517
\$\begingroup\$

So... uh... this is a bit embarrassing. But we don't have a plain "Hello, World!" challenge yet (despite having 35 variants tagged with , and counting). While this is not the most interesting code golf in the common languages, finding the shortest solution in certain esolangs can be a serious challenge. For instance, to my knowledge it is not known whether the shortest possible Brainfuck solution has been found yet.

Furthermore, while all of Wikipedia (the Wikipedia entry has been deleted but there is a copy at archive.org ), esolangs and Rosetta Code have lists of "Hello, World!" programs, none of these are interested in having the shortest for each language (there is also this GitHub repository). If we want to be a significant site in the code golf community, I think we should try and create the ultimate catalogue of shortest "Hello, World!" programs (similar to how our basic quine challenge contains some of the shortest known quines in various languages). So let's do this!

The Rules

  • Each submission must be a full program.
  • The program must take no input, and print Hello, World! to STDOUT (this exact byte stream, including capitalization and punctuation) plus an optional trailing newline, and nothing else.
  • The program must not write anything to STDERR.
  • If anyone wants to abuse this by creating a language where the empty program prints Hello, World!, then congrats, they just paved the way for a very boring answer.

    Note that there must be an interpreter so the submission can be tested. It is allowed (and even encouraged) to write this interpreter yourself for a previously unimplemented language.

  • Submissions are scored in bytes, in an appropriate (pre-existing) encoding, usually (but not necessarily) UTF-8. Some languages, like Folders, are a bit tricky to score - if in doubt, please ask on Meta.
  • This is not about finding the language with the shortest "Hello, World!" program. This is about finding the shortest "Hello, World!" program in every language. Therefore, I will not mark any answer as "accepted".
  • If your language of choice is a trivial variant of another (potentially more popular) language which already has an answer (think BASIC or SQL dialects, Unix shells or trivial Brainfuck-derivatives like Alphuck), consider adding a note to the existing answer that the same or a very similar solution is also the shortest in the other language.

As a side note, please don't downvote boring (but valid) answers in languages where there is not much to golf - these are still useful to this question as it tries to compile a catalogue as complete as possible. However, do primarily upvote answers in languages where the authors actually had to put effort into golfing the code.

For inspiration, check the Hello World Collection.

The Catalogue

The Stack Snippet at the bottom of this post generates the catalogue from the answers a) as a list of shortest solution per language and b) as an overall leaderboard.

To make sure that your answer shows up, please start your answer with a headline, using the following Markdown template:

## Language Name, N bytes

where N is the size of your submission. If you improve your score, you can keep old scores in the headline, by striking them through. For instance:

## Ruby, <s>104</s> <s>101</s> 96 bytes

If there you want to include multiple numbers in your header (e.g. because your score is the sum of two files or you want to list interpreter flag penalties separately), make sure that the actual score is the last number in the header:

## Perl, 43 + 2 (-p flag) = 45 bytes

You can also make the language name a link which will then show up in the snippet:

## [><>](https://esolangs.org/wiki/Fish), 121 bytes

/* Configuration */

var QUESTION_ID = 55422; // Obtain this from the url
// It will be like https://XYZ.stackexchange.com/questions/QUESTION_ID/... on any question page
var ANSWER_FILTER = "!t)IWYnsLAZle2tQ3KqrVveCRJfxcRLe";
var COMMENT_FILTER = "!)Q2B_A2kjfAiU78X(md6BoYk";
var OVERRIDE_USER = 8478; // This should be the user ID of the challenge author.

/* App */

var answers = [], answers_hash, answer_ids, answer_page = 1, more_answers = true, comment_page;

function answersUrl(index) {
  return "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/questions/" +  QUESTION_ID + "/answers?page=" + index + "&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter=" + ANSWER_FILTER;
}

function commentUrl(index, answers) {
  return "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/answers/" + answers.join(';') + "/comments?page=" + index + "&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter=" + COMMENT_FILTER;
}

function getAnswers() {
  jQuery.ajax({
    url: answersUrl(answer_page++),
    method: "get",
    dataType: "jsonp",
    crossDomain: true,
    success: function (data) {
      answers.push.apply(answers, data.items);
      answers_hash = [];
      answer_ids = [];
      data.items.forEach(function(a) {
        a.comments = [];
        var id = +a.share_link.match(/\d+/);
        answer_ids.push(id);
        answers_hash[id] = a;
      });
      if (!data.has_more) more_answers = false;
      comment_page = 1;
      getComments();
    }
  });
}

