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Challenge

Ever seen those movie trailer titles (namely Martian, Interstellar, etc) where they have huge gaps in between letters slowly spreading out?

The challenge is to recreate this effect given a string, gap multiplier and direction, by inserting appropriate amount of spaces in between the letters.

Example

Input: 'INTERSTELLAR', Gap multiplier: 1.0, Direction: Increasing Inward

Output: I N  T   E    R     S      T     E    L   L  A R

The spacing is: [1, 2, 3, ... , 3, 2, 1]; replacing the spaces with '.' to better demonstrate the spacing:

I.N..T...E....R.....S......T.....E....L...L..A.R

Input: 'INTERSTELLAR', Gap multiplier: 0.5, Direction: Increasing Inward

Output: IN T E  R  S   T  E  L L AR

The spacing is multiplied by 0.5, therefore we get [0, 1, 1, 2, ... 2, 1, 1, 0] from integer division; using '.':

IN.T.E..R..S...T..E..L.L.AR

Input: 'CODEGOLF', Gap multiplier: 2.0, Direction: Increasing Outward

Output: C        O      D    E  G    O      L        F

The spacing is multiplied by 2, increasing outward, therefore we get [8,6,4,2,4,6,8]; replacing with '.':

C........O......D....E..G....O......L........F

Input: 'CODEGOLF', Gap multiplier: 0.4, Direction: Increasing Outward

Output: C O DEGO L F

The spacing is multiplied by 0.4, increasing outward, therefore we get [1,1,0,0,0,1,1]; replacing with '.':

C.O.DEGO.L.F

Rules

  • Takes 3 input: string, gap multiplier and direction
  • If input string is odd in length (even in # of gaps) e.g. 'HELLO', the spacing of the inner most 2 gaps should be the same H E L L O
  • The direction and gap multiplier can be parsed however you want, e.g. you could use -2 as 'increasing inward with a multiplier of 2', 1 as 'increasing outward with a multiplier of 1', etc.
  • It is only required to use spaces, however it is a bonus if the character filling is customizable.

Reference Animation

reference gif

Have fun golfing!

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7
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Hello, and welcome to PPCG! You might want to make this a bit simpler by changing Increasing to 1 => Inward, 0 => Outward or vice versa. \$\endgroup\$ Oct 6, 2016 at 23:31
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @NoOneIsHere Thanks! The direction and ratio parsing is flexible, as per rule 3, you can use 0,1 to specifiy direction or even combining both parameters into one, like +4 for 4 inward, -0.5 for 0.5 outward etc, it just needs to be defined with the solution. \$\endgroup\$
    – Zukaberg
    Oct 6, 2016 at 23:36
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ This is a very interesting challenge! Welcome to the site. :) \$\endgroup\$
    – DJMcMayhem
    Oct 6, 2016 at 23:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't see why a gap ratio of 2 is interpreted as growing outward, while 1 and 0.5 both grow inwards. \$\endgroup\$
    – xnor
    Oct 7, 2016 at 1:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ @xnor oh no sorry for the confusion, the direction has nothing to do with the ratio, the direction and ratio are separate parameters, a 2.0 inward would look like: C..O....D......E........G......O....L..F \$\endgroup\$
    – Zukaberg
    Oct 7, 2016 at 1:49

6 Answers 6

3
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JavaScript (ES6), 86 82 81 80 bytes

Input is expected in currying syntax f(s)(r), with:

  • s = string
  • r = ratio + direction: a negative float for inward or a positive float for outward

let f =

s=>r=>s.replace(/./g,(c,i)=>c+' '.repeat(n+=i<l?-r:r),l=s.length/2,n=r>0&&l*r+r)

console.log(f("INTERSTELLAR")(-1));
console.log(f("INTERSTELLAR")(-0.5));
console.log(f("CODEGOLF")(2));
console.log(f("CODEGOLF")(0.4));

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2
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05AB1E, 33 bytes

Uses CP-1252 encoding.

Gap multiplier is taken as negative when outwards increasing.

g;>Î.S<_²**ÄU¹vyð²¹g<;N.S*X+DUï×J

Try it online!

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1
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APL, 40 bytes

{⍵\⍨0~⍨∊1,⍨1,¨-⌊⍺×(1+⌈/-+)⍣⍺⍺(⌽⌊+)⍳⍴1↓⍵}

This takes the string as its right argument, the ratio as its left argument and the direction as its left operand (0 for inward and 1 for outward).

      1 (0 {⍵\⍨0~⍨∊1,⍨1,¨-⌊⍺×(1+⌈/-+)⍣⍺⍺(⌽⌊+)⍳⍴1↓⍵}) 'INTERSTELLAR'
I N  T   E    R     S      T     E    L   L  A R
      0.5 (0 {⍵\⍨0~⍨∊1,⍨1,¨-⌊⍺×(1+⌈/-+)⍣⍺⍺(⌽⌊+)⍳⍴1↓⍵}) 'INTERSTELLAR'
IN T E  R  S   T  E  L L AR
      2 (1 {⍵\⍨0~⍨∊1,⍨1,¨-⌊⍺×(1+⌈/-+)⍣⍺⍺(⌽⌊+)⍳⍴1↓⍵}) 'CODEGOLF'
C        O      D    E  G    O      L        F
      0.4 (1 {⍵\⍨0~⍨∊1,⍨1,¨-⌊⍺×(1+⌈/-+)⍣⍺⍺(⌽⌊+)⍳⍴1↓⍵}) 'CODEGOLF'
C O DEGO L F

