Create an Accurate How-To Article

Question

Here is an easy-intermediate challenge for anyone interested!

What is that?

A thing me and brother do a bit too often is this:

One of us has a problem and asks the other to explain how to do certain stuff. The other just says the following carelessly:

How to <verb> in <n> easy steps!
                                   (Newline mandatory)
Step 1 - Do not <verb>.
Step 2 - Do not <verb>.
Step 3 - Do not <verb>.
.
.
.
Step <n> - <verb>.                 (Capitalised)

For example, if my brother could not find a pen to write with (Do not ask me why) and asked How do I find a pen?, I would probably answer:

How to find a pen in 10 easy steps!

Step 1 - Do not find a pen.
Step 2 - Do not find a pen.
Step 3 - Do not find a pen.
Step 4 - Do not find a pen.
Step 5 - Do not find a pen.
Step 6 - Do not find a pen.
Step 7 - Do not find a pen.
Step 8 - Do not find a pen.
Step 9 - Do not find a pen.
Step 10 - Find a pen.

^{Sarcasm alert!}
Now isn't that so accurate and helpful!

<verb> is the problem one of us wants to achieve.

<n> is a random number that we choose (for your information, we mostly use 10 as <n>, but that is not important for this challenge).

So what?

Your challenge is to write a usual program or function using standard I/O and golfing rules that takes in a string formatted with "How do I <v>?" as input, and then print or return the (accurate) how-to article specified according to the rules displayed above, where <verb> is <v> from the input, and <n> is any random natural number from the range 1 to 10 (inclusive) generated by your program. When <n> is 1, remove the ending s in ...steps!.

Standard loopholes are not allowed!

---

Note: There might be some cases where sentences will be illogical, like in the case of How do I find my pen?. Outputting How to find my pen in <n> easy steps is fine!

---

Here is another example for further clarity:

Input -

How do I make coffee?

Example output -

How to make coffee in 3 easy steps!

Step 1 - Do not make coffee.
Step 2 - Do not make coffee.
Step 3 - Make coffee.

Good luck!

Answer 1

LaTeX, 269 bytes

\input tikz.tex\let\s\pgfmathsetmacro\pgfmathsetseed{\number\pdfrandomseed}\def\u#1{\uppercase{#1}}\def\f
How do I #1?{\s\n{random(0,9)}\s\m{int(\n+1)}How to #1 in \m~easy
step\ifnum\m>1s!\\\\\foreach\i in{1,...,\n}{Step \i~- Do not #1.\\}\else!\\\\\fi
Step \m~- \u#1.}

Random numbers aren't very nice to handle in LaTeX.

Example output:

Answer 2

Bash + coreutils seq, 128

• Thanks to @NahuelFouilleul for some good golfing suggestions.

v=${1:9}
v=${v%?}
s=s
echo "How to $v in $[m=(n=$$%10)+1] easy step${s::n}!

`seq -f"Step %g - Do not $v." $n`
Step $m - ${v^}."

Try it online!

Answer 3

APL (Dyalog Extended), 99 bytes

Full program. Prompts for string from stdin.

∊'How to'(¯1↓v←8↓⌽'.'@1⌽⍞)' in'n'easy step','s!'↓⍨1=n←?10
⍬
{∊'Step'⍵'- Do not'v}⍤0⍳n-1
∊'Step'n'-',⌈@2⊢v

Try it online!

∊ ϵnlists (flattens) the list of components of each line. By default, numbers are printed with one spaces between them and adjacent text. Lines are implicitly printed.

The variable parts are:

,'s!'↓⍨1=n←?10

?10 random number in range 1–10
n← assign to n
1= is 1 equal to that? (1 if yes, 0 if no)
's!'↓⍨ drop that many characters from "s!"
, prepend the additional components on the left

¯1↓v←8↓⌽'.'@1⌽⍞

⍞ prompt for string
⌽ reverse
'.'@1 replace the character at index 1 with a period.
⌽ reverse
8↓ drop the first 8 characters ("How do I")
v← assign to v
¯1↓ drop the last character (".")

