Printing stars using nested loops

I just got back from my interview where I had to solve the following problem:


Write a C++ program that prints the following pattern using nested for loops.

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

Here is my solution:

int inc = 2;
for (int i = 1; i >= 1; i += inc){
    for (int j = 0; j < i; j++ )
        std::cout<<'*';
    std::cout<<endl;
    if ( i == 5 )
        inc = -2;
}

I'm just curious to know if there are better solutions (any criteria for better) or just different approaches.

Edit Oh well, not using nested for... Sorry about that

int inc = 2;
for (int i = 1; i >= 1; i += inc){
    std::cout<<std::string(i,'*')<<endl;
    if ( i == 5 )
        inc = -2;
}

StackExchange Code Review Q#12465, answer score: 8