Question

Consider the following code segment.

int a = 1;
while (a <= 2)
{
int c = 1;
while (/* missing condition */)
{
System ("*");
c++;
}
a++;
}
The code segment is intended to print "******". Which of the following can be used to replace /* missing condition */ so that the code segment works as intended?
A c <= 2
B c < 3
C c <= 3
D c > 2
E c >= 3

Answer 1

The correct condition for the inner while loop that will print a total of six asterisks (******) is 'c <= 3'. This allows the inner loop to execute three times for each iteration of the outer loop, resulting in two sets of three asterisks.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question involves understanding how nested loops work in Java and identifying the correct condition for a while loop to produce a specific output. The code segment intends to print a total of six asterisks (******), executed by the outer loop two times, each time the inner loop should print three asterisks based on the correct condition.

To print six asterisks, with each loop iteration printing three asterisks, the condition in the inner loop must ensure that the loop executes three times before the counter is incremented by the outer loop. The correct replacement for the missing condition is c <= 3 because this condition will be true three times (when c is 1, 2, and 3), resulting in three asterisks being printed during each iteration of the outer loop.