⍬

⍬ empty numeric list (prints as empty line)

{…⍵…}⍤0⍳n-1

n-1 subtract 1 from n
⍳ indices 1–(n−1)
{…}⍤0 merge into a matrix the results from applying the following lambda on each element:
 ⍵ the argument (current index)

'Step'n'-',⌈@2⊢v

⊢v on v…
⌈@2 uppercase the second character (there's a leading space in v)
…, prepend the components

Answer 4

C (gcc), 186 bytes

n;f(m){char*s;scanf("%m[^?]",&s);for(printf("How to%s in %d easy step%s!\n\n",memcpy(++s," Do not",7)+7,m=++n,"s"+!(n=time()%10));n--;printf("Step %d -%s.\n",m-n,(n||(1[s+=7]^=32),s)));}

Try it online!

+14 bytes due to removing the last s in ...steps! when n=1

-2 bytes by using lseek

-2 bytes by changing conditions

-1 byte by removing a space m- --n → m-n--

-3 bytes thanks to Arnauld

-1 byte by changing the last condition from n+1 to !n

-31 bytes thanks to ErikF

-2 bytes by removing s in %m[^?]s and by removing space in "Do not "

-2 bytes thanks to ceilingcat

-1 byte thanks to ErikF

Answer 5

Ruby -p, ^{141 140 137} 131 bytes

Saved 3 bytes by using $$%10 instead of rand(10), a golf suggested by @NahuelFouilleul in comments on other answers.

$_="How to #{v=$_[9..-2]} in #{n=1+$$%10} easy ste#{:ps[0,n]}!
"+(1..n).map{|i|"
Step #{i} - #{i<n ?'Do not '+v:v.capitalize}."}*''

Try it online!

Answer 6

Scala, 195 188 bytes

• Saved 7 bytes thanks to @corvus_192

q=>{val(r,s"How do I $v?")=(math.random*10).toInt+1->q
1 to r-1 map{i=>s"Step $i - Do not $v."}mkString(s"How to $v in $r easy ste${"ps"take r}!\n\n","\n",s"\nStep $r - ${v.capitalize}.")}

Here it is in Scastie, but double newlines don't work there for whatever reason.

Equivalent version with newlines in TIO (modified for Scala 2.10)

Answer 7

JavaScript (ES6), 159 bytes

s=>(g=i=>i?g(i-1)+`
Step ${i} - ${i-n?'Do not'+s:s[1].toUpperCase()+s.slice(2)}.`:`How to${s=s.slice(8,-1)} in ${n} easy step${n>1?'s':''}!
`)(n=new Date%10+1)

Try it online!

Answer 8

C# (Visual C# Interactive Compiler), 180 bytes

s=>{int y=new Random().Next(10)+1,i=0;for(Write($"How to{s=s[8..^1]} in {y} easy step{(y<2?"":"s")}!\n");i++<y;)Write($"\nStep {i} - {(i<y?$"Do not"+s:(char)(s[1]^32)+s[2..])}.");}

-1 byte thanks to Dominic van Essen

+13 bytes due to having to remove the "s" in steps if the random number = 1.

-2 bytes due to Julian

-2 bytes due to Neil

Try it online!

Answer 9

PowerShell Core, 188 bytes

$q=$args.Substring(8,"$args".Length-9)
$r=(Random 10)+1
"How to$q in $r easy step$(('s','')[$r-eq1])!`n"
1..$r|%{"Step $_ - "+("Do not$q.","$($q[1]|% t*g|% tou*t)$($q|% s*g 2).")[$_-eq$r]}

Line by line

1. Isolates the task make coffee with the initial space
2. Generates a random number in the range 1..10
3. Prints the title with an extra new line and the conditional s
4. Prints the steps

{"Step $_ - "
+("Do not$q.", # if it is not the last line
"$($q[1]|% t*g|% tou*t)$($q|% s*g 2))." # if if is the last line, first char uppercase and the rest of the string
)[$_-eq$r]} # "is it the last line" condition

Try it online!

Answer 10

CJam, 92 bytes

"How to "q9>);:Q" in "Amr):T" easy step"T1>'s*'!NT{"
Step "U)" - "T(U=!"do not "*Q+(eu\'.}fU

Try it online!

Answer 11

C (gcc), 194 193 192 190 189 bytes

Thanks to Petr Fiedler, Neil and ceilingcat for the suggestions.

By using the method in Petr Fiedler's answer, I don't have to use counted strings and store the first character. I've never used sscanf to create a copy of a string before, but it really works well. (Not needed here, but another neat thing about using the scanf family to get a string is that you can use the %n specifier to get the string length at the same time!)

i,j;f(char*s){sscanf(s,"%m[^?]",&s);for(printf("How to%s in %d easy step%s!\n",memcpy(s+=2,"Do not",6)+6,i=++j,"s"+!(j=time(0)%10));i--;printf("\nStep %d - %s.",j-i,(i||(*(s+=7)^=32),s)));}

Try it online!