function getComments() {
  jQuery.ajax({
    url: commentUrl(comment_page++, answer_ids),
    method: "get",
    dataType: "jsonp",
    crossDomain: true,
    success: function (data) {
      data.items.forEach(function(c) {
        if (c.owner.user_id === OVERRIDE_USER)
          answers_hash[c.post_id].comments.push(c);
      });
      if (data.has_more) getComments();
      else if (more_answers) getAnswers();
      else process();
    }
  });  
}

getAnswers();

var SCORE_REG = /<h\d>\s*([^\n,<]*(?:<(?:[^\n>]*>[^\n<]*<\/[^\n>]*>)[^\n,<]*)*),.*?(\d+)(?=[^\n\d<>]*(?:<(?:s>[^\n<>]*<\/s>|[^\n<>]+>)[^\n\d<>]*)*<\/h\d>)/;

var OVERRIDE_REG = /^Override\s*header:\s*/i;

function getAuthorName(a) {
  return a.owner.display_name;
}

function process() {
  var valid = [];
  
  answers.forEach(function(a) {
    var body = a.body;
    a.comments.forEach(function(c) {
      if(OVERRIDE_REG.test(c.body))
        body = '<h1>' + c.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG, '') + '</h1>';
    });
    
    var match = body.match(SCORE_REG);
    if (match)
      valid.push({
        user: getAuthorName(a),
        size: +match[2],
        language: match[1],
        link: a.share_link,
      });
    else console.log(body);
  });
  
  valid.sort(function (a, b) {
    var aB = a.size,
        bB = b.size;
    return aB - bB
  });

  var languages = {};
  var place = 1;
  var lastSize = null;
  var lastPlace = 1;
  valid.forEach(function (a) {
    if (a.size != lastSize)
      lastPlace = place;
    lastSize = a.size;
    ++place;
    
    var answer = jQuery("#answer-template").html();
    answer = answer.replace("{{PLACE}}", lastPlace + ".")
                   .replace("{{NAME}}", a.user)
                   .replace("{{LANGUAGE}}", a.language)
                   .replace("{{SIZE}}", a.size)
                   .replace("{{LINK}}", a.link);
    answer = jQuery(answer);
    jQuery("#answers").append(answer);

    var lang = a.language;
    lang = jQuery('<a>'+lang+'</a>').text();
    
    languages[lang] = languages[lang] || {lang: a.language, lang_raw: lang, user: a.user, size: a.size, link: a.link};
  });

  var langs = [];
  for (var lang in languages)
    if (languages.hasOwnProperty(lang))
      langs.push(languages[lang]);

  langs.sort(function (a, b) {
    if (a.lang_raw.toLowerCase() > b.lang_raw.toLowerCase()) return 1;
    if (a.lang_raw.toLowerCase() < b.lang_raw.toLowerCase()) return -1;
    return 0;
  });

  for (var i = 0; i < langs.length; ++i)
  {
    var language = jQuery("#language-template").html();
    var lang = langs[i];
    language = language.replace("{{LANGUAGE}}", lang.lang)
                       .replace("{{NAME}}", lang.user)
                       .replace("{{SIZE}}", lang.size)
                       .replace("{{LINK}}", lang.link);
    language = jQuery(language);
    jQuery("#languages").append(language);
  }

