C++: Displaying characters

Question

I'm learning and improving my programming skills from "Think Like a programmer" book and I was asked to display this kind of pyramid.

########
 ######
  ####
   ##

I did it with this code

for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++){

    for(int k = 0; k < i; k++)
        cout << ' ';

    for(int j = 0; j < 8 - i * 2; j++)
        cout << '#';

    cout << '\n';
}

But... the questions was "Using the same rule as the shapes programs from earlier in the chapter (only two output statements—one that outputs the hash mark and one that outputs an end-of-line), write a program that produces the following shape:"

I'm not sure, but is it possible to display something like this with only 2 statements and without using space character?

edit.

Thanks for an answer guys. But according to author I should do this with only cout << '#' and cout << '\n'. And here is my point, because it seems that manipulating with some methods or functions is not an option.

Write a program that uses only two output statements, cout << "#" and cout << "\n", to produce a pattern of hash symbols shaped like a ... Of Course with use of loops :P

Answer 1

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        cout << setw(8-i) << string(8-i*2, '#') << endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

Answer 2

Unfortunately, the answer to this question is much simpler: author error. Those first few questions should have been worded to allow the use of a single space output as well (cout << " ";). I don't know how we all missed this in editing, and I apologize for the confusion this has caused. In general, any exercise that is intended to force the reader to go "digging" will be clear on that point.

By the way, this and other issues from the first edition are discussed in the document that can be found on my site here. If you have further questions or problems with the book, please do contact me.