Original method: 194 bytes

So that I don't have to copy the string to uppercase the first character, I grab the first character of the phrase and then adjust the start of the string to the character after that. I then print up to the character just before the question mark to complete the phrase.

i,j,l,c;f(char*s){for(c=*(s+=9),printf("How to %c%.*s in %d easy step%s!\n\n",c,l=strlen(++s)-1,s,i=++j,"s"+!(j=time(0)%10));i--;printf("Step %d - %s%c%.*s.\n",j-i,i?"Do not ":"",c-32*!i,l,s));}

Try it online!

Answer 12

Python 2, 157 bytes

x=input()[9:-1]
n=id(0)%19/2+1
i=1
print'How to %s in %d easy ste%s!\n'%(x,n,'ps'[:n])
exec"print'Step %d -'%i,('Do not %s.'%x)[i/n*7:].capitalize();i+=1;"*n

Try it online!

id(0)%19/2+1 is not uniform, but it has a nonzero chance of giving each number, unlike id(0)%10+1.

Answer 13

Perl 5 -n, 129 bytes

chop;/I /;say"How to $' in ",$b=0|1+rand 10," easy step",'s'x($b>1),"!
";say"Step $_ - ",ucfirst"Do not "x($b>$_).$',"."for 1..$b

Try it online!

Answer 14

Charcoal, 89 85 82 80 bytes

≔✂Ｓ⁹±¹¦¹θ≔‽χηHow to θ in Ｉ⊕η easy step∧ηs¦!⸿Ｆ⊕η«⸿Step Ｉ⊕ι - ⭆⁺×Do not ‹ιηθ⎇λκ↥κ.

Try it online! Link is to verbose version of code. This feels far too long. Explanation:

≔✂Ｓ⁹±¹¦¹θ

Extract the verb from the input.

≔‽χη

Get a random number from 0 to 9, which represents the number of "Do not"s.

How to θ in Ｉ⊕η easy step∧ηs¦!⸿

Print the header, but only output the s if the random number wasn't 0 (1 step).

Ｆ⊕η«

Repeat for each step.

⸿Step Ｉ⊕ι - 

Start a new line and print the part common to each step. (For the first step this double-spaces the list of steps from the header.)

⭆⁺×Do not ‹ιηθ⎇λκ↥κ

Except for the last step, prefix Do not to the verb. Uppercase the first letter of the result.

.

Finish the step with a ..

Answer 15

Python 3, 160 170 168 167 bytes

p=print
a=input()[9:-1]
n=id(a)%99%10+1
s="Step %d - %%s."
p(f"How to {a} in {n} easy ste{'ps'[:n]}!\n")
for i in range(1,n):p(s%i%f"Do not {a}")
p(s%n%a.capitalize())

Try it online!

Answer 16

05AB1E, 74 bytes

TLΩÐD≠'s×sI8.$¨©“€ß€„ÿ€† ÿ‡šŠ¥ÿ!
“ˆG®N“Š¥ ÿ - Do€–ÿ.“ˆ}®™s“Š¥ ÿ -ÿ.“ˆ¯.ª»

Try it online.

Explanation:

TL                   # Push a list in the range [1,10]
  Ω                  # Pop and push a random value from this list
   ÐD                # Triplicate + Duplicate, so 4 copies are on the stack
     ≠               # Check if the top copy is NOT equal to 1 (0 if 1; 1 if [2,10])
      's×           '# Repeat "s" that many times
         s           # Swap so one random integer copy is at the top again
          I          # Push the input
           8.$       # Remove the first 8 characters ("How do I")
              ¨      # Remove the last character ("?")
               ©     # Store this verb in variable `®` (without popping)
“€ß€„ÿ€† ÿ‡šŠ¥ÿ!\n“  # Push dictionary string "how toÿ in ÿ easy stepÿ!\n",
                     # where the `ÿ` are filled with the top three values on the stack
                     # from left to right
                   ˆ # Pop and add this string to the global_array
G                    # Pop another random copy, and loop `N` in the range [1, n):
 ®                   #  Push the verb from variable `®`
  N                  #  Push `N`
   “Š¥ ÿ - Do€–ÿ.“   #  Push dictionary string "step ÿ - Do not ÿ.",
                     #  where the `ÿ` are filled with the top two values again
                  ˆ  #  Pop and add this string to the global_array
}                    # After the loop:
 ®                   # Push the verb again
  .ª                 # Sentence capitalize it
    s                # Swap so another random integer copy is at the top of the stack
     “Š¥ ÿ -ÿ.“      # Push dictionary string "step ÿ - ÿ.",
                     # where the `ÿ` are once again filled automatically
               ˆ     # Pop and push this string to the global_array as well
¯                    # Then push the global_array
 .ª                  # Sentence capitalize each string (without changing existing caps)
   »                 # And join this list by newlines
                     # (after which the result is output implicitly)

