103
\$\begingroup\$

The Challenge

Write a complete program that writes twice as many bytes to standard output as the length of the program.

Rules

  • The program must write ASCII characters to the standard output.

  • The contents of the output doesn't matter.

  • The output, measured in bytes, must be exactly twice the length of the program, also measured in bytes, unless you fulfill the bonus.

  • Any trailing newline is included in the output's byte count.

Bonus

Your program can optionally take a number, n, as input. If so, the output must be exactly n * program length bytes. You can assume that n will always be a positive integer. If no input is provided, n must default to 2.

If you do this, you can subtract 25 bytes from your score.

Shortest program wins.

Restrictions

  • No standard loopholes.

  • The program must be at least 1 byte long.

  • No adding unnecessary whitespace to the source code to change its length. Similarly, comments don't count.

  • Unless you fulfill the bonus, the program must accept no input. If you do fulfill the bonus, the integer must be the only input.

Lowest score (program length in bytes - bonus) wins.

The shortest answer for each language wins for that language.

Leaderboards

Here is a Stack Snippet to generate both a regular leaderboard and an overview of winners by language.

To make sure that your answer shows up, please start your answer with a headline, using the following Markdown template:

# Language Name, N bytes

where N is the size of your submission. If you improve your score, you can keep old scores in the headline, by striking them through. For instance:

# Ruby, <s>104</s> <s>101</s> 96 bytes

If there you want to include multiple numbers in your header (e.g. because your score is the sum of two files or you want to list interpreter flag penalties separately), make sure that the actual score is the last number in the header:

# Perl, 43 + 2 (-p flag) = 45 bytes

You can also make the language name a link which will then show up in the leaderboard snippet:

# [><>](http://esolangs.org/wiki/Fish), 121 bytes

var QUESTION_ID=59436,OVERRIDE_USER=41505;function answersUrl(e){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/questions/"+QUESTION_ID+"/answers?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+ANSWER_FILTER}function commentUrl(e,s){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/answers/"+s.join(";")+"/comments?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+COMMENT_FILTER}function getAnswers(){jQuery.ajax({url:answersUrl(answer_page++),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){answers.push.apply(answers,e.items),answers_hash=[],answer_ids=[],e.items.forEach(function(e){e.comments=[];var s=+e.share_link.match(/\-?\d+/);answer_ids.push(s),answers_hash[s]=e}),e.has_more||(more_answers=!1),comment_page=1,getComments()}})}function getComments(){jQuery.ajax({url:commentUrl(comment_page++,answer_ids),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){e.items.forEach(function(e){e.owner.user_id===OVERRIDE_USER&&answers_hash[e.post_id].comments.push(e)}),e.has_more?getComments():more_answers?getAnswers():process()}})}function getAuthorName(e){return e.owner.display_name}function process(){var e=[];answers.forEach(function(s){var r=s.body;s.comments.forEach(function(e){OVERRIDE_REG.test(e.body)&&(r="<h1>"+e.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG,"")+"</h1>")});var a=r.match(SCORE_REG);a&&e.push({user:getAuthorName(s),size:+a[2],language:a[1],link:s.share_link})}),e.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.size,a=s.size;return r-a});var s={},r=1,a=null,n=1;e.forEach(function(e){e.size!=a&&(n=r),a=e.size,++r;var t=jQuery("#answer-template").html();t=t.replace("{{PLACE}}",n+".").replace("{{NAME}}",e.user).replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",e.language).replace("{{SIZE}}",e.size).replace("{{LINK}}",e.link),t=jQuery(t),jQuery("#answers").append(t);var o=e.language;/<a/.test(o)&&(o=jQuery(o).text()),s[o]=s[o]||{lang:e.language,user:e.user,size:e.size,link:e.link}});var t=[];for(var o in s)s.hasOwnProperty(o)&&t.push(s[o]);t.sort(function(e,s){return e.lang>s.lang?1:e.lang<s.lang?-1:0});for(var c=0;c<t.length;++c){var i=jQuery("#language-template").html(),o=t[c];i=i.replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",o.lang).replace("{{NAME}}",o.user).replace("{{SIZE}}",o.size).replace("{{LINK}}",o.link),i=jQuery(i),jQuery("#languages").append(i)}}var ANSWER_FILTER="!t)IWYnsLAZle2tQ3KqrVveCRJfxcRLe",COMMENT_FILTER="!)Q2B_A2kjfAiU78X(md6BoYk",answers=[],answers_hash,answer_ids,answer_page=1,more_answers=!0,comment_page;getAnswers();var SCORE_REG=/<h\d>\s*([^\n,]*[^\s,]),.*?(\-?\d+)(?=[^\n\d<>]*(?:<(?:s>[^\n<>]*<\/s>|[^\n<>]+>)[^\n\d<>]*)*<\/h\d>)/,OVERRIDE_REG=/^Override\s*header:\s*/i;
body{text-align:left!important}#answer-list,#language-list{padding:10px;width:290px;float:left}table thead{font-weight:700}table td{padding:5px}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdn.sstatic.net/codegolf/all.css?v=83c949450c8b"> <div id="answer-list"> <h2>Leaderboard</h2> <table class="answer-list"> <thead> <tr><td></td><td>Author</td><td>Language</td><td>Size</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="answers"> </tbody> </table> </div><div id="language-list"> <h2>Winners by Language</h2> <table class="language-list"> <thead> <tr><td>Language</td><td>User</td><td>Score</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="languages"> </tbody> </table> </div><table style="display: none"> <tbody id="answer-template"> <tr><td>{{PLACE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table> <table style="display: none"> <tbody id="language-template"> <tr><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table>

