I was wondering how to create triangle out of asterisks on its tip rather than on its base. I have the code for making it stand on its base: public static String printTriangle (int count) { if( count <= 0 ) return ""; String p = printTriangle(count - 1); p = p + "*"; System.out.print(p); System.out.print("\n"); return p; } But then I'm stuck on how to have the greatest number of stars on the top, and then the next least, and so on. I was thinking something along the terms of having (count - p) to have the input of rows be subtracted from the amount of decrease, but then i was confused by this idea because p is string. EDIT: I tried changing the position of printTriangle(count - 1) using my original method without iterations and got 1 star per each line; how can I fix this? public class triangles { public static void main(String[] args) { printTriangle(5); } public static String printTriangle (int count) { if( count <= 0 ) return ""; String p = ""; p = p + "*"; System.out.print(p); System.out.print("\n"); p = printTriangle(count - 1); return p; } }