Most creative way to display 42

Question

Douglas Adams was born on March 11, 1952, and died when he was just 49. In honor of this wonderful writer, I challenge you to display 42 in the most creative way possible.

You could print it in the log, via some convoluted method, or display it as ASCII art, or anything! Just come up with a creative method of displaying 42.

Because this a popularity-contest, whichever answer has the most upvotes by March 11, will be declared the winner.

Note: this is not a duplicate. The question it was marked as duplicating was a code-trolling question whose goal was to write code to output 42, not find the most creative way to display it.

Winner: grovesNL! With an astounding 813 votes! Congrats!

Honorable Mentions:

Mr Lister C 228 For the clever use of #define

David Carraher Mathematica 45 For the complicated and convoluted math function to achieve 42

Aschratt Windows Calculator 20 Because, well, it's windows calculator And definitely 1337.

f.rodrigues Python 17 Because of the clever use of using external programs. And MSPaint

Jason C LMGTFY 14 For the use of LMGTFY (Let Me Google That For You)

Trimsty Python 12 For the clever use of an error message to output 42.

Mukul Kumar C++ 7 For the nice ASCII output.

If you think that there is another answer worth putting on the list, please comment it!

Answer 1

C

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
   printf("101010\n");
   return 0
}

Answer 2

Ruby

six = '1 + 5'
times = 42.chr
nine = '8 + 1'

p eval [six,times,nine].join

Answer 3

Befunge-93

I guess this is not very creative but since there are several brainf*ck answers, I feel like good old befunge-93 should get his moment too. I did try to use some of the cool features of the language such as self-modification and a trampoline.

                                                                               v
           What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?           
                                   >   v
                 DON'T                             PANIC
v:                                "6 * 9"                                      <
_v#                                                                           :,
 >       1v        <     >         ^   >            *.@
v****22222< >79*2-,^
>,          |         
            >56+5*58*1-4p^

And the output is of course:

 6 * 9 = 42

Answer 4

Haskell

h2g2          = fromIntegral
douglasAdams  = length
l x           = 1 / h2g2 (douglasAdams x)
the x         = h2g2 $ sum $ zipWith (*) (map douglasAdams x) [0,1,-1]
theanswerisfoundin theRestaurantAtTheEnd= print $ round theRestaurantAtTheEnd

main=theanswerisfoundin 
     (the ["Hitch" ,"Hikers" ,"Guide"] / (l "TO" - l "THE" - l "GALAXY!")) 

How it works

It outputs 1/ (1/2 - 1/3 - 1/7) :)

Answer 5

C#

There's a clear dependency between the phrase and the hashes:

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;

class C
{
    static void Main ()
    {
        byte[]b=Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything");
        Func<HashAlgorithm,int>q=a=>a.ComputeHash(b)[0];
        int[]i={ q(MD5.Create()), q(SHA1.Create()), q(SHA256.Create()), q(SHA384.Create()), q(SHA512.Create()) };
        Console.WriteLine((i[0]+i[1]+i[2]+i[3]+i[4])/(i[2]-i[1])+1);
    }
}

Is it a coincidence or a sign?

Answer 6

Python

print reduce(lambda x, y: x ^ ord(y), 'Life, the universe and everything', 6 * 9)

Answer 7

Python

import math
print ((math.floor(e)*math.floor(e))*(math.ceil(pi*pi)))+math.floor(e)

Actually, you can print every integer using this method. It's your job to find it . . . .

