Print the alphabet without using each vowel

Question

Inspiration: in 1939, a man named Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel called Gadsby without using the letter 'e'.

Your task is to write a set of (up to 5) programs in any language (which has a text-based syntax*) to output all 26 letters of the alphabet in order. However for each vowel aeiou, at least one of the programs must not include any occurrence of the vowel.

So there must be

a program that does not use 'a' or 'A' anywhere in the syntax of the program.
a program that does not use 'e' or 'E' anywhere in the syntax of the program.
a program that does not use 'i' or 'I' anywhere in the syntax of the program.
a program that does not use 'o' or 'O' anywhere in the syntax of the program.
a program that does not use 'u' or 'U' anywhere in the syntax of the program.

All of them must output abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.

The winner shall be the solution where the length of all programs is the shortest.

_{* since the constraint wouldn't be much of a challenge in Piet or Whitespace}

if one manages to make a single program that does not contain any vowel, do we need multiply the length of the program by 5? — Cristian Lupascu, Commented Apr 24, 2012 at 10:55
@w0lf: No, it says "up to 5 programs" and "length of all programs", which I read as "there can be only one program and its length counts in this case". — schnaader, Commented Apr 24, 2012 at 11:09
@PeterTaylor: You don't think having to avoid using vowels in your syntax is a unique challenge? As a JS programmer, it's especially interesting :) — mellamokb, Commented Apr 24, 2012 at 13:51
Are newlines acceptable in the output (i.e. one per character)? I can shorten some of my code if that is the case... — Gaffi, Commented Apr 24, 2012 at 21:17

aka.nice · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-21 08:37:45Z

Smalltalk (Squeak 4.x) 78 chars

Since we program by sending messages to objects, and that most messages are made of english words, this is a real challenge in Smalltalk.

However it is possible to exploit this curiosity: we can concatenate a String and a ByteArray with binary selector ,

'',#[97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122]

We can also exploit arithmetic on ByteArray to shorten to 78 chars

'',(#[0 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]+97)

Now can we write a loop without using to:do: whileTrue: repeat?
Yes we can, with recursion, but we need to stop the recursion with a test, and can we without using one of ifTrue: ifFalse: or: and:?
Yes we can just implement the message of our choice in True/False.
Let's see how far we can go...

We can't use the receiver of a message, self has a vowel: so we need a message with two parameters, say x:z:, sent to any object (9 chars)

0x:''z:97

we implement x:z: message in Object (38 chars - 47 total)

x:x z:z z<123?[^0x:x,(#[0]+z)z:z+1].^x

we implement ? in class False (2 chars - 49 total):

?x

we implement ? in class True: (6 chars - 55 total)

?x^x x

But now, how to evauate the block without sending the message value (3 vowels)...
The best I could was to implement x in class BlockClosure: (16 chars - 71 total)

x<primitive:201>

But that still consumes 2 vowels... And we're not far from original 78...

I still got a nice obfuscation - golfing in Smalltalk is really contre-nature ;)

boothby · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-24 05:34:35Z

2

Sage CLI, 42

No e,i,o,u:

map(chr,[97..122])

No a,i,o:

'%c'*26%tuple([97..122])

Fun fact: str, chr, and cmp are the only Python builtins that don't contain vowels!

answered Jul 24, 2013 at 5:34

boothby

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FIQ · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-05 14:02:07Z

2

Brainfuck, 31 bytes

-[----->++>+<<]>----->+[--<.+>]

How it works

-              wrap to 255
[----->++>+<<] loop 51 times  r1=102 r2=51
>----->+       r1=97 r2=52
[--<.+>]       loop 26 times and print letters a-z

answered Feb 5, 2014 at 14:02

FIQ

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\$\begingroup\$ I was wondering when a Brainfuck solution would rear its head... +1 \$\endgroup\$
– Eliseo D'Annunzio
Commented Jun 2, 2015 at 6:02

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shamp00 · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-07 12:43:35Z

2

Perl 5.10+, 23 chars

(This is an improvement on previous such entry but I don't have the reputaion to comment there):

no a, e, o, u:

print "\x61"..z

no e, i, o, u:

say a..z

edited Feb 7, 2014 at 12:43

shamp00

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answered Feb 5, 2014 at 14:38

skibrianski

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score 2 · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-30 18:10:34Z

2

Marbelous, 94 Bytes(I think)

.. @1 61 ..
.. .. // ..
.. Dn \\ ..
++ =0 \/ ..
@1 !! .. ..

