112
\$\begingroup\$

In this challenge, you should write a program or function which takes no input and prints or returns a string with the same number of bytes as the program itself. There are a few rules:

  • You may only output bytes in the printable ASCII range (0x20 to 0x7E, inclusive), or newlines (0x0A or 0x0D).
  • Your code must not be a quine, so the code and the output must differ in at least one byte.
  • Your code must be at least one byte long.
  • If your output contains trailing newlines, those are part of the byte count.
  • If your code requires non-standard command-line flags, count them as usual (i.e. by adding the difference to a standard invocation of your language's implementation to the byte count), and the output's length must match your solution's score. E.g. if your program is ab and requires the non-standard flag -n (we'll assume it can't be combined with standard flags, so it's 3 bytes), you should output 5 bytes in total.
  • The output doesn't always have to be the same, as long as you can show that every possible output satisfies the above requirements.
  • Usual quine rules don't apply. You may read the source code or its size, but I doubt this will be shorter than hardcoding it in most languages.

You may write a program or a function and use any of the standard methods of providing output. Note that if you print the result, you may choose to print it either to the standard output or the standard error stream, but only one of them counts.

You may use any programming language, but note that these loopholes are forbidden by default.

This is , so the shortest valid answer – measured in bytes – wins.

Leaderboard

var QUESTION_ID=121056,OVERRIDE_USER=8478;function answersUrl(e){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/questions/"+QUESTION_ID+"/answers?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+ANSWER_FILTER}function commentUrl(e,s){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/answers/"+s.join(";")+"/comments?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+COMMENT_FILTER}function getAnswers(){jQuery.ajax({url:answersUrl(answer_page++),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){answers.push.apply(answers,e.items),answers_hash=[],answer_ids=[],e.items.forEach(function(e){e.comments=[];var s=+e.share_link.match(/\d+/);answer_ids.push(s),answers_hash[s]=e}),e.has_more||(more_answers=!1),comment_page=1,getComments()}})}function getComments(){jQuery.ajax({url:commentUrl(comment_page++,answer_ids),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){e.items.forEach(function(e){e.owner.user_id===OVERRIDE_USER&&answers_hash[e.post_id].comments.push(e)}),e.has_more?getComments():more_answers?getAnswers():process()}})}function getAuthorName(e){return e.owner.display_name}function process(){var e=[];answers.forEach(function(s){var r=s.body;s.comments.forEach(function(e){OVERRIDE_REG.test(e.body)&&(r="<h1>"+e.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG,"")+"</h1>")});var a=r.match(SCORE_REG);a&&e.push({user:getAuthorName(s),size:+a[2],language:a[1],link:s.share_link})}),e.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.size,a=s.size;return r-a});var s={},r=1,a=null,n=1;e.forEach(function(e){e.size!=a&&(n=r),a=e.size,++r;var t=jQuery("#answer-template").html();t=t.replace("{{PLACE}}",n+".").replace("{{NAME}}",e.user).replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",e.language).replace("{{SIZE}}",e.size).replace("{{LINK}}",e.link),t=jQuery(t),jQuery("#answers").append(t);var o=e.language;/<a/.test(o)&&(o=jQuery(o).text()),s[o]=s[o]||{lang:e.language,user:e.user,size:e.size,link:e.link}});var t=[];for(var o in s)s.hasOwnProperty(o)&&t.push(s[o]);t.sort(function(e,s){var F=function(a){return a.lang.replace(/<\/?a.*?>/g,"").toLowerCase()},el=F(e),sl=F(s);return el>sl?1:el<sl?-1:0});for(var c=0;c<t.length;++c){var i=jQuery("#language-template").html(),o=t[c];i=i.replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",o.lang).replace("{{NAME}}",o.user).replace("{{SIZE}}",o.size).replace("{{LINK}}",o.link),i=jQuery(i),jQuery("#languages").append(i)}}var ANSWER_FILTER="!t)IWYnsLAZle2tQ3KqrVveCRJfxcRLe",COMMENT_FILTER="!)Q2B_A2kjfAiU78X(md6BoYk",answers=[],answers_hash,answer_ids,answer_page=1,more_answers=!0,comment_page;getAnswers();var SCORE_REG=/<h\d>\s*([^\n,]*[^\s,]),.*?(\d+)(?=[^\n\d<>]*(?:<(?:s>[^\n<>]*<\/s>|[^\n<>]+>)[^\n\d<>]*)*<\/h\d>)/,OVERRIDE_REG=/^Override\s*header:\s*/i;
body{text-align:left!important}#answer-list,#language-list{padding:10px;width:290px;float:left}table thead{font-weight:700}table td{padding:5px}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdn.sstatic.net/codegolf/all.css?v=83c949450c8b"> <div id="answer-list"> <h2>Leaderboard</h2> <table class="answer-list"> <thead> <tr><td></td><td>Author</td><td>Language</td><td>Size</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="answers"> </tbody> </table> </div><div id="language-list"> <h2>Winners by Language</h2> <table class="language-list"> <thead> <tr><td>Language</td><td>User</td><td>Score</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="languages"> </tbody> </table> </div><table style="display: none"> <tbody id="answer-template"> <tr><td>{{PLACE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table> <table style="display: none"> <tbody id="language-template"> <tr><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table>