Answer 8

In the language whose name is the first three letters of Douglas Adams' last name:

Ada

with Ada.Text_IO;
with Ada.Integer_Text_IO;
procedure Print_42 is
    S: String(1..6);
begin
    Ada.Integer_Text_IO.Put(To => S, Item => 6 * 9, Base => 13);
    Ada.Text_IO.Put_Line(S(4..5));
end Print_42;

Answer 9

Javascript

var s = this.toString().split(" ")[1].replace("]","").toLowerCase() + Math.sqrt(123 ^ 0.5).toString().charAt(2) + atob("bG9jYXRpb24=") + String.fromCharCode((4 * 4 * 4).toString().charAt(1) + (Math.log(4 * 4 * 4) / Math.log(2)));
for (var i = 0; i < "roy eats pea lasagne and crunchy eggs!".split(" ").length; i++) {
    s += "roy eats pea lasagne and crunchy eggs".split(" ")[i].charAt();
}
s += String.fromCharCode(5 * Math.pow(2, 3)) + "\"data:text/text,";
var i = 21,
    o = 21;
while (i != Math.floor(i) || i == 21) {
    i += o;
    o /= 2;
}
s += i + s.charAt(24) + String.fromCharCode(s.charCodeAt(23) + 1);
window.location.replace("javascript:" + s);

Output:

window.location.replace("data:text/text",42);

Output's output:

42

Answer 10

Perl

another try - reads as assembly, parses as perl, includes "DON'T PANIC" and displays 42 :)

use v5.10;

* DON::T = sub {
    s   mm
    pop me, y

    - Douglas N. Adams 
    - a short fanfare

    (-;

    s   0.0
    g   x 
    hex $&, 0eg
    and do
    say tr

    - Ford Prefect
    - Arthur Dent

    c-c
};

DON'T PANIC

Answer 11

Simple but efficient python one-liner.

>>> sum([ord(x) for x in 'THE UNIVERSE FINAL ANSWER']) // 42
42

Answer 12

Python (But not specific to Python...)

print(((True<<((True<<((True<<True)+True))+True))/(True<<((True<<(True<<True))+(True<<True)))-True)*((True<<(True<<True))+(True<<True)))

EDIT:

Slightly nicer (and 42 non-whitespace characters...)
Only works in Python 2.x though.

print (1<<1<<(1<<1<<1))+(1<<1<<1<<1)+(1<<1)

Answer 13

Wang B-machine

Of course the B-machine doesn't have a graphical output, but if you interpret the final tape as a 9x6 font...

{ (1, →), (2, →), (3, →), (4, *), (5, →), (6, →), (7, →), (8, *), (9, →), (10, *), (11, →),
(12, →), (13, →), (14, →), (15, *), (16, →), (17, *), (18, →), (19, →), (20, *), (21, →),
(22, →), (23, →), (24, *), (25, →), (26, →), (27, *), (28, →), (29, →), (30, *), (31, →),
(32, →), (33, →), (34, →), (35, →), (36, *), (37, →), (38, *), (39, →), (40, *), (41, →),
(42, *), (43, →), (44, *), (45, →), (46, *), (47, →), (48, →), (49, →), (50, *), (51, →),
(52, →), (53, →), (54, →), (55, →), (56, *), (57, →), (58, →), (59, →), (60, *), (61, →),
(62, →), (63, →), (64, →), (65, →), (66, →), (67, *), (68, →), (69, →), (70, *), (71, →),
(72, *), (73, →), (74, *), (75, →), (76, *) }

Answer 14

Bash:

expr "`echo "The answer to Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" | wc -l`" \* "`echo "Here it goes" | wc -l`" \* "`echo "Life," | wc -c`" + "`echo "The Unviverse," | wc -c`" + "`echo "And Everything..." | wc -c`" + "`echo "The Answer is" | wc -w`"

Output:

42

Answer 15

Piet

This is my first attempt at a program in Piet.
It prints 42 indefinitely:

It simply multiplies 6 by 7 and outputs, so nothing really fancy, I just wanted to give Piet a try.
It is somewhat golfed though as it consists only of 18 codels.

