How do I get this star pattern to work with only one for loop in python?

Very new to python and coding in general!
Trying to get a star pattern that looks like this:

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

to work using a for loop, but I’m only allowed to use a single for loop, and embed an if/else statement inside to get it to work. If I could use 2 for loops I’d know how to do it but not sure why my current solution isn’t working, as it only outputs the first 5 lines of stars and then stops. Any help appreciated 🙂

My current codebase:

print("Pattern: ")

# Stores the * as a variable, not entirely necessary but negates having to type out "*" 
star = "*"

for i in range(9):
    if i in range(5):
     print(star * (i + 1))
    elif i in range(4, 0, -1):
       print(star * i)

>Solution :

As others have mentioned in the comments, your range() structure is flawed.

You can simplify the approach by using > and < in your if else like this:

print("Pattern: ")

star = "*"

for i in range(9):
    if i < 5:
        print(star * (i + 1))
    else:
        print(star * (9 - i))