}
body {
  text-align: left !important;
  display: block !important;
}

#answer-list {
  padding: 10px;
  width: 290px;
  float: left;
}

#language-list {
  padding: 10px;
  width: 500px;
  float: left;
}

table thead {
  font-weight: bold;
}

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="https://cdn.sstatic.net/Sites/codegolf/all.css?v=ffb5d0584c5f">
<div id="language-list">
  <h2>Shortest Solution 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>
<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>
<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\$
21
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ @isaacg No it doesn't. I think there would be some interesting languages where it's not obvious whether primality testing is possible. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 28, 2015 at 13:56
  • 7
    \$\begingroup\$ If the same program, such as "Hello, World!", is the shortest in many different and unrelated languages, should it be posted separately? \$\endgroup\$ Aug 28, 2015 at 15:33
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @mbomb007 Well it's hidden by default because the three code blocks take up a lot of space. I could minify them so that they are a single line each, but I'd rather keep the code maintainable in case bugs come up. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 28, 2015 at 19:34
  • 8
    \$\begingroup\$ @ETHproductions "Unlike our usual rules, feel free to use a language (or language version) even if it's newer than this challenge." Publishing the language and an implementation before posting it would definitely be helpful though. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 29, 2015 at 23:01
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @MartinEnder ... Almost. If two BF solutions have the same size, the one with smaller lexicographical order will take smaller number of bytes in Unary. Of course the smallest Unary solution translated to BF is guaranteed to be smallest. \$\endgroup\$
    – DELETE_ME
    May 20, 2018 at 10:20

976 Answers 976

1
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1
\$\begingroup\$

Loader, 22 bytes

printf "Hello, World!"
\$\endgroup\$
0
1
\$\begingroup\$

MagiStack, 22 bytes

"!dlroW ,olleH"|,?0=_@

Note that the reference implementation will print a leading linefeed, because it reads the filename interactively. This is not part of language specification.

How it works

"!dlroW ,olleH"         Push those character on the stack (last on top).
               |        Set marker.
                ,       Print a character from the stack and pop it.
                 ?      Push the stack's length.
                  0=    If the length is zero:
                    _     End the program.
                     @  Go back to the marker.
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Emoticon, 26 bytes

Esolangs page for Emoticon.

Hello, World! :-Q S:-P :-P

One or both of the Ps could be Qs instead. Hello, and World! are just treated as strings and added to the "current list". :-Q prints Hello, and removes it from the list. S:-P prints a space, and :-P prints World!. I don't see how I could golf this any further, and I'm making it CW, because it's essentially copied from the examples section of the docs.

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • \$\begingroup\$ I had a play arounf with there online interpretor and this appears to work Hello, World! :Q S::P :P and a couple shorter \$\endgroup\$
    – MickyT
    Sep 3, 2015 at 0:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MickyT ah thanks, I'll have to test that tomorrow. The docs mentioned that there are 2-character emoticons, but they seemed to imply that the eyes were optional, not the noses. This makes much more sense though. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 3, 2015 at 0:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MickyT I found this in the language spec: "These Emoticons output values from lists to Output Channels. Output channels are not lists, they are defined by the Interpreter and could be on screen areas, files, pipes and the like. Output Channels are implementation dependant. The Channel to which output should be printed is indicated by the nose of the Emoticon. By default screen print values should go to the channel -". Looking at the output of the interpreter, it seems like your code uses the : channel instead or - (which is STDOUT), so I think the code will have to stay as it is. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 3, 2015 at 12:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ That makes sense \$\endgroup\$
    – MickyT
    Sep 3, 2015 at 18:47
1
\$\begingroup\$

Marbelous, 26 bytes

48656C6C6F2C20576F726C6421

Huh, I'm surprised no one has done Marbelous yet. There is not much to golf though: just list the 13 character codes in hexadecimal, to create one marble for each. As they fall off the grid, they're printed.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

X-D, 81 Bytes

I can't be sure that this would work as I can't find an interpreter, so if someone can, that would be good :) <- gratuitous smiley

8-~~~~~>8P8;$;~~>;P;------>;-P;%$;-->;P:~~->:P:~<:-->:P8~>8P;P;-->;P%P;~<;>;P8>8P

An explanation of what I think should be happening

#                        Pointers:   8    ;    :    %   
8-~~~~~>8P  # set 8 to 72, print 8  72
8;$         # copy 8 to ;                72
;~~>;P      # inc ; 29, print ;         101
;------>;-P # inc ; 7, print ;          108
;%$         # copy ; to %                         108
;-->;P      # inc ; 3, print ;          111
:~~->:P     # set : to 44, print :            44
:~<         # dec : 15                        29
:-->:P      # inc : 3, print :                32
8~>8P       # inc 8 15, print 8     87
;P          # print ;                   111
;-->;P      # inc ; 3, print ;          114
%P          # print %                             108
;~<         # dec ; 15                   99
;>;P        # inc ; 1, print ;          100
8>8P        # inc 8, print 8                  33
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

ISCOM, 15 bytes

"Hello, World!"
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

KimL, 22 bytes

io.out"Hello, World!"

