74
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Challenge:

The concept is simple enough: write a full program to output its own code golf score!

Output should only be the byte count of your program and a trailing bytes.

BUT WAIT..... there is one restriction:

  • Your source code can not include any of the digits from your byte count
  • So if your score is 186 bytes, your program can not contain the characters 1 , 6 , or 8

Example Output:

315 bytes
27 Bytes
49 BYTES

Additional Rules:

  • Unnecessary characters, spaces, and newlines are forbidden in the source code, however trailing spaces and newlines are perfectly acceptable in output
  • There should be a single space between the number and bytes in the output
  • Letters are case insensitive
  • No self inspection or reading the source code
  • standard loopholes are disallowed

  • this is , so

Shortest code in bytes wins!

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15
  • 7
    \$\begingroup\$ Does this need the quine tag, or may the code self-inspect? \$\endgroup\$
    – Adám
    Mar 29, 2018 at 15:59
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ @Dat, given the formatting of the word bytes I suspect the intention is that the count should include the bytes it takes to print the text: bytes \$\endgroup\$ Mar 29, 2018 at 16:16
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Are leading spaces in output acceptable? \$\endgroup\$
    – rafa11111
    Mar 29, 2018 at 17:43
  • 5
    \$\begingroup\$ If my code is 1 byte long, should I output 1 bytes or 1 byte? (keep in mind there are already 41 answers, although I don't think any are affected) \$\endgroup\$ Mar 29, 2018 at 18:07
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Can bytes be in any case pattern, e.g. bYtEs? \$\endgroup\$ Dec 27, 2019 at 14:56

191 Answers 191

1
2
3 4 5
7
4
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Hexagony, 26 22 Bytes

B{3'/bs.<t>;ey;:!$@P0/

-4 Bytes @Jo King

Try it online!


More Readable:

   B { 3 '
  / b s . <
 t > ; e y ;
: ! $ @ P 0 /
 . . . . . .
  . . . . .
   . . . .

Reuses every semicolon twice similar to this answer.

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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ It even uses one of the semi-colons 4 times! \$\endgroup\$
    – Jo King
    Sep 28, 2018 at 11:20
4
\$\begingroup\$

Forth (gforth), 14 13 bytes

$d . ." bytes

Try it online!

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4
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Red, 43 bytes

print[to-integer 8.6 * length? b: "bytes"b]
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1
3
\$\begingroup\$

><>, 13 bytes

#o<" bytes"nd

Try it online!

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3
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Batch, 32 bytes

@@echo %COMSPEC:~-10,-010% bytes

COMSPEC is usually %WINDIR%\system32\cmd.exe so I extract the substring from 10 to 8 characters from the end. Old 16-byte self-referencing version:

@echo %~z0 bytes

Fortunately the byte count wasn't a multiple of 10.

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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ @manatwork OK, I hadn't seen that, here's a new version. \$\endgroup\$
    – Neil
    Mar 29, 2018 at 21:16
3
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JavaScript, 16 15 bytes

x=>0xf+' bytes'
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4
  • \$\begingroup\$ _=>5*3+' bytes' \$\endgroup\$
    – Neil
    Mar 29, 2018 at 19:36
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Neil Both the code and the byte-count contains a 5 in that case.. \$\endgroup\$ Mar 29, 2018 at 20:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KevinCruijssen Bah, I can't believe I overlooked that. \$\endgroup\$
    – Neil
    Mar 29, 2018 at 21:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ Submissions are required to be full programs "write a full program to output its own code golf score!" \$\endgroup\$
    – user41805
    Apr 15, 2018 at 12:55
3
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7Zip - 90 14 bytes

Hex dump:

00 75 0d 08 c0 00 0d 08 03 00 00 03 04 1d  

To use:

save into a source file, named anything.

run the compiler from the command line: 7z e [source name]

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0
3
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Excel VBA, 10 bytes

An anonymous VBE immediate window function that takes no input and outputs to the vbe immediate window.

