Descending Repeated Number Pattern in PHP

Beginner
⏱️ 5 min read
📚 Updated: Aug 2025
🎯 2 Code Examples
Nested Loops
Descending repeated number pattern output (5, 44, 333, 2222, 11111) in PHP programming

What You’ll Learn

How to print a descending repeated number pattern in PHP using nested for loops. The digit decreases each row, but the row length increases.

This is a helpful exercise to understand how changing a loop boundary affects repetition.

⭐ Pattern Output

For $n = 5, the pattern looks like this:

Output
5
44
333
2222
11111
1

Complete PHP Program

Fixed $n = 5 version:

PHP
<?php
$n = 5;

for ($i = $n; $i >= 1; $i--) {
    for ($j = $n; $j >= $i; $j--) {
        echo $i;
    }
    echo PHP_EOL;
}

🧠 How It Works

1

Choose the size

$n = 5; sets the starting digit.

Setup
2

Outer loop (digit decreases)

for ($i = $n; $i >= 1; $i--) sets the digit to print on each row (5, 4, 3, 2, 1).

Row control
3

Inner loop (repeat count grows)

for ($j = $n; $j >= $i; $j--) controls how many times echo $i; runs. As $i decreases, the loop runs more times.

Repetition
4

New line

echo PHP_EOL; ends the row and moves to the next line.

Line break
=

Descending repeated pattern

Total printed digits grow like a triangular number, so the time complexity is O(n²).

2

Variation — User Input (CLI) Version

Let the user decide $n at runtime (run from terminal with php):

PHP
<?php
echo "Enter the value of n: ";
$n = (int) trim(fgets(STDIN));

for ($i = $n; $i >= 1; $i--) {
    for ($j = $n; $j >= $i; $j--) {
        echo $i;
    }
    echo PHP_EOL;
}

💡 Tips for Enhancement

Try These

  • Validate input (reject $n < 1) before printing
  • Add spaces between digits (for example, echo $i . " ";)
  • Swap the inner loop bounds to change the repetition rule
  • Print stars instead of digits to build star patterns
  • Try formatting output for HTML by using <br> instead of PHP_EOL

Avoid

  • Forgetting the newline after each row
  • Using negative or zero values without validating input
  • Printing $j by mistake (this pattern prints $i)
  • Assuming CLI input is always valid (guard fgets() and casting if needed)

Key Takeaways

1

The outer loop chooses the digit to print on each row.

2

The inner loop controls how many times the digit repeats.

3

Total prints are triangular, so runtime is O(n²).

4

Small loop-bound changes can create many different repeated-digit patterns.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Because when $i = 3, the inner loop runs 3 times and prints $i each time.
Set $n to the maximum starting digit you want. The last row will print 1 repeated $n times.
Yes—print echo $i . " "; instead of echo $i;.
O(n²) for n rows: total prints are 1+2+…+n = n(n+1)/2.

Next: PHP Number Pattern 11

Continue to Program 11 to print a shrinking repeated-digit triangle in PHP.

Program 11 →
Did you know?

This is a neat example where the value and the count move in opposite directions—great practice for reasoning about nested loops.

About the author

Mari Selvan M P
Mari Selvan M P 🔗

Developer, cloud engineer, and technical writer

  • Experience 12 years building web and cloud systems
  • Focus Full Stack Development, AWS, and Developer Education

I write practical tutorials so students and working developers can learn by doing—from databases and APIs to deployment on AWS.

AWS Certified Developer – Associate (Credly)

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