\$\endgroup\$
22
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Related. Related. \$\endgroup\$ May 17, 2017 at 11:19
  • 22
    \$\begingroup\$ "Your code must not be a quine" but... but... it's tagged quine \$\endgroup\$
    – Okx
    May 17, 2017 at 11:21
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ @Okx Because it's a generalised quine, i.e. the required output depends on the source code. \$\endgroup\$ May 17, 2017 at 11:22
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ @MartinEnder You should probably disallow output by exit code, which is a default. If you allow it nearly every one byte program in nearly every language is allowed. One user has already done this \$\endgroup\$
    – Wheat Wizard
    May 17, 2017 at 22:37
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @WheatWizard output by exit code is not a string, so it doesn't apply here. \$\endgroup\$ May 18, 2017 at 4:29

287 Answers 287

1 2 3
4
5
10
2
\$\begingroup\$

JavaScript (ES6), 17 bytes

Edit: I overlooked the rules. This is now returning a string, but is much longer than initially intended.

Returns "Infinity,Infinity".

let f =

_=>`${[1/0,1/0]}`

console.log(f())

\$\endgroup\$
0
2
\$\begingroup\$

C#, 57 49 47 44 bytes

()=>{for(int i=0;i<44;i++)Console.Write(7);}

-8 bytes thanks to Martin

Not 100% on whether lambdas like this are accepted answers, but my previous submission in this format was accepted just fine, so I'm gunna go with it.

Same as the java answer, but better because it's not Java

\$\endgroup\$
0
2
\$\begingroup\$

Deadfish, 1 byte

o

Outputs the accumulator, which is 0 before any action takes place.

note: deadfish prints the accumulator as a number, not as a character code, so the output is "0" (0x48)

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

QBIC, 8 2 bytes

?z

Prints 10, to which z is auto-initialised.


Original brainfart answer

?A+@1234

Explanation:

?       PRINT
A+      A$ (which is undefined, but hold on!), plus
@1234   The string literal 1234, which we now call A$

Outputs 12341234, which is also 8 bytes. We save a byte by putting the string lit at EOF, because we now don't need to use the delimiter. The definition of the literal is moved to the top of the QBasic code by the interpreter, ensuring it existst at the moment of the first call to A$.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

SQLite, 32 bytes

.width 31
.mode column
SELECT"";

Try it online!

Outputs 31 spaces and a newline.

\$\endgroup\$
0
2
\$\begingroup\$

Brain-Flak, 12 bytes

(((([()]))))

Try it online!

This prints

-1
-1
-1
-1
\$\endgroup\$
3
  • \$\begingroup\$ This seems to be 11 bytes of output, not 12. \$\endgroup\$
    – DJMcMayhem
    May 17, 2017 at 16:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DJMcMayhem You're right, fixed \$\endgroup\$
    – Wheat Wizard
    May 17, 2017 at 16:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's to bad -v print Brain-Flak Ruby Interpreter v1.4.2 instead of just v1.4.2. \$\endgroup\$
    – Riley
    May 17, 2017 at 23:30
2
\$\begingroup\$

Stacked, 9 bytes

$put:+put

Try it online!

Outputs [put put]. $put pushes a function literal to the stack, : duplicates it, + concats the two functions, and put outputs the representation of the top of the stack.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Haskell, 16 bytes

main=print[0..6]

Try it online! Output:

[0,1,2,3,4,5,6]

(Note the trailing newline.)

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

MSM, 8 bytes

'.;;.;.;

Output:

........