?2*5"bytes

Output

10 bytes
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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ My Excel shows additional leading space. Is it allowed? \$\endgroup\$
    – pajonk
    Mar 30, 2018 at 9:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ @pajonk That is the default nature VBA's Print and ? statement when handling number types, and is generally accepted to be valid for PPCG. That said, it may the space may be forcefully removed by converting to a string, and then operating upon that string, such as ?6+7&&" bytes for 13 bytes. \$\endgroup\$ Mar 30, 2018 at 17:28
3
\$\begingroup\$

Jstx, 4 bytes

♦─]P

Try it online!

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3
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C++ (GCC), 51 bytes

Thanks to @ceilingcat!

#import<iostream>
main(){std::cout<<063<<" bytes";}

Try it online!

C++ (GCC), 56 bytes

#import<iostream>
main(){std::cout<<(int)'8'<<" bytes";}

Try it online!

More portable version (60 bytes):

#import<iostream>
int main(){std::cout<<(int)'<'<<" bytes";}

#import is not standard C++, but should work at least with GCC, Clang, and MSVC.

Try it online!

Standard compliant version (61 bytes):

#include<iostream>
int main(){std::cout<<(int)'='<<" bytes";}

Try it online!

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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ Suggest 063 for (int)'8', 067 for (int)'<' and 070 for (int)'=' \$\endgroup\$
    – ceilingcat
    Apr 1, 2018 at 0:09
3
\$\begingroup\$

m4, 15 bytes

As in the m4 POSIX macro processor.

eval(8+7) bytes
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3
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Mathematica frontend, 18 bytes (maybe 10?)

Row@{2*9," bytes"}

Thanks to @ovs

A naughty way ... as I don't know whether this counts (10)

2" bytes"5

Well it depends on how you define space.

enter image description here

Wolfram Language (Mathematica), solution w/o frontend (30)

Print[ToString[5*6]<>" bytes"]

Try it online!

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0
3
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Vim, 12 10 bytes

i9<C-o><C-a> bytes
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3
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TI-Basic (TI-84 Plus CE with OS 5.2+), 14 bytes

toString(9+5)+" BYTES

toString( is a two-byte token, all other characters used are one-byte tokens.

toString( can be replaced with eval( for the same output and score.

Explanation:

  • toString(9+5) Returns the string "14"

  • +" BYTES Adds the string " BYTES", to get "14 BYTES"

  • TI-Basic implicitly returns/prints the last item evaluated, so 13 BYTES is output.

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2
  • \$\begingroup\$ What calculator has a toString( function? \$\endgroup\$
    – kamoroso94
    Apr 9, 2018 at 10:05
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @kamoroso94 The TI-84 Plus CE. Source \$\endgroup\$ Apr 9, 2018 at 15:06
3
\$\begingroup\$

MathGolf, 9 bytes

G½ "bytes

Try it online!

Explanation

Quite simple really

G            Push 18
 ½           Halve the result, giving 9
             Push a space character
   "bytes    Push "bytes"
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3
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Python 3, 18 bytes

print(9*2,'bytes')

Try it online!

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3
\$\begingroup\$

Python 2, 17 bytes

print 9+8,'bytes'

Output: 17 bytes

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3
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Bash, 20 18 17 bytes

echo $[8+9] bytes

Try it online!

-2 bytes thanks to @manatwork.
-1 byte thanks to @boboquack.

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6
  • \$\begingroup\$ echo $[20-2] bytes for 18 bytes? \$\endgroup\$
    – manatwork
    Mar 29, 2018 at 17:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ @manatwork woah, I didn't know bash could do math like that \$\endgroup\$
    – Maya
    Mar 30, 2018 at 8:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ “The old format $[expression] is deprecated and will be removed in upcoming versions of bash.” — man bash. But in meantime we enjoy using it here in PPCG. \$\endgroup\$
    – manatwork
    Mar 30, 2018 at 8:37
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ echo $[5#33] bytes also works for a score of 18. \$\endgroup\$ Mar 30, 2018 at 17:40
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Doesn’t 8+9 work for 17? \$\endgroup\$
    – boboquack
    Jul 30, 2019 at 6:01
3
\$\begingroup\$

C# (Mono C# Shell), 27 bytes

Console.Write(3*9+" bytes")

Try it online!

