Print a 10 by 10 grid of asterisks

Question

Background

This is a standard textbook example to demonstrate for loops.

This is one of the first programs I learnt when I started learning programming ~10 years ago.

Task

You are to print this exact text:

**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********

Specs

• You may have extra trailing newlines.
• You may have extra trailing spaces (U+0020) at the end of each line, including the extra trailing newlines.

Scoring

This is code-golf. Shortest answer in bytes wins.

Answer 1

Cubix, 26 bytes

'*u.NNw\./>rroq(?;([email protected]

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This maps onto a side length 3 cube. Now to try and get rid of some of the no-ops and try and fit it on a side length 2 cube.

      ' * u
      . N N
      w \ .
/ > r r o q ( ? ; ( ? @
. . . . N . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
      . . .
      . . .
      . . .

• / Redirect the flow to the top face
• '*u Add an * to the stack and u-turn
• NN Add a couple of 10's to the stack as counters
• >rroq Rotate the stack to bring the * to the top, output and push it to the bottom
• (? Decrement the top counter (character) and test.
• If zero ;( pop from stack, decrement next counter (line), otherwise go around to previous command set.
• ?@ Test the counter (line) and exit if zero
• No\w Add a 10 to the stack as a linefeed and a new character counter, output it and redirect back to the > to start the sequence again.

Answer 2

Perl 5, 17 bytes

say'*'x10for 0..9

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Answer 3

RAMDISP, 31 bytes.

[P[5[*2]R[M[I[;**********
]]]]]

[P - pipe through the following array
  [
    5 - 5
    [*2] - times 2 [10]
    R - create a range of that size [1..10]
    [M - for each element in that range
      [I - ignore it
        [;**********\n] - print eight asterisks and a newline 
                          (real newline was replaced by \n)
      ]
    ]
  ]
]

basic, but works.

Answer 4

GForth 36 Bytes

: A 10 0 do ." **********" CR loop ;

Answer 5

05AB1E, 6 bytes

'*T×v,

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'* character literal: "*"
T× repeat ten times as a string: "**********"
v for each character y in this string:
, print the top of stack. As the stack is empty and there is no input, this uses the value that was previously on the stack, "**********".

Answer 6

51AC8, 10 bytes

10[10\*×t]

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Explanation

10[10\*×t]
10          # Push 10 (for each loop; looping var)
   [        # Begin foreach loop (for 10 times)
    10      # Push 10
      \*    # Push '*'
        ×   # Multiply
         t  # Pop and print
          ] # End foreach

Answer 7

K (ngn/k), 16 14 13 bytes

` 0:10 10#"*"

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Thanks to @Bubbler in the k tree for helping me out with this.

¯2 bytes thanks to @Bubbler

¯1 byte thanks to @Bubbler

Answer 8

Vyxal, jH, 6 5 ⁴ 3 bytes

×*²

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Explained

×*²
×*      # Push 100 asterisks onto the stack (as a single string) // the H flag initalises the stack with 100
  ²     # Split into pieces of 10 and use the j flag to join on newlines.

Alternatively:

Vyxal, 5 bytes

₁×*²⁋

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Answer 9

Elixir, 35 bytes

for _<-0..9,do: IO.puts"**********"

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Originally suggested to @Chester Lynn on their answer.

Answer 10

Commodore BASIC (C64/128, PET, VIC-20, C16/+4, THEC64/Mini, Ultimate64) ~35 tokenised BASIC bytes

0a$="**********":fori=.to9:?a$:next

Very simply, a string is created called a$; this is of 10 asterisks. This is printed to the screen in a for/next loop, which is from zero to nine inclusive. Each string is printed onto a new row on the screen.

A few tokenised BASIC bytes could be saved with:

0fori=.to9:?"**********":next

Though I think this would be less performant (not that performance will matter with such a trivial BASIC listing).

Answer 11

V (vim), -v 11 bytes

i*<esc>yl9pyy9p

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Insert a * and copy it 9 times towards left and copy the line and paste it nine times.

Also I am a sock of someone :P

-4 as I am an idot.

Answer 12

Python 3, 25 24 bytes

-1 byte thanks to @Jo King

*map(print,['*'*10]*10),

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Unpacks the map object so it actually prints the output, instead of optimising it away.