\$\endgroup\$
25
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ For the bonus, does the output have to be exactly n * program length bytes, or is that a minimum? \$\endgroup\$
    – xnor
    Oct 2, 2015 at 23:19
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ It has to be exact \$\endgroup\$
    – Daniel M.
    Oct 2, 2015 at 23:20
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Looks like the code snippet has to be modified to handle negative scores. \$\endgroup\$ Oct 2, 2015 at 23:49
  • 44
    \$\begingroup\$ A bonus of -25 is basically mandatory for some languages, since it lets them achieve a negative score. In the future, I'd suggest using a percent bonus, or just making the bonus the question if you really want answers to go for it. Or, just don't have a bonus. \$\endgroup\$
    – xnor
    Oct 2, 2015 at 23:58
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ For "no input is provided", do we assume the empty string is passed in? I can't see how one would deal with the user never typing in an input and the program just waiting. \$\endgroup\$
    – xnor
    Oct 2, 2015 at 23:59

300 Answers 300

1
6
7
8 9 10
1
\$\begingroup\$

Z80Golf, 14 bytes - 25 bytes of bonus = 11 anti-matter bytes (-11 classic bytes)

00000000: 3e02 cd03 8006 0eff 10fd 3d20 f876       >.........= .v

Try it online!

Takes input as a byte value.

    ld a, 2
    call $8003
outer:
    ld b, 14
inner:
    rst $38
    djnz inner
    dec a
    jr nz, outer
    halt
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Python 3, 26 25 Bytes

lambda n=2:print(n*26*'-')

Improved thanks to @JoKing

\$\endgroup\$
0
1
\$\begingroup\$

Come Here, 39 bytes

CALL"9999999999999"iTELLi i i i i iNEXT
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

8088 machine code, IBM PC DOS, 35 bytes

Unassembled listing:

        _LOOP:     
AC          LODSB               ; load byte [SI] into AL, increment SI 
8A F0       MOV  DH, AL         ; save original byte in DH 
B9 0204     MOV  CX, 0204H      ; set up nibble counter and shift count 
D2 C0       ROL  AL, CL         ; reverse nibbles (display high order first) 
        _NIB:      
24 0F       AND  AL, 0FH        ; mask low nibble 
3C 0A       CMP  AL, 0AH        ; is < 10? 
72 02       JC   _ASC           ; if so, is a numeric digit 
04 07       ADD  AL, 07H        ; otherwise adjust for A-F hex ASCII 
        _ASC: 
04 30       ADD  AL, '0'        ; ASCII convert 
B4 0E       MOV  AH, 0EH        ; BIOS output char function 
CD 10       INT  10H            ; display char 
8A C6       MOV  AL, DH         ; restore original nibble to AL 
FE CD       DEC  CH             ; decrement nibble counter 
75 EC       JNZ  _NIB           ; if > 0, repeat 
81 FE 0123  CMP  SI, OFFSET _EF ; is SI < last byte? 
7C DE       JL   _LOOP          ; if so, keep looping 
C3          RET                 ; return to DOS 
        _EF EQU $               ; get program size 

This is a complete IBM PC DOS executable that displays itself as ASCII hex, so will always output as twice the program size.