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3
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Perl 5 + -Mfeature+say, 14 bytes

Relies on a generated program, so TIO link is to Bash which generates the program from xxd output. Uses -Mfeature+say instead of -M5.10.0 although I don't think it matters that much...

say~"ÎËß"

Try it online!

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3
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Brain-Flak, 90 bYTES

((((((<>))))[])[]([]((((([][][]))))([{}]()([]({}{}){}{}<>)))))(([][])[()]((([]{}))({}{})))

Try it online!

It took a while but I got us down to double digits.

I stole a technique of pushing a bunch of zeros in order to abuse [] from JoKing's answer. However I have modified it a bit.

Instead of pushing zeros I just push whatever is convenient (which does happen to include zeros). This is ok since JoKing gets rid of them with a loop that doesn't pick up zeros (which is reversing the stack), I use <> to switch to the other stack.

Other than that shared trick out answers are quite divergent.

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2
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ 88 bYTES is a little easier to generate by modifying the end slightly \$\endgroup\$
    – Jo King
    Jul 18, 2020 at 1:45
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Back at you ;). I'm pretty sure 77 or 76 bYTES is possible though, but I've only got that down to 80 bytes \$\endgroup\$
    – Jo King
    Jul 18, 2020 at 7:06
3
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GolfScript, 10 bytes

n)" bytes"

Try it online!

n is a variable that represents \n, ) separates the last char from n and parses it to an integer. The ascii value of \n is 10.

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3
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Templates Considered Harmful, 30 bytes

St<51,48,' ','B',89,84,69,'S'>

Try it online!

This should be the best possible score. Every character here can be represented by a 2 byte ascii (ex. 66) value, or a 3 byte char literal (ex. 'B'). 28 is the theoretical minimum representing every character as ascii, but it is blocked by space being value 32. 29 is also blocked by Y and E. 30 works.

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3
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Vyxal , 7 6 bytes

-1 bytes thanks to Bubbler

kṄt`¨ƈ

Explanation

kṄ                - Push "4096"
  t               - Get the final item (6)
   `¨ƈ            - Push "bytes"
<flag>            - Join by spaces ("6 bytes")
<implicit>        - Print it.

Try it Online!

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1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Can't test at the moment, but would it work if you use a numeric constant ending with 6 (e.g. kṄ = 4096) and omit the trailing backtick? (...or just use a different number from the length and increment to get the byte count?) \$\endgroup\$
    – Bubbler
    Oct 19, 2021 at 10:07
3
\$\begingroup\$

Risky, 32 bytes

*+}*!*1!**/*1*1++*{*1*1!}*}*1+1+*+1**+1!***+{*{+***+1*1!***+!*/

Try it online!

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2
\$\begingroup\$

Jelly, 7 bytes

“¢>¶ŒD»

Try it online!

Compressed strings.

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2
\$\begingroup\$

Pyth, 10 bytes

+T" bytes"

Try it here

If you don't mind separating with a newline instead of a space, you can get it down to 8 bytes with

y4"bytes
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2
\$\begingroup\$

MATL, 12 bytes

6EV' bytes'h

Try it online!

Pushes 6, doubles with E, converts that to a string with V, and horzcats it with the string ' bytes' to get the proper spacing. Implicit output takes care of the rest.

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2
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J, 19 bytes

echo' bytes',~":_bj

Try it online!

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2
\$\begingroup\$

C# (.NET Core), 65 bytes

class P{static void Main(){System.Console.Write(0x41+" bytes");}}

Try it online!

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3
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I'm afraid your code contains a 5.. Easily fixed by using 72-7, though. \$\endgroup\$ Mar 29, 2018 at 16:53
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Fixed! With a little bit of hex to make it look clever! =D \$\endgroup\$ Mar 29, 2018 at 17:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ A bit silly and crooked: class Q{static void Main(){new System.Exception("sixty four");}} => 64 and the word bytes is in the exception when you drill down through it! \$\endgroup\$
    – PmanAce
    Mar 29, 2018 at 17:30
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