Answer 16

JavaScript

I probably could have done something more creative than this, but:

var ArrayToLifeTheUniverseAndEverything=[
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
[0,1,0,0,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0],
[0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0],
[0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0],
[0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0],
[0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,0],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],
[0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1,0],
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]];

var DouglasAdams =""

for(var DontPanic = 0; DontPanic<ArrayToLifeTheUniverseAndEverything.length; DontPanic++){
    for(var FriendlyLetters = 0; FriendlyLetters<ArrayToLifeTheUniverseAndEverything[DontPanic].length; FriendlyLetters++){
        if(ArrayToLifeTheUniverseAndEverything[DontPanic][FriendlyLetters]){
            DouglasAdams+="*";
        }else{
            DouglasAdams+=" ";
        }
    }
    DouglasAdams+="\n"
}
console.log(DouglasAdams);

But as a bonus, as I saw someone else say earlier, the ASCII code for * is 42.

Answer 17

C

main(){printf((char[]){42<<42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42)-42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42<<42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42+42/42+42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)-42/42,(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)-(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)+(42/42<<42/42)+42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42+(42/42<<42/42)),(42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42)-42/42-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)-42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42<<42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42+42/42+42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42>>42/42)*(42>>42/42>>42/42),(42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)+42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42)-42/42-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)-(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42>>42/42)*(42>>42/42>>42/42)+(42>>42/42),(42<<42/42)+42-(42>>42/42>>42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42)-42/42,(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42+42/42)+(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42),(42>>42/42)*(42>>42/42>>42/42)/(42/42<<42/42)-(42/42<<42/42),42-42});return 42;}

This outputs "The answer to life, the universe and everything." using (almost) only the number 42. Additionally, it returns 42.

Answer 18

Mathematica

Ceiling[E^(E + E^(E - E))]

Answer 19

F#

let answer = 42
[|62; 74; 74; 70; 73; 16; 5; 5; 77; 77; 77; 4; 61; 69; 69; 61; 66; 59; 4; 57;
  69; 67; 5; -7; 71; 19; 74; 62; 59; 1; 55; 68; 73; 77; 59; 72; 1; 74; 69; 1;
  66; 63; 60; 59; 1; 74; 62; 59; 1; 75; 68; 63; 76; 59; 72; 73; 59; 1; 55;
  68; 58; 1; 59; 76; 59; 72; 79; 74; 62; 63; 68; 61|]
|> Array.map (((+) answer) >> char)
|> (fun c -> new string(c))
|> System.Diagnostics.Process.Start

It navigates to https://www.google.com/#q=the+answer+to+life+the+universe+and+everything

Answer 20

Google

Enter "the answer to life the universe and everything" into the search bar of google:
https://www.google.ch/search?q=the+answer+to+life+the+universe+and+everything

I am aware that this is not actually source code that executes. However the OP did not state that is has to be written in a programming language or that it should result in a executable file.

Answer 21

PHP + Google

header("Location: http://www.google.com/#q=the+answer+to+life+the+universe+and+everything");

If you really type The answer to life the universe and everything in Google, it will output 42.

Answer 22

Perl

#!/usr/bin/perl
package Six;
use overload '*' => sub { return "42\n" };
sub multiplied { return bless {}, shift };
sub by { shift };
sub nine { shift };
sub equals { $six=shift;  return $six*$nine };

package main;

print Six->multiplied->by->nine->equals

Answer 23

Python 3

Example from real-life (translated to english). One of the python3 student tasks was writing a program that outputs string with user name to both screen and file. The student program was:

protocol_file = open("protocol.txt", "wt")
name = input("Enter your name: ")
print(protocol_file.write("Judge says:  Do you admit your guilt, " + name + "?\n"))
protocol_file.close()

For testing purposes student inputs some two-letter garbage as name - "mg". ... and, got 42 printed in console.

Answer 24

bash 732

Where 7, 3 and 2 are the primes that compose 42!!

