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This is a code-golf question. You need to take the contents of two separate files (i.txt and o.txt) and swap them. You can create a third file to help you with the process, but have your program delete it after the file contents are swapped. Renaming the files is now allowed again.

Programs must work for any file content.

Shortest code wins, all eligible submissions will be up-voted.

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5
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Rename the files. No need to "take the contents" and swap them to achieve the result. \$\endgroup\$ Dec 28, 2013 at 19:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Darren Stone I think that should be illegal. Thanks for catching that before answers were submitted. \$\endgroup\$
    – user10766
    Dec 28, 2013 at 19:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ Looks like a bad constraint, renaming is the best way to do this \$\endgroup\$
    – hdante
    Dec 28, 2013 at 20:47
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Alright, I can remove this constraint. \$\endgroup\$
    – user10766
    Dec 28, 2013 at 20:55
  • 9
    \$\begingroup\$ @hdante but 'renaming files' is not exchanging their contents. On a system that uses inodes the goal here would be for i.txt's inode to contain the data from o.txt's inode, and vice versa, so that if there are hardlinks to those inodes elsewhere, their contents will appear swapped as well. Renaming can't accomplish that. \$\endgroup\$ May 11, 2014 at 3:07

25 Answers 25

10
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zsh, 20 + 4 = 24

The script needs to be named .txt.

(mv [io]$0;>i$0)<o$0

or 14 with parameters:

(mv $@;>$1)<$2
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6
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I like the one without a temporary file better, though: i=`<i.txt`;<o*>i*;<<<$i>o*. It’s too bad this has to be shorter. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ry-
    Dec 28, 2013 at 19:54
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Rules changed to allow renaming files. You can update your code if you wish. \$\endgroup\$
    – user10766
    Dec 28, 2013 at 20:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ You could save 3 chars by replacing <t>o*;rm t by mv t o* ! \$\endgroup\$ May 11, 2014 at 23:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ @F.Hauri: Ah, thanks! (There were rules against renaming at one point.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Ry-
    May 11, 2014 at 23:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ This code is not correct. It works only in the special case where i* and o* will match only i.txt and o.txt respectively, i.e. there is no other file with a name beginning with either "i" or "o". \$\endgroup\$ May 15, 2014 at 13:25
3
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Python, 77

import os;t='.txt';r,i,o,x=[os.rename,'i'+t,'o'+t,'1'+t];r(i,x);r(o,i);r(x,o)

Python, 65

import os;t='.txt'
for a,b in zip('iox','xio'):os.rename(a+t,b+t)

Python, 63

import os;t='.txt'
for a,b in 'ix','oi','xo':os.rename(a+t,b+t)

PHP, 68

<?$r=rename;$t='.txt';$r("i$t","x");$r("o$t","i$t");$r("x","o$t");?>

Windows Batch File, 42

move i.txt x&move o.txt i.txt&move x o.txt

Windows Batch File (args), 30

move %1 x&move %2 %1&move x %2
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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ I didn't know you can use $r=rename to create aliases to functions in PHP. Thanks! \$\endgroup\$
    – A.L
    May 11, 2014 at 15:15
2
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PHP, 89

I thought I'd give it a shot.

<?php $f1='f1.txt';$f2='f2.txt';$ft='ft.txt';copy($f1,$ft);copy($f2,$f1);rename($ft,$f2);

Ungolfed version:

<?php
$f1 = 'f1.txt';
$f2 = 'f2.txt';
$ft = 'ft.txt';

copy($f1, $ft);
copy($f2, $f1);
rename($ft, $f2);

Apparently I took 2 answers of here and combined them.. oh well.

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2
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VBA (148...132) and (126...110)

Renaming with a temp file t in the c:\ drive. Also first attempt at golf :S

Sub s():Set f=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"):i="c:\i.txt":t="c:\t":f.MoveFile i,t:f.MoveFile "c:\o.txt",i:Kill t:End Sub

If scrrun.dll is referenced already, could cut it down a bit to 126...110.

