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I recently saw some questions on SO that asked if you could make a Hello World program without using any semi colons using C#. The challenge is to do this again, but in the shortest amount of code possible!

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1  
I assume this is meant to be a language-specific challenge? Otherwise there are plenty of languages where this task would be trivial. (For example, 'Hello World' is a valid GolfScript program that prints Hello World. Although HQ9+ will easily beat it.) – Ilmari Karonen Apr 17 '12 at 14:51
@llmari Sorry, yes, I have updated question. I would have tagged it C# but it doesn't exist and I don't have the rep to create it, thanks. – Bali C Apr 17 '12 at 15:41

8 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

C# (114)

class M{static void Main(){if(typeof(System.Console).GetMethods()[78].Invoke(null,new[]{"Hello, world!"})is M){}}}

Note that the proper index for Write(string)/WriteLine(string) may be different on your system. However, since there are only 106 methods total, I'm almost certain either Write(string) or WriteLine(string) will be a two-digit index number on every system, so the character count should be generally valid.

Demo: http://ideone.com/5npky (Write method is apparently index 23 here)

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This solution is brilliant. +1 – primo Apr 22 '12 at 10:40
I also thought is was ironic that after putting it together, it came out exactly 1 character shorter than yours :) – mellamokb Apr 23 '12 at 17:25
up vote 7 down vote

C, 33 chars

main(){if(puts("Hello World")){}}
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up vote 7 down vote

C# 85 chars
class H{static void Main(){if(System.Console.Out.WriteAsync("Hello, world!")is H){}}}

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Which .NET version is this? .NET 4 doesn't seem to contain a definition for TextWriter.WriteAsync(). – primo Apr 26 '12 at 6:45
2  
@primo .NET 4.5 does. – Bob Apr 26 '12 at 10:58
up vote 6 down vote

115 Bytes

class H{static void Main(){if(((System.Action)(()=>System.Console.Write("Hello, world!"))).DynamicInvoke()is H){}}}

It's likely possible to produce something a bit shorter, but I'm pretty sure that you're going to need make some sort of asynchronous call.

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up vote 5 down vote

C, 36 35 bytes

main(int v[puts("Hello World")]){}

Well, it's not C#, posting just for fun..

:-)

edit: changed from char* to int, as suggested by l0n3_shArk

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2  
Close enough :) +1 – Bali C Apr 18 '12 at 14:26
1  
changing char* to int reduces the size by 1 :) – l0n3_sh4rk Apr 19 '12 at 9:30
up vote 3 down vote

Java (96 93 chars)

Not C#, but I figure Java is similar enough:

class H{public static void main(String[]a){if(System.out.append("Hello world").equals(a)){}}}

Thanks to Prince John Wesley, here is a shorter version of 89 chars:

class H{public static void main(String[]a){if(System.out.printf("Hello world")==null){}}}
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How about class H{static void main... Not sure if that trick applies to Java as well :) – mellamokb Apr 23 '12 at 20:18
Nope, that's not allowed: main should be public, or at least my compiler tells me so. Strangely enough, the class doesn't need to be. – AardvarkSoup Apr 23 '12 at 20:33
You can actually make it shorter by using a static block if you ignore the output to stderr: class H{static{if(System.out.append("Hello world").equals(0)){}}} :) – mellamokb Apr 24 '12 at 3:15
@AardvarkSoup: Use System.out.append("Hello World")!=null – Prince John Wesley Apr 30 '12 at 10:30
@AardvarkSoup: printf or format methods will do the same. – Prince John Wesley Apr 30 '12 at 10:32
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up vote 2 down vote

96 95 94 chars

A bit of a cheat, but works if you have IronRuby installed:

class P{static void Main(){if(IronRuby.Ruby.CreateEngine().Execute("puts'Hello World'")>1){}}}
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2  
You can save 1 char by replacing == with a one-character comparison operator. – Peter Taylor Apr 19 '12 at 9:42
@PeterTaylor I've updated the code. Thanks for this great suggestion! – w0lf Apr 19 '12 at 9:47
I also removed the space between puts and the string. puts'Hello World' is valid ruby code – w0lf Apr 19 '12 at 9:49
up vote 0 down vote

In C#. 95 chars

class X{static void Main(){if(((Action<String>)Console.Write).Invoke("Hello, World!")is X){}}}
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Except you have to qualify all the types with System.Action, System.String, System.Console.Write since there are no libraries imported. Adding those back in makes your code 115 characters, which currently is a tie with the longest C# solution: ideone.com/4f8EU – mellamokb Apr 25 '12 at 22:12
Not to mention it doesn't actually output anything, even with the corrections. This however does, also 115B: ideone.com/TeGz1 – primo Apr 25 '12 at 23:31
@primo: Actually the strange thing is, when I run the ideone code I posted in LINQPad it works fine, and prints out the text. It's only on ideone that it doesn't. Wonder if it's some sort of mono or ideone limitation. – mellamokb Apr 26 '12 at 13:21
Works in VS 2010 though... – SamuelWarren Apr 26 '12 at 13:25
You're code above works in VS 2010 without any import statements? How? – mellamokb May 21 '12 at 16:29

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