Generating NXN spirals

Question

I have been given the task of creating a spiral in python where the user inputs a number e.g 3 and it will output a 3x3 spiral which looks like this:

- - \
/ \ |
\ - /

I am not looking for the full code I just have no idea how to do it, obviously printing out every possible solution using if statements isn't possible or logical. The real question here is what should i be looking to do, for loops, define my own function? are there any docs people can link me to that would help. The full task outline is as follows:

Your task here is to write a program to draw a spiral of a given size inside a box.

Your program should ask the user for a positive integer denoting the size of the box. Your program should then print out a spiral inside of a box of that size.

For example:

Enter size: 3
- - \
/ \ |
\ - /

and:

Enter size: 4
- - - \
/ - \ |
| \ / |
\ - - /

​and:

Enter size: 5     
- - - - \
/ - - \ |
| / \ | |
| \ - / |
\ - - - /

The input size will always be greater than 1.

Answer 1

I respect you for not wanting the full code. This is intentionally only a partial answer.

Start by making a 2-dimensional array. Something like:

grid = [[None]*n for i in range(n)]

This allows you to write code like grid[i][j] = '\'.

Start with i,j = 0,0. In a loop spiral around the grid. It might help to have a variable direction which takes on values 'right', 'left', 'up', 'down' together with a corresponding delta taking on values like (0,1) (for moving to the right) to be added to (i,j) to implement the move.

Go along a line in a certain direction placing '-' or '|' until you hit a corner (check for None as well as the limits of the overall grid). When you get to a corner, place the appropriate corner marker and change directions.

Once the grid is filled, join each rows with an empty string delimiter and join the result with '\n' as the delimiter.