Make text triangle waves

Question

I was messing around on my 'ol TI-84 CE and made a program that produced this output (it was actually bigger but that is not the point):

 *
 *  *
 *  *  *
 *  *
 *
 *  *
 *  *  *
 *  *
 *
...

I evolved it to take input text and make the triangle waves out of that. The final step was to also take a number to specify the size (n>0). But I am super lazy so you must do it for me!

Challenge

Given a string and number (n > 0), output a triangle wave. This should be in the following format (with * as the string input)

 *
 *  *
 *  *  *
 *  *  * *
 *  *  * * (...)
 *  *  * *
 *  *  *
 *  *
 *
 *
 *  *
 *  *  *
 *  *  * *
 *  *  * * (...)
 *  *  * *
 *  *  *
 *  *
 *
 (...)

• Each line starts with 1 space on the left edge.

• The first line should have * on the right edge, for a full line of *.

• Every line after that, for the next n - 1 lines, you add *, <linenumber> times. So for n=3:

 *
 *  *
 *  *  *
 *  *
 *

• Then, output this full triangle infinitely:

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

Note that you can't have something like this, for n=2:

 *
 *  *
 *
 *
 *  *
 *

You must trim the repeated single *.

Another example, with a multichar string input:

'hi', 4 ->

 hi 
 hi  hi
 hi  hi  hi
 hi  hi  hi  hi
 hi  hi  hi
 hi  hi
 hi
 hi  hi
 hi  hi  hi
...

Assorted other rules:

• Output must be immediately visible (i.e. it will wait to display until the program ends)

• You may take the input in any reasonable way, so ["hi",3] is allowed but ["h",1,"i"] is not. However, you may not use Ans to take input in TI-Basic programs.

• You must continue the pattern forever, or until the program ends due to memory limits.

• You do not need to have trailing spaces but leading spaces are required.

• You must print up to one line at a time. (i.e. each line must be printed all at once, you can't print each triangle iteration by itself)

• The one space padding is before and after each instance of the text

Here is an answer you can use to check your output. (with video)

Leading or trailing newlines are fine.

Leaderboard

Here is a Stack Snippet to generate both a regular leaderboard and an overview of winners by language.

/* Configuration */

var QUESTION_ID = 117107; // 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 = 48934; // 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,]*[^\s,]),.*?(\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,
      });
    
  });
  
  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;
    if (/<a/.test(lang)) lang = jQuery(lang).text();
    
    languages[lang] = languages[lang] || {lang: a.language, 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 > b.lang) return 1;
    if (a.lang < b.lang) 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}

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

#language-list {
  padding: 10px;
  width: 290px;
  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="//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>

Answer 1

05AB1E, 13 12 bytes

1 byte saved thanks to Erik the Outgolfer

[¹ð.ø²Lû¨×€,

Try it online!

Run locally if you want the lines displayed 1 at a time.

Explanation

[              # start infinite loop
 ¹ð.ø          # surround the first input by a space on each side
     ²Lû¨      # construct the range [1 ... n ... 2]
         ×     # replace each number in the range by that many instances of the string
          €    # for each string in the list
           ,   # print it on a separate line

Answer 2

Haskell, 68 62 bytes

t#n=mapM putStrLn[[1..n-abs m]>>' ':t++" "|m<-[1-n..n-2]]>>t#n

Try it online! Example usage: "somestring" # 5.

Edit: Saved 6 bytes thanks to @Ørjan Johansen!

Given for example n=4, [1-n..n-2] constructs the list [-3,-2,-1,0,1,2]. For each element m in this list, [1..n-abs m] is a list of length n minus the absolute value of m, thus we get lists of length 4-3, 4-2, 4-1, 4-0, 4-1 and 4-2, that is 1, 2, 3, 4, 3 and 2. For each of this numbers >>' ':t++" " concatenates as many times the given string t with a space added to back and front.

This yields a list of strings with the first triangle. mapM putStrLn prints each of the strings in the list on a new line, then the function # calls itself again with the same arguments and starts over.

Answer 3

Scala, 79 Bytes

(s:String,n:Int)=>while(1>0)(1 to n)++(n-1 to 2 by-1)map(y=>println(s" $s "*y))

Try it online!

My first attempt at one of these. The basic idea is to generate a sequence of numbers, from 1 to n, then concatenated with the reverse (minus the ends to avoid doubling up). Then just loop over those numbers and print the input plus spaces that many times for each number in our generated sequence.