#!/bin/bash

export ResultString

export MaxToReach=${RANDOM}{0,}

for ((CurrentVal = MaxToReach ; CurrentVal-- ;-p))
do
   ((
     ( CurrentVal + CurrentVal ) == ( CurrentVal * CurrentVal ) &
     ( CurrentVal * CurrentVal ) == ( CurrentVal ** CurrentVal )
   )) &&
     printf -v ResultString "%01d%01d" $((
          CurrentVal ** CurrentVal
          )) $CurrentVal
done

AltCheck=$(stat -c %s $0)
for (( I = ${#AltCheck} ; I-- ;-p))
do
     AltResult=${AltCheck:I:1}*$AltResult
   done

cat <<EndOfFinalAnswer
DISCLAIMER: This tool would help you to compute the answer!
Unfortunely, this tool is unable to retrieve THE question.

The answer to the ultimate question is: '$ResultString' or '$((${AltResult}1))'!
EndOfFinalAnswer

Running this very usefull tool will print:

DISCLAIMER: This tool would help you to compute the answer!
Unfortunely, this tool is unable to retrieve THE question.

The answer to the ultimate question is: '42' or '42'!

Answer 25

Binary

101010

is 42 in binary and the meaning of life...;-)

I owe, I owe, I owe. (it's off to work I go.)

Answer 26

Perl evil answer (42)

( $E666 = 666 )=~s/.//;printf "%x\n",$E666

Running demo:

perl -e '( $E666 = 666 )=~s/.//;printf "%x\n",$E666'
42

Answer 27

HTML & CSS

It's ugly and probably not compatible with all browsers, but here we go:

    <span style="display: inline-block; width: 3em; height: 3em">
    <span style="position: relative; display: inline-block; width: 3em; height: 3em">
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:0;height:0;line-height:0;border:1.5em solid #000000;border-bottom:none;border-top-right-radius:1.5em;border-top-left-radius:1.5em;left:4em;top:0em"></i>
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:0;height:0;line-height:0;border:1.3333333333333333em solid #ffffff;border-radius:1.3333333333333333em;left:4.166666666666666em;top:0.16666666666666666em"></i>
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:0;height:0;line-height:0;border:1.5em solid transparent;border-right:1.5em solid #000000;border-bottom:1.5em solid #000000;left:4em;top:1.3333333333333333em"></i>
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:0;height:0;line-height:0;border:1.3333333333333333em solid transparent;border-right:1.3333333333333333em solid #ffffff;border-bottom:1.3333333333333333em solid #ffffff;left:4.333333333333333em;top:1.6666666666666665em"></i>
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:3em;height:0.16666666666666666em;background-color:#000000;left:4em;top:4.333333333333333em"></i>
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:0.16666666666666666em;height:4.5em;background-color:#000000;left:1.8333333333333333em;top:0em"></i>
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:3em;height:0.16666666666666666em;background-color:#000000;left:0em;top:1.5em"></i>
        <i style="position: absolute;display:inline-block;width:0.16666666666666666em;height:1.6666666666666665em;background-color:#000000;left:0em;top:0em"></i>
    </span>
</span>

Which outputs

In Chrome at least... Here's the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/myJC4/

Answer 28

Bash:

$ expr "`whatis "the answer to Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" 2>&1 | wc -c`" - "`echo "Really, what it is?" | wc -c`" - "`echo "For god sake, please tell me." | wc -c`"

Output is: 42

Answer 29

JavaScript

String.prototype.repeat = function( num )
{
    return new Array( num + 1 ).join( this );
};
var four='4';
var two='2';

var firstLineFour=four+' '.repeat(5)+four;
var secondLineFour=' '.repeat(6)+four;
console.log(
    (firstLineFour+' '+two.repeat(7)+'\n'+firstLineFour+' '.repeat(7)+two+'\n'+four.repeat(7)+' '+two.repeat(7)+'\n')+((secondLineFour+' '+two)+'\n')+(secondLineFour+' '+two.repeat(7))+'\n'
);

Output:

4     4 2222222
4     4       2
4444444 2222222
      4 2
      4 2222222

The variable four is set to '4' and two set to '2', but you can change them to make it "draw" with different numbers.

Answer 30

JavaScript (or ActionScript 3)

"What do you get if you multiply 6 times 9?".length

Result:

42