Answer 13

Cascade, 32 27 bytes

"
*
*
*
*@
*}
*|
*/
*
*.
*/

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Aha! It turns out just printing ten asterisks ten times does beat out my more complex answer. Unfortunately though, writing this program exposed not one, but two bugs in my interpreter. Below is my longer, but higher effort solution:

Cascade, 32 bytes

_9'2
 ^*|
\ !]
(.n
n?\
\%!|
n)+\

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One of my more compact Cascade programs. I'm still not sure if it would be shorter to just print 10 asterisks 10 times instead of using a counter, but I'm satisfied with this, especially how the bottom intersects with the top.

Explanation

The easiest way to understand the code is know the basic structure. Each instruction can take up to three inputs, each one below it.

 +
lcr

These are the left, center and right arguments. In this case, the + instruction is dyadic, meaning it takes the left and right arguments. Most instructions are either dyadic or monadic (taking one argument, the center one). The /\| instructions take only the argument they are pointing to, and the ! instructions skips over the center and takes the argument two below it. Each of these arguments can themselves be code instructions, meaning they chain together in a prefix like notation. For example, this code could be represented by the recursive Lisp-like code:

code = (if (0==(n=dec n))
         doboth
           (print (
              if (% n (+9 2)) ('*')
              else (inc 9)
           ))
           (code)
       )

If that doesn't make sense, here's an expanded look at the code, which is still a little confusing, but it at least has an idea of which parts are connected to each other through the |/\Xs. Note that the top and bottom rows are the overlap between the two (and same with the left and right).

\  |/|\ \
 _ 9 ' 2
/ \  |  /
   ^ * |
  / \  | 
 \   ! ]
\ \  \/ \
 ( . n/
 | | |   
 n ? \
  /|\ \  
 \ % ! |
  X \\ | 
 n ) +/\
\  |/|\ \

Starting from the top left corner, we have the first check (_) which executes the right branch only if the left is successful. The left goes down to the ], which sets the n variable (initially 110) to the decrement (() of n, i.e. n=n-1. The check then takes the result of this (the new value of n) and continues if it is positive. This moves onto the branch instruction on the right (^), which executes both the left and right branches.

The left prints (.) the value given by the choice instruction (?). This branches depending on the center value, which is the modulo (%) of n and the addition (+) of 9 and 2. Note that this wraps around to the top again for those digits. If n%(9+2) is 0, then we branch left, which navigates around the % and returns the increment ()) of 9, printing a newline. If it is not divisible by 11, then we go right, skip over the + with a !, and return the character (') of * to print.

Now the right branch of the ^ skips over the n, then goes right, down, and right again, wrapping around both the right edge and the bottom edge to loop back to the _ in the top left. This now loops over the exact same code until n has reached 0, printing ten asterisks and then a newline.

Answer 14

Minim, 42 37 35 Bytes

New solution halts by checking if [0] > 99.

$<42._^++[0]%10.$<10._^[0]>99.C=-1.

With whitespace and comments:

$< 42.         ; Print 42 as unicode '*'
_^ ++[0] % 10. ; Increment index 0 and skip next stmt if index 0 mod 10 is nonzero
    $< 10.     ; Print 10 as unicode '\n'
_^ [0] > 99. ; Skip next stmt if index 0 is greater than 99
    C = -1.    ; Set program counter to -1 (advances to 0 afterwards)

Old solutions halted by checking [0] == 100...

$<42._^++[0]%10.$<10._^[0]==100.C=-1.

... or used labels and gotos.

_>1.$<42._^++[0]%10.$<10._<?([0]-100)._>0.

GitHub Repository

Answer 15

Flobnar, 27 bytes

6v|<
+|_,
4|<v|@
7, |
*< |<

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Same but abusing vertical if |.

---

Flobnar, 32 bytes

7  009
*,!__<
6 0^|<
>___,+
^!|@

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The ultimate abuse of the behavior of _:

'Horizontal if', denoted _, checks what the cell on the other side of it evaluates to. If that value is nonzero, it evaluates to what the cell west of it evaluates to; otherwise, it evaluates to what the cell east of it evaluates to. In either case, at most two evaluations are made.

If _ is entered horizontally, it can be used to evaluate the other side twice, or various numbers of times if chained with other _s and/or horizontal arrows.