Ungolfed:

(text: String, n: Int) =>
  while(1 > 0) {                          //loop forever

    ((1 to n) ++ (n-1 to 2 by-1))       //Generate a sequence of numbers, from 1 to n 
                                        //and then concatenate it with the sequence n-1 to 2

      .map(y=>println(s" $text " * y))  //for each number y in the sequence we generated,
                                        // print the input text, surrounded by spaces, y times
    }

Answer 4

Java 7, 128 129 128 125 bytes

+1 byte: Missed the padding after each character

-1 byte: Changed k==1 to k<2

-3 byes thanks to Kevin Cruijssen

void a(String s,int i){s=" "+s;for(int j=-1,k=1,l;;k+=j){for(l=0;l<k;)System.out.print(s+(++l<k?" ":"\n"));j=k==i|k<2?-j:j;}}

First post here so let me know if I'm doing something wrong. Any golfing help is much appreciated.

Try it online! Note: this times out after 60 seconds and then prints the results, the actual code continually prints infinitely

Ungolfed

void a(String s,int i){
    s= " " + s;

    for(int j=-1, k=1, l;; k+=j){
        for(l=0; l<k;)
            System.out.print(s+ (++l < k ? " " : "\n"));
        
        j = (k == i | k < 2) ? -j : j;
    }
}

Prepends a space to the input string then starts an infinite loop. For each iteration it prints the string k times and then prints a new line. k is then incremented / decremented based on the sign of j

Answer 5

C (gcc), 127 108 107 102 bytes

The loop in MACRO P prints each line, the for(j) loops print up and down the wave.

-5 byte thanks to ceilingcat.

#define P for(i=j;i--;printf(" %s%c",s,i?32:10))
i,j;f(s,n){for(;j++<n;)P;for(--j;j^1&&j--;)P;f(s,n);}

Try it online!

Answer 6

Röda, 49 bytes

f n,s{{{seq 1,n;seq n-1,2}while[]}|print` $s `*_}

Try it online!

Answer 7

Jelly, 13 15 bytes

+2 bytes to fix up to print each line separately.

⁶;WṁЀŒḄṖK€Ṅ€ȧß

Try it online! (note that TIO produces the would-be constant output only after it times out, errors, or, as in this case most likely, exceeds the text limit; offline it prints line by line.)

How?

⁶;WṁЀŒḄṖK€Ṅ€ȧß - Main link: string s, integer n
⁶               - literal ' '
 ;              - concatenated with s
  W             - wrap in a list
   ṁЀ          - mould like mapped over n (mould like [[1],[1,2],[1,2,3],...,[1,2,3,...,n]] - half of a sawtooth)
      ŒḄ        - bounce (reflect but only with one central element to make a triangle)
        Ṗ       - pop (remove the last element since the sawtooth triangles only have one shortest element between them, not two)
         K€     - join with spaces for €ach
           Ṅ€   - print and yield for €ach
             ȧ  - and
              ß - call this link with the same arity

Answer 8

C, 85 bytes

i,c,d;f(s,n)char*s;{for(;;)for(i=c+=d=c^n?c<2?1:d:-1;i;printf(" %s%c",s,--i?32:10));}

Answer 9

Python 3, 124 108 94 90 89 bytes

r=range
x=lambda c,n:print('\n'.join(f' {c} '*i for i in[*r(1,n+1),*r(n-1,1,-1)]))+x(c,n)

Recursive lambda that would obviously error out if it ever got to evaluating itself (Adding an infinite sequence of Nones?). Thankfully, it doesn't!

It will still crash relatively soon, because of the default recursion limit, which can be overwritten using sys.setrecursionlimit(large_number)

Ungolfed:

def triangles(char, N):
    print(
        '\n'.join(
            # f' {char} ' is like ' {char} '.format(char=char)
            f' {char} ' * i
            for i in
            [*range(1, N+1), *range(N-1, 1, -1)]  # N=3 -> [1, 2, 3, 2, 1]
        )
    ) + triangles(char, N)

Answer 10

Python 3, 92 Bytes

from itertools import*
lambda b,a:[print(f" {b} "*(abs(i%(a*2-2)-(a-1))+1))for i in count()]

This code does require itertools, which is a native library in Python. I imported cycle as c.

Answer 11

><>, 183 152 138 bytes

1+&01-1001.1+bc+-*4b{~p@-$*8b}:g1$1: <
>{:0)?v~{{1+$:@@:@)?v~>1+:&:&(?v>:c2*^
^   o:<v@-10oa0           v?(1:<
^      <    o" "@-10<.1*3b<

Try it online!

Takes a string and a number on the stack.