Output

enter image description here

Download and test SELF.COM!

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Excel Formula, 23 - 25 = -2 bytes

=REPT("A",MAX(A1,2)*23)

However, this doesn't work for A1 (n) = 1(!)

Version supporting N=1, 28 - 25 = 3 bytes

=REPT("A",(A1=0)*56+(A1*28))
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

TinCan, 122 bytes

# 62367, A, &                          #
# -256, A, -1                          #
# 0, A, 1                              #

Outputs 244 'a's.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Try it online!

Explanation:

Lines have a minimum length of 40 characters in TinCan, and there is only one instruction, so 40 bytes would be the shortest feasible TinCan program other than an empty file.

TinCan's interpreter is written in PHP and uses the PHP chr function to output the character value of each number on the stack when the program ends. This also works for values outside the range of 0 to 255, using bitwise and with 255 to get the result.

For this program, I multiplied the length of the program (122 bytes) times two, minus one for the positive case, times 256 and added (256 - 97), 97 being the ASCII value of 'a'. This gives 62367.

The loop then generates a sequence of values starting at -62367 and counting upwards by 256 each iteration. Each value in sequence when processed by chr produces another 'a'. When the variable A becomes positive, the program exits and prints 244 'a's.

With the fixed line length, golfing this down would require removing one whole instruction, which I don't believe is possible. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong!

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Aheui (esotope), 87 bytes

삭밦밢따밥다사바바바바바바우a
샥ㅇ뱟ㅇ탸ㅇ뺘소처희ㅇㅇ아멍a

Try it online!

output is 174 bytes of 0. Aheui program is written in Korean, so one character is 3 bytes, and question said measured in byte, so 174. Trailing a is for making program to proper bytes.

How does this work?

삭밦밢따밥다 : to stack , then put 58. (28 Korean characters. Aheui cannot put 1 to stack, so I'll subtract 2 instead of 1 when counting loop.)

사바바바바바바우 : to stack (Nothing), put 6 zeros, than move downside.

아멍 : print from current stack till nothing left. if nothing left, move to start of the line.

샥ㅇ뱟ㅇ탸ㅇ뺘소처희 : to stack , subtract 2, check if zero, halt if zero, to stack (Nothing) and move to 사바바바바바바우 again.

a : At first, I thought this code would work just fine, but something went wrong. I used online character counter, and I got 29, so I made code with that. But code was 85 bytes and output was 174 bytes. I found the reason of this error : newline character. So I added 2 bytes to my code, than everything works fine. Aheui don't evaluate non-Korean characters, so a is just blank.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Befunge-93, 25 - 25 = 0 bytes

&+:0\`3*+::%+"CG"*:*:.:*.

Try it online!

Uses no control flow instructions! This code is implicitly looped n amount of times.

To get the n as input once and not have it interfere with subsequent iterations, we use Befunge-93's feature of returning -1 for input if the input stream is empty. At the start of each iteration, the top of the stack is the loop counter. It starts off at 0 (the default value on the stack). &+ gets a value from input and adds it to the counter. Conveniently, this sets the counter to the received input on the first iteration, and subtracts 1 on every subsequent iteration, creating a for (i = input();; i--) loop. :0\`3*+ computes (counter < 0) * 3 and adds it to the counter. This has the effect of adding 3 if the counter is negative (which happens if there was no input and we want to set n to -1+3=2), and otherwise adding 0 (if the input was positive or this is not the first iteration).

::%+ simply calculates counter % counter and discards the result, so as to halt when the counter reaches 0.

At the end, we output two large numbers by repeatedly squaring the product of two ASCII characters. Note that after each outputted number there is a trailing space.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

C (gcc), 35 - 25 = 10 34 - 25 = 9 bytes

-1 byte thanks to PrincePolka

Input is in the form of number of command-line arguments. No arguments counts as no input.

main(i){printf("%*d",34*--i?:68);}

Try it online!