MSM operates on its own source and takes commands from the left and treats the right as a stack. Stack trace:

' . ; ; . ; . ;                  # ' pushes the next char on the stack
    ; ; . ; . ; .                # ; is dup
      ; . ; . ; . .              # dup again
        . ; . ; . . .            # . is concat
          ; . ; . ..             # dup 
            . ; . .. ..          # concat
              ; . ....           # dup
                . .... ....      # concat
                  ........       # MSM stops if there's only one element in the stack
\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

brainbool, 1 byte

.

Try it online!

brainbool is like brainfuck, except cells can only contain 0 or 1. Outputting in brainbool always produces an ASCII 0 or 1. All cells start out as 0, so . will output 0.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Python 2, 11 bytes

print 4**16

Beep boop.

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ You can do 8**9 for 10 bytes. \$\endgroup\$ May 17, 2017 at 12:14
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Pietu1998 I was about to do 9**9, but @DeadPossum ninja'd me, so I'd rather keep this... \$\endgroup\$
    – Yytsi
    May 17, 2017 at 12:16
2
\$\begingroup\$

Forth, 6 bytes

1e3 f.

Try it online

Output:

1000. 

Note the trailing space.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Python 3 REPL, 3 bytes

1e0

Prints 1.0.

If trailing newline counts,

5*2

Prints 10, then a trailing newline.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Yes, the trailing linefeed counts. \$\endgroup\$ May 18, 2017 at 4:36
2
\$\begingroup\$

TacO, 1 byte

@

Outputs a single newline.

Taco's default behaviour is to print out a newline, for some reason. But, the code needs an entry point, @, to work. So this works.

Try it online!

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Bash, 11 bytes

printf %11s

prints:

"           "

(without the quotes)

If the newline counts, then printf "%10s" will print 10 characters plus the newline.

I did consider echo $0 (7) which works when saved with a filename 7 characters long, but I think that falls under the common set of unaccepted answers

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ printf %11s outputs exactly 11 spaces \$\endgroup\$ May 17, 2017 at 15:54
2
\$\begingroup\$

Brian & Chuck, 9 bytes

?{-?
	.{?

Try it online!

Prints ?????????.

The first character on the second line is a tab.

Explanation

The tab's code point is 9 and it's just used as a counter to loop the correct number of times.

The program starts by immediately switching to Chuck with ?. The . prints that ?, { currently does nothing and ? switches back to Brian.

We now start the main loop which runs 8 times. { moves the tape head on Chuck back to the first cell, i.e. the tab. - decrements this counter. Once the counter hits zero, ? does nothing and the program ends. But until that happens it switches control back to Chuck. Then . prints another ?, { resets the tape head on Brian to the beginning and ? hands control back to him. This way, the two instances alternate between decrementing the counter on Chuck and printing a ? on Brian.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Japt, 1 byte

Outputs a string containing a single ".

Q

Try it online


Or this will output a string containing a single \n.

R

Try it online

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • \$\begingroup\$ Heh, nice. S will work too, or T, or U, or a, or f, or... there are probably 40 or so options that print 0 or 1. \$\endgroup\$ May 19, 2017 at 0:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ETHproductions, T, U, a, f, etc. wouldn't be valid as string output is required. s works, though. \$\endgroup\$
    – Shaggy
    May 19, 2017 at 7:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ Only functions are required to return strings. The output of any program is considered a string by default, since there's no way to tell between outputting "123" vs. 123 (both just show up as 123) \$\endgroup\$ May 19, 2017 at 12:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ Unless, in the case of Japt, you use the -Q flag ;) But that's good to know, thanks @ETHproductions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Shaggy
    May 19, 2017 at 12:04
2
\$\begingroup\$

7, 3 characters, 1 byte

Seen as individual characters:

723

Or as a hex dump, proving that it runs from a file that's one byte long:

00000000: e9                                       .

Try it online!

Outputs the characters 23 in 7's encoding. This also happens to be a single byte long, and a printable ASCII byte at that:

00000000: 4f                                       O

Explanation

This is a literal that pushes two stack elements: an empty stack element (7 separates stack elements), and 23, 7's print statement. When the end of the program is reached, the top stack element is copied and evalled, meaning that an attempt is made to print 23; because this contains characters that don't exist in 7's encoding (the active versions of the 2 and 3 commands, shown in bold in the explanation), the printed value gets escaped (into 723), and the 7 is interpreted as a request to format the output in the same encoding as the input, with the 23 getting printed.