Sub s():Set f=new FileSystemObject:i="c:\i.txt":t="c:\t":f.MoveFile i,t:f.MoveFile "c:\o.txt",i:Kill t:End Sub
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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ Looks like your code has a lot of whitespace. Are you sure they are needed? You can have a much better score if you remove them. \$\endgroup\$
    – user12205
    May 15, 2014 at 10:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think it's needed the editor just threw it in. Removed apart from where it's necessary :) \$\endgroup\$
    – jaybee3
    May 15, 2014 at 12:32
2
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Ruby, 72 bytes

Wow! A Ruby code golf! I don't think that's ever been attempted before!

In all reality though, this required some nice Ruby shortcuts and a couple patterns which I found. It was my first golf ever and it was very fun to do. Without further ado, here's the golfed code:

3.times{|x|x*=2;t=".txt";a=([?i,?a,?o]*2);File.rename(a[x]+t,a[x+1]+t)}

And the ungolfed version

3.times do |x|
    x = x * 2
    t=".txt"
    a=([?i,?a,?o]*2)
    File.rename(a[x]+t, a[x+1]+t)}
end

The key factor in this is that the parameters passed to the File.rename are this, exactly:

File.rename "i.txt", "a.txt"
File.rename "o.txt", "i.txt"
File.rename "a.txt", "o.txt"

Hope this (doesn't) make sense!

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2
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Powershell, 44 49 bytes

$t='.txt'
ren i$t a$t -fo
ren o$t i$t
ren a$t o$t

where ren is alias for Rename-Item. The script uses and delete a third file a.txt.

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2
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ This can fail with certain encoding. Because gc default is UTF8NoBOM but sc default is ASCII. Try some UTF-8 files or binary files and you can see how it can fail. \$\endgroup\$ Dec 26, 2018 at 20:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Indeed. Thanks. It need -e by -n parameters to ensure that the files unchanged. It would be nice to add a parameter -readCount 0 to performance. The script with rename is shorter :) Fixed. \$\endgroup\$
    – mazzy
    Dec 27, 2018 at 6:26
2
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Two based answers; 52 and 62 chars

shell: diff + patch (+ tee + sed...) 52

Maybe not the shorter, but I find this fun (and there is no use of temporary file):

diff -u [io]*|tee >(patch -r -)|sed 1s/i/o/|patch -R

Where content is swapped and files are modified in place:

Sample run

swapContent() { diff -u $1 $2|tee >(patch -r -)|sed 1s/$1/$2/|patch -R ;}

while read page file ;do man -Pcol\ -b $page >$file.txt;done <<<$'man i\nbash o'
printf "%s %8d  %s\n" $(join -j 2 <(stat -c '%s %n' [io]*) <(md5sum [io]*))
swapContent [io]*
printf "%s %8d  %s\n" $(join -j 2 <(stat -c '%s %n' [io]*) <(md5sum [io]*))

Could produce something like:

i.txt    46007  1da1f7533e0eab1e97cce97bb7ca1d3b
o.txt   321071  7dcd230890faf4ef848d4745eda14407
patching file o.txt
i.txt   321071  7dcd230890faf4ef848d4745eda14407
o.txt    46007  1da1f7533e0eab1e97cce97bb7ca1d3b

use of xargs to simplify mv requests

Not as funny, but nice anyway.

set -- {i,o}.txt t&&eval 'xargs -n2 mv<<<"' \${1,3,2,1,3,2} \"
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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ Nota: As first patch output is not redirected, they become garbage on second patch command. This is the reason because only one patching file o.txt appear. \$\endgroup\$ May 11, 2014 at 22:20
2
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05AB1E --no-lazy, 39 37 35 bytes

-2 thanks to Kevin Cruijssen.

'°ŽDÀøεS’.í¼t"’«`’File.‚™‚ˆ"ÿ,"ÿ’.E

Try it online! Link includes a header and footer to create the files and prove that it worked.

'°ŽDÀøεS’...’«`’...’.E  # trimmed program
      ε                 # for each in...
     ø                  # all characters of...
'°Ž                     # "bio"...
     ø                  # paired with corresponding characters of...
'°ŽD                    # "bio"...
    À                   # rotated left one character...
                    .E  # evaluate...
               ’...’    # "File.rename\"ÿ\",\"ÿ\""...
                        # (implicit) with the first ÿ replaced by...
              `         # second element of...
       S                # list of characters of...
                        # (implicit) current element...
                        # (implicit) with each element...
             «          # concatenated with...
        ’...’           # ".txt"...
                        # (implicit) with the second ÿ replaced by...
              `         # first element of...
        S               # list of characters of...
                        # (implicit) current element...
                        # (implicit) with each element...
              «         # concatenated with...
         ’...’          # ".txt"...
                    .E  # as Elixir code