Explanation

# Initialization
1+&01-1001.
1+          Add 1 to value on top of stack (number from input)
  &         Store in register
   01-      Push 0 - 1 (-1) to stack
      10    Push 1 and 0 to stack
            (repetitions on this line, repetitions done for this line)
        01. Jump to row 1 column 0 and move
            (IP now on {)

# Output loop
>{:0)?v
^   o:<

{        Roll stack left
 :       Duplicate top of stack
  0      Push 0
   )     Greater than
    ?    If top of stack is nonzero (value > 0)
     v   Continue loop
      :  Duplicate top of stack
       o Output top of stack

# Line loop
>output~{{1+$:@@:@)?v

^           o" "@-10<

output                       Output word
      ~                      Delete -1 (end-of-word marker)
       {{                    Roll stack left twice
                             so the two repetition variables are on top
         1+                  Add one to repetitions done for this line
           $:@@:@            Duplicate both variables, preserving order
                 )           Greater than
                  ?          If nonzero (repetitions needed > repetitions done)
                   v         Continue loop
                    01-      Push -1
                       @     Roll top three items right so end-of-word marker is in correct place
                        " "  Push char code for space
                           o Output space

# Add newline
0ao01-@
0       Push 0 (repetitions done)
 a      Push charcode of newline (10)
  o     Output newline
   01-  Push -1
      @ Roll top 3 items right so end-of-word marker is in correct place

# Check if repetitions < 1
:1(?v
:     Duplicate (repetitions needed)
 1    Push 1
  (   Less than
   ?  If nonzero (repetitions needed < 1)
    v Continue loop (else add newline)

b3*1.
b3*            Push 11 * 3 (33)
   1           Push 1
    .          Jump to row 1 column 33 and move (IP was pointing left, so it is now on the second > in rebound loop)

# Rebound loop
          .1+bc+-*4b{~p@-$*8b}:g1$1: <
                     ~>1+:&:&(?v>:c2*^

~                                          Remove repetitions done for this line
 >                                         Make IP travel right (needed later)
  1+                                       Add 1 to top of stack (repetitions needed)
    :                                      Duplicate
     &:&                                   Get register value and store a copy back in register
        (                                  Less than
         ?                                 If nonzero
                                           (repetitions needed < input value + 1)
          v                                Check if repetitions < 1 (see above)
           >                               Make IP travel right (also needed later)
            :                              Duplicate top of stack (???)
             c2*                           Push 12 * 2 (24)
                :                          Duplicate
                 1                         Push 1
                  $                        Swap top two values
                   1                       Push 1
                    g                      Get value at row 1 column 24
                                           (initially the + near the start of this loop)
                     :                     Duplicate
                      }                    Roll right to put duplicate at bottom of stack
                       b8*                 Push 88
                          $                Swap
                           -               Subtract (turns '+' into '-' and vice versa)
                            @              Roll top 3 items to put at correct position
                             p             Put new character at row 1 column 24
                              ~            Delete ???
                               {           Roll stack left so original value of row 1 column 24 is back on top
                                b4*        Push 11 * 4 (44)
                                   -       Subtract
                                    +      Add to repetitions needed
                                     cb+   Push 12 + 11 (23)
                                        1  Push 1
                                         . Jump to row 1 column 23 and move (IP was pointing left, so it is now on the first >)

Answer 12

PowerShell, 72 bytes

param($a,$b)$a=" $a ";if($b-1){for(){1..$b+($b-1)..2|%{$a*$_}}}for(){$a}

Try it online!
(TIO has a 60 second timeout, but please be nice to Dennis' server ... also note that TIO doesn't output (refresh the page) until the program completes, so you won't get on-the-fly output. Running this locally produces correct output.)

Straightforward. Takes input $a as the string and $b as the integer. We then pad $a with spaces and save it back. We then have an if check to handle the special case of $b=1. If $b>1 then this test is $TRUE and we enter the if.

Inside the if, we're entering an infinite for() loop. Inside the loop, we're constructing a range from 1 to $b and then $b-1 to 2. There are two possibilities here. If $b=2, this range is 1,2,1,2 and so we're actually constructing two triangles every for loop. If $b>2, then the range is something like 1,2,3,4,3,2 to construct one triangle every for loop. Inside the range loop, |%{}, we just string-multiply $a by the appropriate number.

If $b=1 then we don't enter the if, and so just enter a separate infinite for() loop that prints $a a bunch of times.

By default, PowerShell will "flush" the pipeline (for lack of a better term) on each for iteration, so that's where the implicit Write-Output happens.

Answer 13

JavaScript ES6, 98 bytes

s=>n=>{while(1){for(i=0;i++<n;)eval(p="console.log(` ${s} `.repeat(i))");i--;for(;--i>1;)eval(p)}}

Try it online!