See this 05AB1E tip of mine (section How to use the dictionary?) to understand why “€ß€„ÿ€† ÿ‡šŠ¥ÿ!\n“ is "how toÿ in ÿ easy stepÿ!\n"; “Š¥ ÿ - Do€–ÿ.“ is "step ÿ - Do not ÿ."; and “Š¥ ÿ -ÿ.“ is "step ÿ - ÿ.".

Answer 17

Notepad++, 147 keystrokes

<Enter><Enter>
i<Ctrl-D><Ctrl-D><Ctrl-D><Ctrl-D><Ctrl-Shift-End><Ctrl-D><Left><Left><Ctrl-Shift-End>
<Alt-E><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Right>r
<Right><Enter><Ctrl-F>i$<Enter><Esc><Ctrl-Shift-End><Del>
<Ctrl-G>3<Enter>
<Alt-E><Alt-C><Alt-N><Ctrl-A>1<Tab>1<Enter>
<Ctrl-H><Space>?I$<Tab><Del><Alt-A><Esc>
<Ctrl-End><Shift-Up><Ctrl-C>
<Ctrl-Home><End><Backsp><Ctrl-V><Space>easy<Space>steps!
<Left><Ctrl-Left><Up><Ctrl-Right><Shift-End><Ctrl-C>
<Ctrl-H>\d+$<Tab>Step<Space>$0<Space>-<Space><Ctrl-V>.<Alt-A>
-(.+\r)<Tab>- Do not$1<Alt-A>
(1<Space>.+p)s<Tab>$1<Alt-A><Esc>
<Right><Del><Space>in<Space><Home><Ctrl-Right><Del>t<Ctrl-Right><Del><Del>
<Ctrl-End><Shift-Home><Ctrl-Shift-Right><Ctrl-Alt-Shift-U>

(Newlines inserted only for ease of reading.)

Caveats

This solution requires version 7.9 of Notepad++ (at the time of writing, the most recent version), which added keyboard shortcuts to the Column Editor window.

The solution expects:

• the question text to be in the buffer with the cursor at the end and no trailing newline;
• the file to use Windows line endings;
• the Replace dialog to have the following settings: Regular expression search ON, match whole word OFF, match case ON;
• the Column Editor dialog to have the following settings: repeat BLANK, decimal format ON;
• and the Go To dialog to be in Line mode.

I believe all of these restrictions can be worked around, at the cost of extra keystrokes.

How??

<Enter><Enter>

Add a couple of newlines after the question text.

i<Ctrl-D><Ctrl-D><Ctrl-D><Ctrl-D><Ctrl-Shift-End><Ctrl-D>

Insert an i on the bottom blank line, and then use CtrlDuplicate to make it 9 lines, each containing a single i.

<Left><Left><Ctrl-Shift-End>

Select those lines.

<Alt-E><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Down><Right>r

Open the Edit menu, go down to the Convert Case submenu, and select ranDOm CasE.

^{(As far as I know, this is the only source of randomness in Notepad++. I have no idea why it's even in there, but it's there, so we're gonna use it.)}

We now have nine lines each containing either i or I at random.

<Right><Enter>

Add a blank line at the end.

<Ctrl-F>i$<Enter><Esc>

Find the first line that contains a lowercase i. If there is no lowercase i, the cursor stays on the blank line at the end.

<Ctrl-Shift-End><Del>

Delete everything from there to the end of the file.

We now have the original question, a blank line, 0 to 9 lines of I, and another blank line.

<Ctrl-G>3<Enter>

Go to line 3 (the first I line).

<Alt-E><Alt-C><Alt-N><Ctrl-A>1<Tab>1<Enter>

Open the Column Editor dialog and insert a number at the beginning of each line from the cursor to the end of the file, starting at 1, with an increment of 1. The numbered lines will be every line with an I plus the blank line at the end. Thus, we end up inserting the numbers 1 to N, where N is a random number between 1 and 10.

