Empty Rectangle - Python Programming Exercise

This Python program prompts the user for a symbol, width, and height, and then displays a hollow rectangle using that symbol for the outer border. The program generates the rectangle by printing the symbol along the outer edges, while leaving spaces inside to create the hollow effect. For instance, if the user enters the symbol "4", a width of 3, and a height of 5, the program will display a rectangle with a border of 4's and spaces in the middle. This exercise is useful for practicing nested loops in Python, allowing beginners to understand how to iterate over rows and columns to manipulate how text is displayed on the screen. The outer border of the rectangle is made by printing the symbol on the first and last rows, as well as the first and last columns of each row. In between these borders, spaces are used to create the hollow interior. This structure is achieved using nested loops, where the outer loop controls the number of rows and the inner loop controls the number of columns in each row. By implementing this program, learners can practice looping structures and conditional logic to determine when to print a symbol and when to print a space. This also reinforces the importance of user input for dynamic display output in Python programs.

 Category

Mastering Flow Control

 Exercise

Empty Rectangle

 Objective

Develop a Python program that prompts the user for a symbol, a width, and a height, and displays a hollow rectangle of that width and height using that symbol for the outer border, as in this example:

Enter a symbol: 4
Enter the desired width: 3
Enter the desired height: 5

444
4 4
4 4
4 4
444

 Example Python Exercise

 Copy Python Code 
# Prompt the user to enter a symbol
symbol = input("Enter a symbol: ")

# Prompt the user to enter the desired width
width = int(input("Enter the desired width: "))

# Prompt the user to enter the desired height
height = int(input("Enter the desired height: "))

# Use a while loop to display the hollow rectangle
i = 0
while i < height:
    if i == 0 or i == height - 1:
        print(symbol * width)
    else:
        print(symbol + " " * (width - 2) + symbol)
    i += 1

 Output

Enter a symbol: 4
Enter the desired width: 3
Enter the desired height: 5
444
4 4
4 4
4 4
444

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