:Dn
}0 .. 85 }0 }0
\\ {0 // {> {<

One program, no vowels, I think this qualifies as text-based, but I could be wrong. Marbelous interpreter

edited Sep 30, 2014 at 18:10

answered Sep 30, 2014 at 16:12

user31611

\$\begingroup\$ I think this is 94 bytes (unless there was whitespace originally that wasn't put into your answer). \$\endgroup\$
– laurencevs
Commented Sep 30, 2014 at 17:18

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M L · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-18 13:18:19Z

2

Piet, 104 (8x13) codels

Not eligible for this challenge, but I did it nonetheless.

I guess I could golf it a bit more, but this should be a good start.

output:

D:\codegolf\npiet-1.3a-win32>npiet "alphabet codegolf.png"
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

edited Aug 18, 2015 at 13:18

answered Aug 18, 2015 at 13:05

M L

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\$\begingroup\$ Not eligible to win as the question says “any language (which has a text-based syntax*)”, but nice one anyway. \$\endgroup\$
– manatwork
Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 13:09
\$\begingroup\$ I know. I did it just for the fun of it and wasn’t going for winning the challenge. :) \$\endgroup\$
– M L
Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 13:17

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

2

Burlesque, 12 characters

'`'zr@[-\[sh

(see here in action.)

With a:

'a'zr@\[sh

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Sep 12, 2012 at 12:50

mroman

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jrtapsell · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-12 12:14:43Z

2

Kotlin, 112 111 bytes

No E O U (29 bytes)

{('A'..'Z').map{println(it)}}

No A (39 bytes)

{(('B'-1)..'Z').filter{print(it);2>=1}}

No I (44 bytes)

{('A'..'Z').map{z->System.out.format(""+z)}}

edited Sep 12, 2017 at 12:14

answered Sep 11, 2017 at 10:07

jrtapsell

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

2

Pyth - 1 Byte

Implicitly print alphabet

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Dec 20, 2017 at 17:18

Tornado547

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\$\begingroup\$ Implicitly Print Alphabet. IPA. \$\endgroup\$
– user85052
Commented Dec 14, 2019 at 13:44

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user85052user85052 · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-15 14:42:27Z

2

Keg, 8 bytes (SBCS)

b;(|:1+

TIO

answered Sep 15, 2019 at 14:42

user85052

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user85052user85052 · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-03 02:51:04Z

2

Keg, 7 bytes (SBCS)

\`zɧ^_^

This generates the range from backtick to z and removes the backtick character.

answered Oct 3, 2019 at 2:51

user85052

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lyxal · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-13 06:21:58Z

2

Keg, 4 bytes

b;zɧ

Generates a range from a to z and prints it.

Try it online!

answered Dec 13, 2019 at 6:21

lyxal

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score 2 · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-20 00:17:13Z

2

W, 8 bytes

97;122.C

Pretty simple:

97;122.  % Generate a range from 97 ('a') to 122 ('z')
       C % Convert this to its character form

edited Jan 20, 2020 at 0:17

answered Dec 11, 2019 at 12:50

user85052

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score 2 · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-27 01:28:00Z

2

W `d`, 5 4 bytes

(ÇL·

Explanation

After decompression:

'a    % Character a
  'z. % Up to character z

edited Jan 27, 2020 at 1:28

answered Dec 14, 2019 at 13:35

user85052

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Aaroneous Miller · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-23 20:20:59Z

2

Vyxal, 3 bytes

kB∷

Try it Online!

Explanation:

kB   # Built-in constant "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
  ∷  # Second half of the string
     # Implicit output

Alternate 3 byte solution

kzṘ

Try it Online!

Explanation:

kz   # Built-in constant "zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba"
  Ṙ  # Reverse the string
     # Implicit output

answered Apr 23, 2021 at 20:20

Aaroneous Miller

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The Fifth Marshal · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-24 02:48:47Z

2

05AB1E, 4 bytes

žpRl

Try it online!