The byte count contains a trailing linefeed.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Basil, 16 bytes

Meh.

"Hello, World!"o

Simple.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

OCaml, 30 bytes

print_string "Hello, World!";;
\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ print_string"Hello, World!" also works, for 27 bytes. Try it online! \$\endgroup\$
    – Dennis
    Jan 26, 2018 at 1:11
1
\$\begingroup\$

Hassium, 38 Bytes

Neat challenge! Love all the different submissions so far. Here is mine in a language I wrote called Hassium.

func main(){println("Hello, World!");}

Run it online here

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • \$\begingroup\$ Using your online interpreter you can shorten it a bit using func main()println("Hello, World!") \$\endgroup\$
    – MickyT
    Sep 19, 2015 at 7:03
1
\$\begingroup\$

tinyAll, 1 byte

Tinyall is a language that I've developed after this challenge was published.

It was written in a few hours, at 1AM.

The smallest valid example of an Hello, world! program was inspired by @Fatalize's answer. But it is too easy and only allows 1 syntax.

I've decided to do better:

f

This is the equivalent to Hf or H15. Low-case letters are considered numbers from 10 to 46(?).

H is the Hello, World! function, responsible for the output. Passing an argument, you can set specific bits to output a variation of the Hello, World! output.


You could also write like this:

Hf_

Or, with string expansion:

_"[:Hf]"

Or just plain:

_"Hello, World!"

And a dynamic example:

H:_

This one takes whatever input and outputs whatever version you decide it to. (By using :, the input has to be a number)


Execution example:

(function(window, undefined) {
	var funcs = {
		H:function(value) {
			return 'hH'[value&1]
				+'ello'
				+(value&2?',':'')
				+' '
				+('wW'[+!!(value&4)])
				+'orld'
				+(value&8?'!':'')
				+(value&16?'\n':'');
		},
		I:function(value, data){
			return data.input;
		},
		'_':function(value, data){
			var tmp = data.out + (value === undefined ? data.last : value);
			data.vars[';'] = data.out = tmp;
			return tmp;
		},
		V:function(value){
			return get_value(value);
		},
		P:function(value){
			return value;
		}
	};
	
	var expand_string = function(value, data){
		
		return value.replace(
			/\[:(?:([A-Z_])(.)?|([^A-Z_'"]))\]/g,
			function(_, func, arg, value){
				if(func)
				{
					return funcs[func](get_value(arg, data, true), data);
				}
				else
				{
					return get_value(value, data, true)
				}
			}
		);
		
	};
	
	var get_value = function(value, data, recursion) {
		
		if(value === null || value === undefined || value === ' ')
		{
			return undefined;
		}
		
		var x = (value || '').toString();
		
		if(/^\-?\d+$/.test(x))
		{
			//returns a number
			return Function('return ' + x)();
		}
		else if(/^[a-z]$/.test(x))
		{
			//returns a number between 10-43
			return (x in data.vars) ? data.vars[x] : x.charCodeAt(0) - 87;
		}
		else if(x[0] == '\'')
		{
			return x[1];
		}
		else if(x[0] == '"' && x.length >= 2)
		{
			var sub = x.substr(1, x.length - 2);
			
			return recursion ? sub : expand_string(sub, data);
		}
		else
		{
			return data.vars[x];
		}
	};
	
	var noop = function(){};
	
	window.tinyAll=function(code, input) {
		var data = {
			out: '',
			last: 0,
			input: input || 0,
			vars: {
				'|':'0.3',
				':':input || 0,
				';':0
			}
		};
		
		if(!code || /^[a-z\d]$/.test(code))
		{
			return funcs.H(get_value(code, {}));
		}
		
		code.toString().replace(
			// /(?:([^A-Z_:'"])=)?([A-Z_])(?::('.|"[^"]*"|-?\d+|.))?/g,
			/(?:([^A-Z_'"])=)?([A-Z_])(?:('.|"[^"]*"|-?\d+|[^A-Z_'"]))?/g,
			function(_, name, func, value){
				
				data.vars[name || ':'] = data.last = (funcs[func] || noop)( value ? get_value(value, data) : data.last, data);
				
				return '';
			}
		);
		
		return data.out || 0;
	};
})(Function('return this')());


alert(tinyAll('_"\'Hf\' produces: \'[:Hf]\'"'));

This is the original version. I'll post a new version of the code, as soon as I have time to publish on Github.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Sprects, 14 bytes

.Hello, World!
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

MUMPS, 17 bytes

w "Hello, World!"