Answer 14

CJam, 30 bytes

l~,:)_W%1>W<+S2*@*f*{_Nf+:o!}g

Try it online! (same as with other answers: TIO dumps all output after 60 seconds, you have to run it locally to see the proper behaviour)

Explanation

Example input: "hi" 4

l~     e# Read an eval a line of input
       e# STACK: ["hi" 4]
,:)    e# Generate the range 1 ... N
       e# STACK: ["hi" [1 2 3 4]]
_W%    e# Duplicate and reverse it
       e# STACK: ["hi" [1 2 3 4] [4 3 2 1]]
1>W<   e# Slice to remove the first and last elements of the copy
       e# STACK: ["hi" [1 2 3 4] [3 2]]
+      e# Concatenate
       e# STACK: ["hi" [1 2 3 4 3 2]]
S2*    e# Push "  "
       e# STACK: ["hi" [1 2 3 4 3 2] "  "]
@*     e# Bring the text to the top and join the space string with it
       e# STACK: [[1 2 3 4 3 2] " hi "]
f*     e# Repeat the resulting string by each number in the range
       e# STACK: [[" hi " " hi  hi " " hi  hi  hi " .....]]
{      e# Do:
 _     e#  Duplicate the top
       e#  STACK: [[" hi " " hi  hi "...] [" hi " " hi  hi "...]]
 Nf+   e#  Append a newline to each string in the top array
       e#  STACK: [[" hi " " hi  hi "...] [" hi \n" " hi  hi \n"...]]
 :o    e#  Pop and print each string in the top array (one by one)
       e#  STACK: [[" hi " " hi  hi "...] []]
 !     e#  Boolean negation
       e#  STACK: [[" hi " " hi  hi "...] 1]
}g     e# While the top of stack (popped) is truthy
       e# STACK: [[" hi " " hi  hi " " hi  hi  hi " .....]]

Answer 15

Batch, 108 bytes

@set f=@for /l %%i in (2,1,%1)do @call echo %%s:.= %2 %%^&call set s=%%s
@set s=.
%f%%%.
%f%:~1%%
@%0 %*

Conveniently I both need to use the current value of a string in a for loop and substitute into it with another variable. Ungolfed:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set s=.
:l
for /l %%i in (2, 1, %1) do echo !s:.= %2 !&set s=!s!.
for /l %%i in (2, 1, %1) do echo !s:.= %2 !&set s=!s:~1!
goto l

Answer 16

Jelly, 13 bytes

⁾  jẋŒḄ}ṖṄ€1¿

Try it online!

How it works

⁾  jẋŒḄ}ṖṄ€¹¿  Main link. Left argument: s (string). Right argument: n (integer)

⁾  j           Join "  " with separator s, prepending and appending a space to s.
     ŒḄ}       Bounce right; yield [1, ..., n, ..., 1].
    ẋ          Repeat (" "+s+" ") 1, ..., n, ..., 1 times, yielding a string array.
        Ṗ      Pop; remove the last string.
           1¿  While 1 is truthy:
         Ṅ€      Print each string, followed by a linefeed.

Answer 17

Lua, 104 bytes

p=print;function f(s,n)c=" "..s;while(0)do p(c)for i=2,n+n-2 do p(c:rep(i<=n and i or n+n-i))end end end

Answer 18

Groovy, 82 80 bytes

{s,n->s+=" ";a=0;x={println s*a};for(;;){for(;a<n;a++){x()};for(;a>1;a--){x()}}}

Previous answer

{s,n->s+=" ";a=0;x={println s*a};for(;;){while(a<n){x();a++};while(a>1){x();a--}}}

Ungolfed (previous answer)

h={s,n->  //A closure with two arguments, the input text and the size of the wave peak
    s+=" " //add a space after the input text
    a=0    // a counter we will use later
    x={println s*a}  //another closure that prints the input text repeated "a" times
    for(;;){  //infinite loop
        while(a<n){  //two while loop that make "a" oscillate between 1 and "n", printing at each iteration
            x()
            a++
        }
        while(a>1){
            x()
            a--
        }
    }
}

Answer 19

TI Basic 210 Bytes

Prompt Str4
Prompt N
0->V
Lbl A
0->S
If (S=0
Then
0->B
1->S
Else
1->B
End
" "->Str1
Str1->Str2
Str1+Str4+Str1->Str5
0->P
Lbl B
If (S=1 and B<N)
Then
B+1->B
Str1+Str5->Str1
Disp Str1
0->P
End
Goto B
Else
For(H,N-1,2,-1)
0->R
" "->Str1
While (R<H)
Str1+Str5->Str1
End
Disp Str1
End
Goto A
    

Running it (video)

Answer 20

Excel VBA, ₉₇ 79 Bytes

Anonymous VBE immediate Window Function that takes input of String from cell [A1] and variant/String of assumed type integer from cell [B1] and outputs a triangle wave using those values to the VBE immediate window.

n=[B1]:Do:DoEvents:For i=1To n*2-2:[C1]=n-Abs(i-n):?[Rept(A1&" ",C1)]:Next:Loop