Pointers, pointers, pointers!

Question

Introduction

In the error outputs of some languages such as Java, a pointer is shown to give the programmer an idea of exactly where the error went wrong.

Take this example on Ideone:

Main.java:12: error: ';' expected
    Invalid Java!
                ^

Notice the caret shows where the invalid code is?

Challenge

Your challenge is: given number N and string S, place a pointer on the Nth character in S.

Examples

Input: 2, "Lorem ipsum, dollar sit amet."

Output:

Lorem ipsum, dollar sit amet.
 ^

Rules

• Input is received via STDIN or function parameters
• Output is printed out to the console or returned
• Trailing new lines, spaces etc are allowed in the output
• The pointer character must be a ^ caret and must be on a new line.
• This is code golf, so the shortest answer wins. Good luck!

Answer 1

Jelly, 7 bytes

ṄṛṬị⁾^ 

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Same length, but different to, Erik's existing answer

How it works

ṄṛṬị⁾^  - Main link. Takes S on the left and N on the right
Ṅ       - Print S with a newline
 ṛ      - Discard it and yield N
  Ṭ     - Yield a list with a 1 at the Nth index and 0s otherwise
   ị⁾^  - Index into "^ "

Answer 2

Vyxal o, 6 5 bytes

,‹\^꘍

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Answer 3

rs, 35 bytes

(\d+), "(.*?)"/\2\n( )^^(\1)^
 \^/^

Unfortunately, the online demo has a bug that I need to fix with newlines, so I can't put a demo link.

EDIT: I fixed the bug in the demo page. So...

Live demo!

This is pretty simple:

• Line 1 places the text, a newline, and a series of spaces repeated one more times than we want.
• Line 2 gets rid of the extra space.

Answer 4

Lua, 58 53 bytes

a=" "function p(n,s)print(s,"\n"..a:rep(n-1).."^")end

Thanks to manatwork this just got shorter by 5 bytes. Looks like I need to refresh my Lua skills.

First version:

function p(n,s)print(s.."\n"..string.rep(" ",n-1).."^")end

Answer 5

PHP 4.1, 35 31 bytes

This one was really simple, but still fun!

<?="$S
",str_pad('^',$P,' ',0);

You can pass the values over POST, GET, SESSIONS, ...

The key S must contain the string, while the key P must contain the character number where you want the ^.

---

Old answer (35 bytes):

<?="$S
",str_repeat(' ',--$P),'^';

Answer 6

Batch, 56 Bytes

@set/p=
@for /l %%a in (2,1,%1)do @cd|set/p=.<BS> 
@echo ^^

This code contains two points of interest. First, it takes input from both StdIn and command line arguments. The string is read from StdIn while the index of the caret is taken as a parameter. Second, Batch doesn't play nice when it come to outputting a single space character (U+0020) so a bit of a work around is required: cd|set/p=.<BS> In this line <BS> stands in for the backspace character (U+0008) and the last character is a space. This is accounted for in the byte count.

Answer 7

SAS, 22

macro a put &s/@&n'^'%

Usage:

%let s="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet";
%let n=2;
data;a;run;

Output:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
 ^

If running in 'batch' mode, the run is not required so the code in needed to produce the function and run it (just not setting the inputs) would be 30 bytes

macro a put &s/@&n'^'% data;a;

So, it may be cheating... this style macro(function) definition in SAS does not have parameters, so the inputs are defined separately, in Usage as two %let statements. Parsing from STDIN would substantially lengthen the solution and only works when running SAS in 'batch' mode, which is not necessarily commonplace.

Answer 8

Javascript, 50 bytes

Code

function f(n,s){return s+'\n'+s.substr(0,n-1)+'^'}

Output

console.log(f(2, "hello"));
hello
h^

This approach takes advantage of the fact that you do not specify an empty string preceding the caret, only a caret pointing to the index in the input string and anything following that. If you happen to have a caret in your input string and an error there then it might get a little bit confusing :)

For example

console.log(f(3, "he^lo"));
he^lo
he^

or

console.log(f(3, "he^"));
he^
he^

Answer 9

Pyth, 8 bytes

z+*dtQ\^

Takes inputs separated by a newline (i.e. 2\nLorem ipsum).
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Explanation:

z           The second input, implicitly printed with trailing newline
  *d__      The space character, __ times
    tQ        where __ is the first input -1
 +    \^    Append a literal carat character and printed

Answer 10

Vim, 7 keystrokes (buffer input/output, excluding input keystrokes)

o<Esc> + input number + i <Esc>r^

Explanation

• o<Esc> creates a new line
• #i <Esc> creates # spaces
• r^ replaces the last space by ^

Note: This answers does not write the output to stdout (:w !tee, + 6 keystrokes) - so maybe it will be considered invalid.