Doesn't use any vowel. If it were to use vowels, It'd be just this instead.

edited Apr 24, 2021 at 2:48

The Fifth Marshal

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answered Aug 6, 2017 at 17:08

Erik the Outgolfer

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Wasif · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-29 01:49:59Z

2

Vyxal, 3 bytes

kzṘ

Try it Online!

I cannot get more shorter than that. Sadly Vyxal is unable to beat Pyth here.

Fix thanks to @AUsername

edited May 29, 2021 at 1:49

answered May 29, 2021 at 1:35

Wasif

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1

\$\begingroup\$ Read the challenge. One mustn't have a in it. kzṘ works tho \$\endgroup\$
– emanresu A
Commented May 29, 2021 at 1:46

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walpen · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-03 17:40:58Z

1

C 108

Technically cheating, but

x[]={1684234849,1751606885,1818978921,1886350957,1953722993,2021095029,31353};y(){z("%s",x);}

Compile with -Dy=main -Dz=printf (I counted those towards the char count). Of course if you're allowing -D, go full hog and say -Dp=main(c){for(;c<27;)putchar(96+c++);} 39 characters there. (Or one, depending on how you count).

edited Jun 3, 2012 at 17:40

answered Jun 3, 2012 at 17:34

walpen

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\$\begingroup\$ With the same method, you could shorten a lot with "abcd%cfg.... \$\endgroup\$
– ugoren
Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 19:55
\$\begingroup\$ Yes, but the the array was more intimidating. That's half comprehensible. \$\endgroup\$
– walpen
Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 21:32

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mniip · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-08 19:44:43Z

1

Lua, 56

_G["pr\105nt"]"\97bcd\101fgh\105jklmn\111pqrst\117vwxyz"

edited Apr 8, 2013 at 19:44

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 10:41

mniip

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Hynek -Pichi- Vychodil · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-21 20:59:25Z

1

Erlang escript 75

It's pretty hard to do any golfing in Erlang but anyway:

$ cat alphabet 

'm\x61\x69n'(_)->
'\x69\x6f':'f\x6frm\x61t'('l\x69sts':'s\x65q'(97,122)).

Note empty line at beginning of escript and also line break in main function. They are both mandatory. Run it using

$ escript alphabet

answered Apr 21, 2013 at 20:59

Hynek -Pichi- Vychodil

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Mohsen Nosratinia · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-10 00:16:00Z

1

MATLAB, 17 characters

x='`':'z';x(2:27)

NOTE: Would be a winner with 7 characters if the first letter wasn't a vowel :-)

'a':'z'

answered Aug 10, 2013 at 0:16

Mohsen Nosratinia

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goric · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-09 21:37:52Z

1

Powershell, 29 + 39 = 68 chars

If newlines are acceptable in the output (as has been asked in the question's comments), this can be further reduced to 51 chars.

Uses no 'eiou' (29 chars):

$s="";$s+=97..122|%{[char]$_}

Uses no 'au' (39 chars):

-join(97..122|%{new-object string($_)})

Both work off of the same concept of translating integers into their ASCII values, the first by an explicit cast to char and the second by using the string constructor to perform the cast implicitly.

answered Dec 9, 2013 at 21:37

goric

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\$\begingroup\$ The "no eiou" solution doesn't output anything, and the variable has a bunch of spaces in it which weren't in the question spec. (Though, having not yet gotten an answer for newlines, I'm not sure we can assume any whitespace is out.) You'd need to add ;$s (3 characters) to make it output. \$\endgroup\$
– Iszi
Commented Dec 12, 2013 at 21:52
1

\$\begingroup\$ That said, you could stick with the same principle and even shorten it by 3. 97..122|%{$s+=[char]$_};$s This also eliminates the spaces. \$\endgroup\$
– Iszi
Commented Dec 12, 2013 at 21:55
\$\begingroup\$ Another variant of the 39-character script. Same length. 97..122|%{$s+=new-object string($_)};$s \$\endgroup\$
– Iszi
Commented Dec 12, 2013 at 22:01
\$\begingroup\$ another modification to the first one which eliminate spaces $ofs='';"$(97..122|%{[char]$_})" however it adds an 'o' and is now 32 characters. \$\endgroup\$
– Tim Lewis
Commented Mar 4, 2014 at 15:27

