python - Drawing a hollow asterisk square

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to turn my whole square into a hollow one. The few things I've tried so far haven't been very successful as I end up getting presented with a rather distorted triangle!

This is the code I have to form my square currently ..

size = 5
for i in range(size):
    print ('*' * size)

When run, this is the result ..

*****
*****
*****
*****
*****

Do I need to run if or while statements when size is greater than 3 to specify a condition?

Answer 1

I think this is what you want to do:

m, n = 10, 10
for i in range(m):
    for j in range(n):
        print('*' if i in [0, n-1] or j in [0, m-1] else ' ', end='')
    print()

Output:

**********
*        *
*        *
*        *
*        *
*        *
*        *
*        *
*        *
**********

You can also draw a triangle this way:

m, n = 10, 10
for i in range(m):
    for j in range(n):
        print('*' if i in [j, m-1] or j == 0 else ' ', end='')
    print()

Output:

*         
**        
* *       
*  *      
*   *     
*    *    
*     *   
*      *  
*       * 
**********