====================

File.rename  # full program
File.rename  # rename file with name argument 1 to argument 2
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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ Nice answer! vy can be ε for -1. Also, í¼t and ‚™ can simply be txt and re; the dictionary string and hard-coded string are the same byte-count. Try it online. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 2, 2023 at 12:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh, and ’.txt’ can be ’.txt"’, allowing you to drop the " after both ÿ for another -1: try it online - 35 bytes \$\endgroup\$ Jun 2, 2023 at 12:32
1
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Ruby

i1="i.txt"
i2="o.txt"
c1=IO.readlines(i2)
c2=IO.readlines(i1)
File.open(i1){|x|x.puts(c1)}
File.open(i2){|x|x.puts(c2)}

Shortened version:

a=["i.txt","o.txt"]
(0..1).each{|x|b[x]=IO.readlines(a[x])*"\n"}
a.reverse!
(0..1).each{|x|IO.write(a[x],b[x])}

Not the shortest, but very simple and easy to read. Also, no intermediate files, only RAM.

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2
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    \$\begingroup\$ Given that it’s a code-golf, you could at least take out the spaces and try somewhat for the shortest. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ry-
    Dec 28, 2013 at 20:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ Totally didn't realize it was code-golf, sorry \$\endgroup\$
    – user11485
    Dec 28, 2013 at 21:15
1
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Shell script, 24

Works in Bash and probably most shells. Pass with your two filenames as parameters.

mv $1 ੴ;mv $2 $1;mv ੴ $2

If you want fixed filenames then this will do it, for a 12 char penalty:

mv i.txt ੴ;mv o.txt i.txt;mv ੴ o.txt
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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ @minitech, yes it does. 'ੴ' becomes 'o.txt'. Those are mv operations, not cp. \$\endgroup\$ Dec 29, 2013 at 1:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ Second best answer so far! Reduce it by two characters and you win! I do not care about fixed filenames. \$\endgroup\$
    – user10766
    Dec 29, 2013 at 4:28
1
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Python:

import os
l,e='i_o'*2,'.txt'
for x,y in zip(l,l[1:])[::2]:
 os.rename(x+e,y+e)
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1
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Windows Batch File (48)

type i.txt>a&type o.txt>i.txt&type a>o.txt&del a

I forgot about the move command when I wrote this...

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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ You just overwrote my a file! \$\endgroup\$
    – Danny
    May 14, 2014 at 16:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Danny The question states that you may create another file, but it must be deleted. \$\endgroup\$
    – kitcar2000
    May 14, 2014 at 16:21
1
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C 162

Golfed: uses t.txt as tmp file and swaps names then removes t.txt.

#include <stdio.h>
#define R(x,y) rename(x,y)
#define X(x) remove(x)
int main(){char *i="i.txt",*o="o.txt",*t="t.txt";R(i,t);X(i);R(o,i);R(t,o);X(t);return 0;}

Edit: removed 2 spaces

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1
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PHP - 172

Golfed version of @EisaAdil's answer

$f1='file1.txt';$f2='file2.txt';$f1contents=file_get_contents($f1);$f2contents=file_get_contents($f2);file_put_contents($f1,$f2contents);file_put_contents($f2,$f1contents);
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1
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Rebol - 46 (rename file) or 55 (r/w contents)

Rename file (using t as temporary file):

r: :rename 
r i: %i.txt %t
r o: %o.txt i
r %t o

Read in then write out file contents:

a: read i: %i.txt
b: read o: %o.txt
write o a 
write i b
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1
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PHP, 45

<?php
copy('i','t');copy('o','i');rename('t','o');

Not very golfy but shortest PHP so far.