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 12:39:16Z

1

Python shell, 48 + enter

str('\x61bcd\x65fgh\x69jklmn\x6fpqrst\x75vwxyz')

Output:

'abcdefghijklmnppqrstuvwxyz'

If this is valid, I think my answer is too?

edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:39

CommunityBot

1

answered Dec 12, 2013 at 2:45

Roberto

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Darren Stone · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-18 07:02:06Z

1

Forth, 46

.\" \x61bcd\x65fgh\x69jklmn\x6fpqrst\x75vwxyz"

answered Dec 18, 2013 at 7:02

Darren Stone

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

Bash, 31 chars

I think this is the shortest bash version so far:

z=({Z..z});tr -d \ <<<${z[@]:7}

This one outputs exactly abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz with no whitespace between any letters.

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Mar 4, 2014 at 21:16

Digital Trauma

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YosemiteMark · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-22 01:14:26Z

1

Clojure: 81 over 2 statements

No i, o, or u: 35 chars

(apply str(map char(range 97 123)))

No a or e: 46 chars

(str \u0061"bcd"\u0065"fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz")

REPL (RPL?) session:

cd-glf-s-hrd> (apply str(map char(range 97 123)))
"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
cd-glf-s-hrd> (str \u0061"bcd"\u0065"fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz")
"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

answered Aug 22, 2014 at 1:14

YosemiteMark

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kaine · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-19 19:40:03Z

1

Cjam 6

'{,97>

creates the character "{"
lists all characters less than "{" (this ends if you try to print it because character 0 stops things from outputting)
removes any with a value less than or equal to 97

edited Sep 19, 2014 at 19:40

answered Sep 19, 2014 at 17:52

kaine

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1

\$\begingroup\$ CJam was created after this challenge was posted. \$\endgroup\$
– lirtosiast
Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 15:31
1

\$\begingroup\$ @ThomasKwa I realised that after having answered it. This disqualifies it from winning, but I think it is interesting enough it shouldn't be removed. \$\endgroup\$
– kaine
Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 15:33

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Muqo · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-03 04:00:31Z

1

T-SQL, 120 (65+55)

This answer assumes results of both PRINT and SELECT are allowed as output.

65 characters without e, o, u:

PRINT'abcd'+CHAR(101)+'fghijklmn'+RTRIM(0x6F707172737475)+'vwxyz'

55 characters without a, i:

SELECT LEFT(0x616263646566676869,9)+'jklmnopqrstuvwxyz'

answered Oct 3, 2014 at 4:00

Muqo

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

1

Haskell (interpreted), 17

[['`'..]!!1..'z']

Back-quote comes before 'a', so a is the second element of the sequence starting with back-quote. This is then just the sequence from a to z.

This is technically a naked Haskell expression. (If you save it to ".ghci", though, running ghci will print the alphabet.)

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 2, 2014 at 20:58

archaephyrryx

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Aaron · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-18 15:46:44Z

1

><>, 35 bytes

!v99*:f1++$ff++31p!
 >: 1+:bb*1+)?;

><> outputs with the command 'o', hopefully it also provides introspection capability so we'll just edit the code at runtime to add the 'o'. This is done with the command 'p' at the end of the first line.

answered Aug 18, 2015 at 15:46

Aaron

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Print the alphabet without using each vowel

123 Answers 123

Sage CLI, 42

Brainfuck, 31 bytes

Perl 5.10+, 23 chars

Marbelous, 94 Bytes(I think)

Piet, 104 (8x13) codels

Burlesque, 12 characters

Kotlin, 112 111 bytes

No E O U (29 bytes)

No A (39 bytes)

No I (44 bytes)

Pyth - 1 Byte

Keg, 8 bytes (SBCS)

Keg, 7 bytes (SBCS)

Keg, 4 bytes

W, 8 bytes

W d, 5 4 bytes

Explanation

Vyxal, 3 bytes

Alternate 3 byte solution

05AB1E, 4 bytes

Vyxal, 3 bytes

C 108

Lua, 56

Erlang escript 75

MATLAB, 17 characters

Powershell, 29 + 39 = 68 chars

Python shell, 48 + enter

Forth, 46

Bash, 31 chars

Clojure: 81 over 2 statements

Cjam 6

T-SQL, 120 (65+55)

Haskell (interpreted), 17

><>, 35 bytes

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