how to return items from an array to be printed diagonal

[Johnny Steele]

Hi! I'm working on a method that takes in an array called number and returns its contents to be printed in a diagonal like so:

	16
		17
			98
				97
					95
						-14
							-15
								99    

with tabs in between and each element printed on a new line.
Here is my method which is obviously very wrong but its what I have.

 	public String diagonal() {
		String done = "";
		for( int i = 0; i < number.length; i++ ) {
			for( int j = 0; i < number.length; i++ ) {
			done = done + number[i] + "\t";
		}
		return done;
	}   

Just cant figure out how to incorporate the new line into a loop or object for that matter.
Thanks,

[Martin Vashko]

Use "\n" for newline. Also use StringBuilder instead of + operator to join Strings in a loop.

[Johnny Steele]

Thanks. Sorry about posting this twice. i know to use "\n" but as of now I cannot use StringBuilder. I'm just not sure how or where to put "\n" in order to get the desired diagonal printed.
Thanks again for the response,
-john

[fred rosenberger]

part of your problem is that your inner loop declares "int j", but then you use write "i <" and "i++".

that's going to mess up your outer loop, and your inner loop probably won't do what you want.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Actually you ought not to use "\n", which is operating-system dependent. You ought to use

String newline = System.getProperty("line.separator");
String done = ""
 . . .
done = done + number[i] + newline;
 . . .

More details in System#getProperties().

I think you need some way of counting tabs, and put the \t character before the number in the String. Once yo have managed that, things will get easier. As for StringBuilder, it is easy to use

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
builder.append(numbers[i]).append(newline);
builder.append("\t").append.numbers[i].append(newline);
builder.append("And you keep going on like that ;-)");