Answer 11

C++14, 45 bytes

As unnamed lambda modifying its input, assuming s is similar to std::string (has operator+=):

[](int n,auto&s){for(s+=10;--n;s+=32);s+=94;}

Usage:

#include<string>
#include<iostream>

auto f =
[](int n,auto&s){for(s+=10;--n;s+=32);s+=94;}
;

int main() {
 std::string s = "abcdefghijk";
 f(2,s);
 std::cout << s << std::endl;
}

Answer 12

SmileBASIC, 26 bytes

INPUT N,S$?S$?" "*(N-1);"^

1-indexed arrow adds 4 bytes...

Answer 13

tcl, 47

gets stdin s
puts $s\n[format %[gets stdin]s ^]

demo

Answer 14

Ruby 2.7, 24 bytes

x=->{_1+'
'+" "*~-_2+?^}

Answer 15

Turtlèd, 17 bytes

r!-[*.-l_]' d?:'^

explanation

r!-               move right, take input into string variable, decrement string pointer
   [*    ]        while current char is not *
     .-           write pointed char from string, decrement pointer
       l_         move left, write * if the pointer is on the last char of string
          ' d     write space, move down
             ?:'^ Take input into register, move forward by the amount in register, write ^

Answer 16

Jelly, 8 7 bytes

Ṅ⁶ṁ”^⁹¦

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That dollardolor makes me laugh!!

Thanks to @Dennis for -1.

Answer 17

Braingolf, 25 bytes

VV"^ "R3-M#
&@v[v.Rv]v<&@

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Answer 18

V, 6 bytes

ïÀá r^

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Answer 19

PowerShell Core, 29 27 bytes

$args[1]
'^'|% *ft $args[0]

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-2 bytes thanks to Mazzy!

Answer 20

Japt -R, 5 bytes

-1 byte if we can take the string input as a singleton array.

·p^ùV

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Answer 21

05AB1E, 6 bytes

,'^ú¦,

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,       # output with trailing newline...
        # implicit input
     ,  # output with trailing newline...
 '^     # "^"...
   ú    # with...
        # implicit input...
    ¦   # minus 1...
   ú    # spaces in front
 

Answer 22

Haskell, 38 bytes

n!s=s++'\n':g n
g 1="^"
g n=' ':g(n-1)

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Answer 23

Gol><> (Golfish), 14 bytes

`^IMR` aTiEHot

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Explanation

`^             # push caret
  I            # read input as number
   M           # subtract 1
    R`         # pop N, and Repeatedly push a space, N times
       a       # push 10 (ASCII newline)
        T      # set teleport pad
         i     # input character
          EH   # if EOF, output stack and halt
            o  # otherwise, output the character just read
             t # teleport back to pad

Answer 24

Red, 35 bytes

func[n s][prin[s lf pad/left"^^"n]]

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Answer 25

Stax, 5 bytes

P'^)p

Run and debug it

Answer 26

APL (Dyalog Classic), 14 bytes

{↑⍺((-⍵)↑'^')}

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A port of @FrownyFrog J answer

Answer 27

Thunno 2 N, 6 bytes

⁻ṣ'^+,

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Explanation

⁻ṣ'^+,  # Implicit input
⁻ṣ      # First input decremented spaces
  '^+   # With a "^" appended
     ,  # Paired with the second input
        # Implicit output joined by newlines

Answer 28

Java (JDK), 32 bytes

Speaking of which, the Java answer of this problem needed a little upgrade :)

a->b->b+"\n"+" ".repeat(a-1)+"^"

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Answer 29

Go, 79 bytes

import."strings"
func f(s string,n int)string{return s+`
`+Repeat(" ",n-1)+"^"}

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