It can be observed that the leading 7 on the program is entirely pointless, except to make the output and input distinct.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Carrot, 4 bytes

.^*3

Prints .... (4 .s).

Try it online!

Explanation

.^                        Sets the stack-string to "."
  *3                      Append three duplicates of the stack-string to itself
                          Implicit output
\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Ruby, 16 bytes

puts (1..8).to_a

returns

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Can I use this to enter challenge?
Try it Online!

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Looks good to me. Welcome to PPCG! :) \$\endgroup\$ May 23, 2017 at 8:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ p (1..4).to_a should work, for 13 bytes. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dennis
    May 23, 2017 at 17:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Dennis and codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/121108/6691 is even shorter and already posted, so what's the point of that comment? \$\endgroup\$
    – b_jonas
    Jun 13, 2017 at 20:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ @b_jonas Just because someone achieved a better score doesn't mean you can't try to get the most of your approach. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dennis
    Jun 13, 2017 at 20:15
2
\$\begingroup\$

ZX Spectrum BASIC, 1 byte

PRINT

(which is 1 byte) prints a single newline.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think Apple][ integer Basic does a similar thing with ? for PRINT \$\endgroup\$
    – roblogic
    Aug 15, 2019 at 2:02
2
\$\begingroup\$

dc (bash command line under Linux), 9 bytes

(inc newlines on both the math expression and the answer)

2 24 ^ p

Prints:

16777216

I wanted to make sure RPN wasn't forgotten about :)

\$\endgroup\$
6
  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to PPCG! You're a little bit outgolfed already. \$\endgroup\$ May 23, 2017 at 17:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ØrjanJohansen, hehe yes I don't mind, to be honest I just wanted to play along. The day that P8x32A Assembly language is a valid language around here I'll whup everyone :D \$\endgroup\$
    – Wossname
    May 23, 2017 at 17:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ You're free to use any language you want (as long as there's a working implementation), including P8x32A assembly. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dennis
    May 23, 2017 at 17:58
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Dennis, define "working". I doubt many PCG frequenters would feel like grabbing a soldering iron and building a circuit to prove that the code works :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Wossname
    May 23, 2017 at 18:00
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ So basically it needs an emulator. \$\endgroup\$ May 23, 2017 at 18:03
2
\$\begingroup\$

Microscript, 1 byte

E

Prints 100=1. e will also work, printing 20=1.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Forth (gforth), 4 bytes

.S \

Prints <0> (that's <, 0, >, and space). Stack must be empty (for example if gforth was just started)

How it works: .S prints the stack depth enclosed in brackets and then the stack contents seperated with a space. \ is the beginning of a comment, it does nothing.

Forth (gforth), 8 bytes

8 SPACES

Well, it prints 8 spaces. Not much to see here.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

SmileBASIC 3, 3 bytes

?@A

Prints the string @A, plus a trailing newline, so output is 3 bytes.

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

MarioLANG, 1 byte

:

Output the numeric value from current memory cell, which is 0

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

TI-Basic, 7 bytes

(Ab)using the fact that Done is displayed when nothing is evaluated on the last line. Lowercase letters are two bytes each in TI-Basic.

Repeat 1337:End
\$\endgroup\$
3
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I wouldn't count printed lowercase letters as two bytes. Lowercase letter tokens take two bytes to store, but I think the calculator doesn't store the tokens when it prints the letters. \$\endgroup\$
    – lirtosiast
    Jul 11, 2017 at 1:36
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @lirtosiast You could always have something like Repeat 1:End for 4 bytes of course. \$\endgroup\$
    – Timtech
    Jul 11, 2017 at 2:21
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Yes, that would be better \$\endgroup\$
    – lirtosiast
    Jul 11, 2017 at 16:19
2
\$\begingroup\$

JavaScript, 35 bytes

Source:

console.log(([]+[])["constructor"])

Output:

function String() { [native code] }
\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

HQ9+, 13 bytes

haaaaaaaaaaaa

Prints:

Hello, world!

The instruction "h" in HQ9+ will print "Hello, world!" and any instruction that is not "h" "q" "9" or "+" will be ignored.

You might want to know why this language exists, and why I'm answering this question with it.

Why not?

\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

Python 3 REPL, 11 bytes

str(...)[:]

Try it online! The header and the footer emulate a REPL.

This prints:

'Ellipsis'

\$\endgroup\$
1 2 3
4
5
10

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.