Not terribly exciting, but there you have it.

\$\endgroup\$
1
1
\$\begingroup\$

Windows Batch, 18 bytes

echo Hello, World!
\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ We need to hide the prompt.... \$\endgroup\$
    – stevefestl
    May 14, 2017 at 11:53
1
\$\begingroup\$

UniBasic, 19 Bytes

CRT 'Hello, World!'
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Processing, 23 bytes

print("Hello, World!");


Well, that's pretty much it!

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

G*, 15 bytes

p Hello, World!

Pretty simple.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Stringy, 17 bytes

(Hello, World!);p
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Pip, 15 bytes

"Hello, World!"

Straightforward. Any expression at the end of the program is auto-printed.

\$\endgroup\$
3
  • \$\begingroup\$ Out of curiosity, dose Pip have auto-closing end quotes? Or is that impractical for an infix language? \$\endgroup\$ Sep 16, 2016 at 1:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ConorO'Brien It would certainly have been possible, I just decided I didn't like it for aesthetic reasons. \$\endgroup\$
    – DLosc
    Sep 16, 2016 at 3:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ Fair enough. :D \$\endgroup\$ Sep 16, 2016 at 3:06
1
\$\begingroup\$

Aysolang - 30 23 bytes

{dlrow, olleH};
l0=?;o

Explaination:

{dlrow, olleH}; ~~ Push the ascii values of "Hello, world" on the stack, reversed and terminate the line
l0=             ~~ Check if the length equals zero
?;o             ~~ If it equals zero, terminate. Otherwise, output the top of the stack as a character.
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Chaîne, 13 bytes

Hello, World!

Everything is an implicit string, and everything is implicit output.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Ooh, fancy i-like character~ Also an interesting language. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 1, 2015 at 18:12
1
\$\begingroup\$

Microscript II, 15 bytes

"Hello, World!"
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

SuperCollider, 27 bytes

"Hello, World!".post;1.exit
\$\endgroup\$
3
  • \$\begingroup\$ Where is the documentation for SuperCollider? \$\endgroup\$
    – user48538
    Jan 11, 2016 at 4:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ @zyabin101 supercollider.github.io \$\endgroup\$ Jan 11, 2016 at 15:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's not an esolang. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 11, 2016 at 15:53
1
\$\begingroup\$

DStack, 21 bytes

@0
Hello, World!
@
ad
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

ShapeScript, 15 bytes

'Hello, World!'

I created ShapeScript for this competition. The interpreter on GitHub has a slightly modified syntax and better I/O (none of which are required in this answer).

Try it online!

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Groovy, 20 bytes

print"Hello, World!"
\$\endgroup\$
0
1
\$\begingroup\$

Stackstack, 21 bytes

"Hello, World!" print

print is the standard output mechanism.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

[], 20 bytes

(({<[Hello, World!})

Don't ask me how this works.

\$\endgroup\$
3
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ How does this work? \$\endgroup\$
    – Maya
    Apr 29, 2017 at 17:41
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @NieDzejkob Good question! \$\endgroup\$ Apr 29, 2017 at 17:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Here is some documentation on how this works. It works because (({<x) prints the value of x. What remains is to convert "Hello, World!" into something printable by putting it in the declareDataX function [x} like [Hello, World!}. Therefore the program is (({<[Hello, World!}). At least I think that is how it works. \$\endgroup\$
    – NK1406
    Dec 15, 2018 at 20:10
1
\$\begingroup\$

𝔼𝕊𝕄𝕚𝕟, 19 17 bytes

ô`Hello, World!`

The “” string construction actually ends up using more bytes.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Yay, someone else is using my language! You can do ô`Hello, world` too. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 2, 2015 at 0:08
1
\$\begingroup\$

Aeolbonn, 14 bytes

:Hello, World!

: is the standard output mechanism.

\$\endgroup\$
1
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