The C++Course provides a general introduction to programming in C++. It is based on A.B. Downey's book, How to Think Like a Computer Scientist. Click here for details.


Two-Dimensional Tables

A two-dimensional table is a table where you choose a row and a column and read the value at the intersection. A multiplication table is a good example. Let's say you wanted to print a multiplication table for the values from 1 to 6.

A good way to start is to write a simple loop that prints the multiples of 2, all on one line.

  int i = 1;
  while (i <= 6) {
    cout << 2*i << "   ";
    i = i + 1;
  }
  cout << endl;

The first line initializes a variable named i, which is going to act as a counter, or loop variable. As the loop executes, the value of i increases from 1 to 6, and then when i is 7, the loop terminates. Each time through the loop, we print the value 2*i followed by three spaces. By omitting the endl from the first output statement, we get all the output on a single line.

The output of this program is:

2   4   6   8   10   12

So far, so good. The next step is to encapsulate and generalize.


Last Update: 2005-12-05