3 4
4 3 2 2 2 3 4
4 3 3 3 3 3 4
4 4 4 4 4 4 4
the input will be an integer which will provide the data for the length of pattern square, here it is 4 in image,
I tried a lot to type a proper logic and I end up with this useless code bellow:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main()
{
int n;
scanf("%d", &n);
int array[n- 1 + n][n - 1 + n];
array[(n - 1 + n) / 2][(n - 1 + n) / 2] = 1;
int f[n];
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
f[i] = i;
}
for(int i = 0; i < n - 1 + n; i++) {
for(int j = 0; j < n - 1 + n; j++) {
array[j][i] = n - f[j]; //top
array[i][j] = n - f[j]; //left
array[(2 * n - 1 - 1) - i][j] = n - f[i]; //bottem
array[j][(2 * n - 1 - 1) - i] = n - f[i]; //rigth
}
}
for(int i = 0; i < n - 1 + n; i++) {
for(int j = 0; j < n - 1 + n; j++) {
printf("%d ", array[i][j]);
}
printf("\n");
}
return 0;
}
my logic was to make all four borders correct in for loop which will end at center, but its not working, I want a new logic or to improve my logic, if you want to help me out then please give me the way to solve problem instead of giving me a direct code.

Answer 1

It is observable that the pattern consists of n stacked squares:
Square #0 is drawn with ns.
Square #1 is drawn with n-1s.
...
Square #n-1 is drawn with 1s.
Implementing the above:
void draw_pattern(const size_t n)
{
const size_t dim = 2*n-1;
int array[dim][dim];
for (size_t i = 0; i < n; ++i) { // Outer square #i
// Row #0 of the outer square #i
for (size_t j = i; j < dim-i; ++j)
array[i][j] = n-i;
// Row #n-1 of the outer square #i
for (size_t j = i; j < dim-i; ++j)
array[dim-i-1][j] = n-i;
// Col #0 of the outer square #i
for (size_t j = i; j < dim-i; ++j)
array[j][i] = n-i;
// Col #n-1 of the outer square #i
for (size_t j = i; j < dim-i; ++j)
array[j][dim-i-1] = n-i;
}
print_array(dim, array);
}
This is print_array():
void print_array(const size_t dim, int array[dim][dim])
{
for (size_t i = 0; i < dim; ++i) {
for(size_t j = 0; j < dim; ++j)
printf("%d ", array[i][j]);
printf("\n");
}
}
Output:
4 4 4 4 4 4 4
4 3 3 3 3 3 4
4 3 2 2 2 3 4
4 3 2 1 2 3 4
4 3 2 2 2 3 4
4 3 3 3 3 3 4
4 4 4 4 4 4 4
The worst case time complexity is O(n2).

Answer 2

When you get a problem like this, try to dumb it down as much a possible. This square can be separated into 8 same, just rotated "slices" that look like:
4 | 4444 | 4444 | 4
43 | 333 | 333 | 34
432 | 22 | 22 | 234
4321 | 1 | 1 | 1234
... and the same for the bottom half, just flipped.
You can see this in the code bellow, to check what line is writing what part of the square, comment it and you will see what section shows zeroes.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main() {
int n;
scanf("%d", &n);
int array[2 * n - 1][2 * n - 1];
for(int i = 0; i < 2 * n - 1; i++){
for(int j = 0; j < 2 * n - 1; j++){
array[i][j] = 0;
}
}
int f[n];
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
f[i] = i;
}
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
for(int j = i; j < n; j++)
{
array[i][j] = n - i;
array[j][i] = n - i;//top left
array[j][2*n - i - 2] = n - i;
array[i][2*n - j - 2] = n - i;//bottom left
array[2*n - j - 2][i] = n - i;
array[2*n - i - 2][j] = n - i;//top right
array[2*n - i - 2][2*n - j - 2] = n - i;
array[2*n - j - 2][2*n - i - 2] = n - i;//bottom right
}
}
for(int i = 0; i < n - 1 + n; i++)
{
for(int j = 0; j < n - 1 + n; j++)
{
printf("%d ", array[i][j]);
}
printf("\n");
}
return 0;
}