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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ file extensions are missing. \$\endgroup\$
    – Titus
    Dec 26, 2018 at 9:05
1
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Groovy - 99 chars

This is my attempt, with Groovy 2.2.1. I tried to do it without renaming:

f={new File(it+".txt")}
w={x,y->x.withWriter{it.write y}}
i=f "i"
o=f "o"
t=i.text
w i,o.text
w o,t

Ungolfed:

file = { new File(it+".txt") }
writeTextToFile = { x,y -> x.withWriter{it.write y} }

iFile = file("i")
oFile = file("o")

iText = iFile.text
writeTextToFile (iFile,oFile.text)
writeTextToFile (oFile,iText)
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1
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C: 65 characters

#define r(a,b)rename(#a".txt",#b".txt");
main(){r(i,)r(o,i)r(,o)}

A quite simple solution in C that does the job. It uses a temporary name (.txt) for one of the files before giving it its proper new name.

Ungolfed (note how the syntax highlighting fails in the define, a bug has been uncovered!):

#include <stdio.h>

#define r(a, b) rename(#a ".txt", #b ".txt");

int main()
{
    r(i,  ) // rename("i.txt",  ".txt");
    r(o, i) // rename("o.txt", "i.txt");
    r( , o) // rename( ".txt", "o.txt");

    return 0;
}
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1
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Perl, 120 bytes (Contents swapping without file renaming)

use open IO,':bytes';undef$/;open I,"<i.txt";$I=<I>;open I,"<o.txt";open O,">i.txt";print O<I>;open O,">o.txt";print O$I

The file contents is put into memory and written back to the other file. Thus i.txt and o.txt must fit into memory.

Since the file contents are actually exchanged, hard links are updated automatically, see AJManfield's comment.

Ungolfed:

use open IO => ':bytes'; # binmode, not needed for Unix, but needed for Windows
undef $/;                # read whole file instead of lines
open I, "<i.txt";        # open i.txt for reading
$I = <I>;                # read i.txt
open I, "<o.txt";        # open o.txt for reading
open O, ">i.txt";        # open i.txt for writing
print O <I>;             # read o.txt and put the contents in i.txt
open O, ">o.txt";        # open o.txt for writing
print O $I;              # write o.txt with contents of old i.txt
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1
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Windows Batch, 39 bytes

ren i.txt x&ren o.txt i.txt&ren x o.txt
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1
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Lua, 71 70 bytes

_ENV=os t='.txt'i,o,r='i'..t,'o'..t,rename r(i,t)r(o,i)r(t,o)remove(t)

Try it online!

Define os, the operating system library, as the global table so we can write rename and remove instead of os.rename and os.remove. (Incidentally this also means the one-letter variables are actually fields in the os table.) Make short alias for os.rename to save some space. Set up filename variables, using '.txt' as temporary file. Do the renaming and deleting.

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1
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PHP, 52 bytes

AsksAnyway´s php modernized & golfed:

($r=rename)(i.$e=".txt",x);$r(o.$e,i.$e);$r(x,o.$e);

Run with php -nr '<code>'.

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1
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Tcl, 122 bytes

set A [read [open i.txt]]
puts [set i [open i.txt w]] [read [open o.txt]]
puts [set o [open o.txt w]] $A
close $i
close $o

Try it online!


Tcl, 169 bytes

set A [read [set i [open i.txt r]]]
set B [read [set o [open o.txt r]]]
close $i
close $o
puts [set i [open i.txt w]] $B
puts [set o [open o.txt w]] $A
close $i
close $o

Try it online!

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1
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AWK, 66 bytes

a=FILENAME,b=!b?a:b{c[a]=c[a]$0RS}END{printf c[a]>b;printf c[b]>a}

Try it online!

Note: I provided a TIO line, but I have no idea how to make it work when the code needs to read from input files?

The rename approaches seem to be much shorter, but here's one in AWK that copies the data instead. At a high level, it takes a commandline like,

gawk '...code...' i.txt o.txt

which feeds both files into the program on STDIN. It uses the magic variable FILENAME to cache the contents of each one into a separate entry in an associative array. Then the END clause just overwrites each file with the content from the other one.

The "test" per line, which is always truthy, sets a to the current filename over and over. And it also ensures b is to the first filename seen.

a=FILENAME,b=!b?a:b

The code block executed per line, just appends the current line to the accumulated data for the current filename.

c[a]=c[a]$0RS

Then once all the lines from both files have been read, the END code block writes out the files with the content swapped.

printf c[a]>b;printf c[b]>a
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0
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SmileBASIC, 36 35 bytes

@L
RENAME@OI[2-I],@IO[I]I=I+1GOTO@L
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