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ main(i){printf("%*d",34*--i?:68);} - 1 byte \$\endgroup\$ Jul 30, 2019 at 3:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @PrincePolka Cheers! \$\endgroup\$
    – gastropner
    Jul 30, 2019 at 22:13
1
\$\begingroup\$

Underload, 10 bytes

()aaaaa:*S

I'm pretty sure this is unimprovable, since I made a python script to test all possible combinations of instructions. However, I did only include the instructions a:*S in it, and made it so it always starts with (), so there could be a crazy solution involving ^ or ~. Also, for those curious, there are actually 5 other valid 10 byte solutions:

()aaaaa:SS
()aa:a*:*S
()aa:a*:SS
()aa:*a:*S
()aa:*a:SS

Try it Online

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ I've checked and there isn't any possible output using ^ or ~. \$\endgroup\$
    – user85052
    Dec 22, 2019 at 14:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh ok, also, I might be able to get rid of the S and just leave the result on the stack to save a byte, but I'm not sure what the meta rules are on leaving stuff on the stack instead of printing \$\endgroup\$
    – EdgyNerd
    Dec 22, 2019 at 17:19
1
\$\begingroup\$

Keg, 6 2 bytes

(|A,)

It loops 12 times printing 12 A's to the console, which is double the size of the program. There is a control character (0x0C) between the ( and |, which makes this 6 bytes.

Another shorter version:

A

This prints A plus a newline, which contains 2 characters.

Worth a mention(3 bytes):

5/

TIO

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think you have the byte count correct at the top of your answer. (|A,) is 5 bytes. Is there supposed to be a trailing newline? \$\endgroup\$
    – mbomb007
    Jun 6, 2019 at 19:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ There should be a control character between ( and |, which should be 0x0C. \$\endgroup\$
    – user85052
    Jun 7, 2019 at 2:08
1
\$\begingroup\$

naz, 2 bytes

4o

Outputs 0000.

Explanation

The default value of the register is 0; if the register's value is between 0 and 9 inclusive, use of the o instruction will output that number as an ASCII character.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

TlanG 3 bytes

.*6

Out: ......

Explainations in the readme on the TlanG github.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Python - (32 bytes - 25) = 7

k="1"*32
n=int(input())
print(k*n)

So close :(. This code takes a string k (which is 32 chars long, same as this code), takes n as an input, and prints k repeated n times.

Python - 16 bytes (no bonus)

k="1"*32
print(k)

Same as above, but without taking input, and thus, the code is only 16 bytes long.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

BRASCA, 2 bytes

CK

Try it!

Explanation

C   - Output implicit output as number
 K  - Push 1000
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Pxem, 30 bytes (Filename) + 0 bytes (Content) - 25 bytes (bonus) = 5 bytes, requires nonprintable character, does not deal with default.

  • Filename (nonprintable is escaped): ._.c.w.tXXX.eX.eX.e.p.m\001.-.c.a
  • Content is empty.

Try it online! (with pxem.posixism)

With comments

XX.z
# read integer and push it (pxem.posixism errors when not given)
.a._XX.z
# dup; while pop!=0; do
.a.c.wXX.z
  # heap=pop
  .a.tXX.z
  # .e command actually stands for calling content as
  # subroutine BUT content is empty so it stands for
  # duplicating entire stack
  # also non-command substrings stand for literals
  # so stack would have (3*2+1)*2+1*2=30 X's
  .aXXX.eX.eX.eXX.z
  # pop all to output each of them
  .a.pXX.z
  # push heap; push 1; push abs(pop-pop); dup
  .a.m\001.-.cXX.z
# done
.a.a

Pxem, 12 bytes (Filename) + 0 bytes (Content) = 12 bytes.

  • Filename: XX.eXX.e.e.p
  • Content is empty.

It outputs 24 X's without trailing LF.

Try it online!

How it works

XX.z
# push two X's
.aXXXX.z
# call content (as subroutine), pushing final result
## NOTE if original stack was 1,2,3 from top,
## the subroutine stack is also intialized with 1,2,3
## Then when returning from subroutine with final result of stack 4,5,6
## then original stack would be 4,5,6,1,2,3
## Since content is empty, it stands for duplicatinf entire stack
.a.eXX.z
## now X,X,X,X
# push two X's
.aXXXX.z
## now four X's
# duplicate entire stack twice
.a.e.eXX.z
# finally pop all to output each of them
.a.p
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Julia, 6 bytes

@info%

outputs in stderr (12 bytes including the trailing newline)

[ Info: rem

Explanation: % is the rem function (remainder)

Try it online!

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Excel, 23 - 25 = -2 bytes

=REPT(0,IF(A1,A1,2)*23)

Saves 2 bytes by repeating a number instead of a character.