<Ctrl-H><Space>?I$<Tab><Del><Alt-A><Esc>

Delete the I after each number.

<Ctrl-End><Shift-Up><Ctrl-C>

Copy the last number (N).

<Ctrl-Home><End><Backsp><Ctrl-V><Space>easy<Space>steps!

Go to the end of the first line, delete the question mark, and insert the number plus the text easy steps!.

<Left><Ctrl-Left><Up><Ctrl-Right>

Position the cursor at the beginning of the first word after "How do I".

<Shift-End><Ctrl-C>

Select to the end of the line and copy (the action that I want to know how to do).

<Ctrl-H>

Replace:

\d+$<Tab>Step<Space>$0<Space>-<Space><Ctrl-V>.<Alt-A>

... each number X with Step X - [action]....

-(.+\r)<Tab>- Do not$1<Alt-A>

... the action on each instruction line except the last with Do not [action]...

(1<Space>.+p)s<Tab>$1<Alt-A><Esc>

... and 1 easy steps with 1 easy step.

<Right><Del><Space>in<Space>

Delete the newline between the action and N easy steps and replace it with in .

<Home><Ctrl-Right><Del>t<Ctrl-Right><Del><Del>

Change do to to and delete the I .

<Ctrl-End><Shift-Home><Ctrl-Shift-Right><Ctrl-Alt-Shift-U>

Go to the last line, select all but the first word, and convert to sentence case. This uppercases the first character of the action (e.g. Find a pen instead of find a pen).

Answer 18

Stax, 79 bytes

Çφ`¶J╙╜úº╢ßJ╒♂é↔1S├p$@¢☺<ME⌡┐α∟0/δ-/⌂╙Γâ∙╗-ó≡æñ↕S-α.Wì*°yf╞≈♣⌐Y/)\┬░╛₧níë╛♂9=%▀

Run and debug it

Can probably be shortened by a lot. I'm not too familiar with string manipulation in stax yet.

Since stax does not have a random number function, this program uses the length of the string as n.

Answer 19

PowerShell Core, 163 161 bytes

-2 bytes thanks @Julian

$q="$args"-replace'^.+I|\?$'
$r=Random 10
$s='s'*!!$r++
"How to$q in $r easy step$s!
"
1..$r|%{"Step $_ -$(' do not'*($_-ne$r)+$q-replace'^ .',{"$_"|% tou*r})."}

Try it online!

Answer 20

Japt -R, 79 bytes

A=ö)Îç¤i`How {=s8J}  {A±1} ey ¡ep` ·cAÆi`Do not` ·i¢iUÅÎu¹gAg°X)i`Sp {X} - 

Try it

Answer 21

Red, 180 bytes

func[s][t: n: 0
parse s["How do I "copy t to"?"]print["How to"t"in"n:
random 10"easy steps!^/"]append t"."repeat i
n - 1[print["Step"i"- Do not"t]]t/1:
t/1 - 32 print["Step"n"-"t]]

Try it online!

Answer 22

Pyth, 95 bytes

A,P>z9hOT%."\ny6¶†Õ8Âù<û¡*SŠÄ™‘uü'iyÃ",GHVtH%." t²aD–ñö«É ?6^ó",hNG;%." t8ݧGeµè‡",HrG4

Try it online!

Explanation

A,                                                                                           # Set...
  P>z9                                                                                       # ...G to the verb...
      hOT                                                                                    # ...and H to the number of steps.
         %."\ny6¶†Õ8Âù<û¡*SŠÄ™‘uü'iyÃ",GH                                                    # Print "How to <G> in <H> easy steps!" with 2 trailing newlines.
                                              %." t²aD–ñö«É ?6^ó",hNG                        # Print "Step <N> - Do not <G>."...
                                           VtH                          ;                    # ...H-1 times.
                                                                         %." t8ݧGeµè‡",HrG4 # Print "Step <H> - <G>."

Answer 23

05AB1E, 99 90 bytes

-9 bytes by using „ (two-char string) and … (three-char string).

ð¡3.$ðý¨U…€ß€„ .ªX«ð«„€† «TLΩ©«ð«„‡š›Ž«®i¨}…!

«®F„Š¥ ™«N>«… - «N>®QiX.ª«ë…€·€– .ª«X«}„.
«

Try it online!