The first half (printing * 10 times) works like this:

7
*,!       Print an asterisk and return 1
6

7  00
*,!__<    Print asterisk 10 times (enter at the lower right corner):
6  ^|<

|  Check if the west returns nonzero value
^    evaluate north
_    evaluate other side, which is 0; evaluate east
_    evaluate other side:
<      evaluate west
_      evaluate other side:
_        evaluate other side:
..!        print * and return 1
         nonzero, so evaluate west
..!        print * and return 1
       nonzero, so evaluate west
_        evaluate other side: (repeat; * is printed 4 times so far)
     nonzero, so evaluate west
_      evaluate other side: (repeat; * is printed 6 times so far)
   nonzero, so evaluate north of |
_  the other side is 0, so go right to < (repeat; * is printed 10 times in total)

The other half (going through the large loop 10 times) is more straightforward, so figuring out that part is left for the exercise to the reader.

---

Flobnar, 40 bytes

d1_ +
@+|\<\
::
g- < >
:1 6
%9>*>
>+,7_,

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More explicitly controlled loop. gets 100 (d) from the position (0, 0) of the grid, and repeats that many times, printing * at every iteration and a newline every 10 loops.

Answer 16

Knight, 14 bytes

O*+*"*"10"
"10

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Ungolfed:

OUTPUT                    Print the string:
      * "*" 10            10 copies of "*"
    +          "\n"       newline appended
  *                 10    10 times concatenated

Answer 17

Java, 103 Bytes   92 Bytes

class Main{public static void main(String[]a){System.out.print("**********\n".repeat(10));}}

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Answer 18

Nibbles, 13 12 nibbles (6.0 bytes)

^10: ^10"*" "\n"

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Explanation

^10: ^10"*" "\n"    #
----------------------------------------
     ^10"*"         # replicate 10 times
   :        "\n"    # append
^10                 # replicate 10 times

-1 Nibble thanks to xigoi

Answer 19

///, 24 bytes

Leaky Nun's answer finally needed to be proven not golfed far enough!

/5/*****//-/55
55
/-----

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Answer 20

Python 3, 29 23 bytes

print(('*'*10+'\n')*10)

Thanks to orlp for shaving off 6 bytes.

Answer 21

Golisp, 34 bytes

for[range@10{(_)writeln@*["**"5]}]

Due to a "bug", I can't concatenate strings...

Answer 22

SpecBAS - 18 bytes

?(("*"*10)+#13)*10

? is shorthand for PRINT, #13 is the equivalent of \n in other languages.

Answer 23

C#, 79 bytes

class P{void Main(){for(int i=0;i++<10;)System.Console.Write("**********\n");}}

Answer 24

golflua, 22 characters

~@i=0,9 w"**********"$

Sample run:

bash-4.3$ golflua -e '~@i=0,9 w"**********"$'
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********
**********

Answer 25

C++, 75 bytes

#include<cstdio>
int main(){for(int i=0;i<10;++i)std::puts("**********");}

Answer 26

T-SQL, 50 bytes

print replicate(replicate('*',10)+char(10),10)

Answer 27

C, 47 bytes

main(i){while(i<111)putchar(10|!!(i++%11)<<5);}

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Not as compact as the other C answer (putchar is such a long name!), but I don't use the asterisk character in my program. It treats the output as a 11 by 10 grid, where the 11th character is the newline. It then computes the ASCII for '*' (10 + 32 = 42) or '\n' (10) for each position.

I could save one byte with this approach if I were to change the character expression to: 42-!(i++%11)*32, but that would require an asterisk.

Answer 28

Notepad++, ??? keystrokes

I have no idea how to score this, but I decided to give it a shot since there's an answer on Notepad.

Here's the sequence:

* * * * * CTRL (hold) A D → D D D D D D D D D

Answer 29

Bash (pure), 30 bytes

printf '%.s**********
' {0..9}

Test it on Ideone.

How it works

Before calling the shell built-in printf, Bash expands the glob {0..9} to 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.

The format string

%.s**********
 

specifies a string whose first 0 characters are included in the output (%.s), followed by ten asterisks and a linefeed. printf repeats the format string as many times as needed to consume all arguments. Since .%s is an empty string, this results in the desired output.

Answer 30

MSX BASIC, 40 30 bytes

1FORR=1TO10:FORC=1TO10:?"*";:NEXT:?:NEXT

Update: D'oh... much shorter if I just print whole rows:

1FORR=1TO10:?"**********":NEXT