Excel, 4 bytes

=8^8

8^8 is an 8 digit number

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Subleq, 12 11 bytes (Assuming an 8 bit word)

2 -1 88 10 11 -1 8 8 0 1 22

Subleq emulator

Explanation

0:  2 -1 88 ' Output 2: "X"
3:  9 10 -1 ' 10: = 10: - 9:, if 10: <=0 exit
6:  8  8  0 ' 8: = 0, goto 0
9:  1 22    ' data

64 bit word, 96 88 bytes

2 -1 88 9 10 -1 8 8 0 1 176
\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Python 3, 12 bytes

print(9<<75)

Try it online!

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Python 3, (30-25)=5

def f(n=2):print((n*30-1)*"A")

The output includes a newline at the end which is accounted by subtracting 1 from the product of n and 30, the code length.

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

APL, 2 bytes

!7

The program prints the number 5040 (factorial of 7).

APL, 8 bytes (Bonus)

'*'⍴⍨8×⎕

The program prints asterisks (8 times more than n).

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

05AB1E, -23 bytes

Try it online!

\$\endgroup\$
3
  • \$\begingroup\$ This doesn't default to 2 for no input \$\endgroup\$
    – Jo King
    Aug 23, 2018 at 2:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ @JoKing it used to, 05AB1E basically got a massive overhaul. It for sure used to default to 10. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 23, 2018 at 4:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ Doesn't work for 1. I don't see how this works, so may you explain your program? \$\endgroup\$
    – user85052
    Dec 22, 2019 at 14:15
1
\$\begingroup\$

Slashalash, 15 bytes

/o/ttttt/oooooo

Try it online!

\$\endgroup\$
1
\$\begingroup\$

Swift, 27 bytes

for i in 87...103{print(i)}

Prints the numbers 87 through 103 inclusive, each number followed by a newline, for a total of 54 bytes.

\$\endgroup\$
0
\$\begingroup\$

Python 3.4, 14 13 bytes

print("a"*26)
\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ This is only 13 bytes. Which makes your score 41 (13 + 28). You can lose two points by changing 28 to 26. \$\endgroup\$
    – Zach Gates
    Oct 3, 2015 at 3:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Did you think about say()? \$\endgroup\$
    – Titus
    Jan 27, 2017 at 6:59
0
\$\begingroup\$

Pyth, 6 bytes

*4"aaa

Explanation:

*4"aaa
-------+------------
  "aaa | Print "aaa"
*4     | 4 times

Pyth, -7 bytes

*.xvw2*2"aaaaaaaaa

Plain and simple.

*.xvw2*2"aaaaaaaaa
-------------------+----------------------
      *2"aaaaaaaaa | Print twice the "a"s
*                  | times
 .xvw              | try to evaluate input
     2             | otherwise, 2
\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ For the bonus, if no input is provided, it should default to 2. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dennis
    Oct 3, 2015 at 17:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yup, just noticed that. Fixed. \$\endgroup\$
    – clapp
    Oct 3, 2015 at 17:39
0
\$\begingroup\$

C#, 63 62 bytes

class P{static void Main(){System.Console.Write($"{1,124}");}}

Will print 123 spaces followed by 1.

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ How does this work? \$\endgroup\$ Dec 29, 2015 at 14:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ @LegionMammal978 in C# 6, @"{1,124}" is the equivalent of string.Format("{0,124}", 1) which means format the number 1 to a string with a minimum length of 124. It uses spaces to pad the value to the minimum length. See composite formatting. \$\endgroup\$ Dec 29, 2015 at 14:45
0
\$\begingroup\$

Ruby, 22 bytes - 25 bytes = -3 bytes

c=->n=2{p ?d*21*n}
c[]

The reason the value shows up as 21 bytes in the code itself is that the quotation marks are printed, effectively reducing the number of bytes I need to print by 2 (left paren and right paren).

\$\endgroup\$
0
0
\$\begingroup\$

><>, (15 + 3) - 25 = -7

2}f*:?!;1n1-30.

Like torcado's answer, but a one-liner. Takes input via the -v flag, e.g.

py -3 fish.py double.fish -v 5

and outputs 15*<input> ones.

><>, 5 bytes

"nn#;

Here's a version without any bonuses. Outputs 5935110110.

\$\endgroup\$
1
6
7
8 9 10

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