Explanation:

  • ⍳⍴1↓⍵: get a list of numbers from 1 to N-1, where N is the length of the string
  • (⌽⌊+): invert the list, and at each position, get the lowest number of both lists (this gives the sizes of the gaps if increasing inwards)
  • (1+⌈/-+)⍣⍺⍺: subtract each number in the list from the highest number in the list, and add 1. Do this ⍺⍺ times. (If ⍺⍺=0, nothing will happen, and if ⍺⍺=1, this will give the sizes of the gaps if increasing outwards.)
  • -⌊⍺×: multiply each gap by , round it downwards, and negate it.
  • ∊1,⍨1,¨: add a 1 in front of each gap, and a 1 at the very end of the list.
  • 0~⍨: remove any zeroes.
  • ⍵\⍨: use the resulting list to expand . Expand (\) works in the following manner: for each positive number, the current character is replicated that many times, and for each negative number, that many spaces are inserted, with the caveat that 0 and ¯1 do the same thing, which is why all the zeroes had to be removed earlier.
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1
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MATL, 31 bytes

nq:tPvX<i?tX>Qw-]*kQ1whYs''1Gb(

Inputs are: string; 0 or 1 for inward or outward increasing; multiplier.

Try it online!

Explanation

Consider inputs 'INTERSTELLAR', 1, 0.5 as an example.

nq:    % Input string implicitly. Push [1 2 ... N-1] where N is the string length
       %   STACK: [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11]
tP     % Duplicate, reverse
       %   STACK: [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11], [11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1]
vX<    % Vertically concatenate. Minimum of each column
       %   STACK: [1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1]
i      % Input direction flag
       %   STACK: [1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1], 1
?      % If input flag was 1 (meaning outward increasing)
  tX>  %   Duplicate. Maximum
       %     STACK: [1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1], 6
  Q    %   Add 1
       %     STACK: [1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1], 7
  w-   %   Swap. Subtract
       %     STACK: [6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6]
]      % End
*k     % Input multiplier implicitly. Multiply. Round down
       %   STACK: [3 2 2 1 1 0 1 1 2 2 3]
Q      % Add 1
       %   STACK: [4 3 3 2 2 1 2 2 3 3 4]
1wh    % Prepend a 1
       %   STACK: [1 4 3 3 2 2 1 2 2 3 3 4]
Ys     % Cumulative sum
       %   STACK: [1  5  8 11 13 15 16 18 20 23 26 30]
''     % Push empty string
       %   STACK: [1  5  8 11 13 15 16 18 20 23 26 30], ''
1G     % Push input string again
       %   STACK: [1  5  8 11 13 15 16 18 20 23 26 30], '', 'INTERSTELLAR'
b      % Bubble up
       %   STACK: '', 'INTERSTELLAR', [1  5  8 11 13 15 16 18 20 23 26 30]
(      % Assign the characters from the top string into the empty string at the 
       % given positions. Intermediate positions are filled with character 0, 
       % which is displayed as a space
       %   STACK: 'I   N  T  E R ST E L  L  A   R'
       % Dispaly implicitly
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1
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Racket 348 bytes

(define(f s)(let*((c #\space)(sp(λ(l)(define ol'())(for((i(length l)))(for((j i))
(set! ol(cons c ol)))(set! ol(cons(list-ref l i)ol)))(for((n(floor(/(length l)2))))
(set! ol(cons c ol)))ol))(m(floor(/(string-length s)2)))(s1(sp(string->list(substring s 0 m)
)))(s2(sp(reverse(string->list(substring s m))))))(list->string(append(reverse s1)s2))))

Ungolfed:

(define(f s)
  (let* ((c #\space)
         (sp (λ (l)           ; subfn to add increasing spaces to list of characters
               (define ol '())
               (for ((i (length l)))
                 (for ((j i))
                   (set! ol (cons c ol)))
                 (set! ol (cons (list-ref l i)ol)))
               (for ((n (floor(/ (length l)2)))) 
                 (set! ol (cons c ol)))
               ol))
         (m (floor (/ (string-length s) 2)))                 ; find midpoint
         (s1 (sp (string->list (substring s 0 m))))          ; add spaces to first part
         (s2 (sp (reverse (string->list (substring s m)))))) ; add spaces to second part
    (list->string (append (reverse s1) s2))                  ; re-combine 2 parts
    ))

Testing:

(f "INTERSTELLAR")

Output:

"I N  T   E    R     S      T     E    L   L  A R"
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1
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PHP, 129 Bytes

12 Bytes saved by @Titus Thank You

string = $argv[1],ratio = $argv[2], direction = $argv[3] inward = 0 ,Outward =1

for($i=0;$i+1<2*$l=strlen($t=($x=$argv)[1]);)echo$i%2?str_pad("",$x[2]*abs($x[3]*(0^$l/2+1)-($i++>=$l?$l-$i/2:$i/2))):$t[$i++/2];
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5
  • \$\begingroup\$ str_pad should save 4 bytes. Try ++$i>$l?$l-$i/2:$i/2 and $t[$i++]/2 instead of increment in loop post-condition; that should save 9. Why 0^? \$\endgroup\$
    – Titus
    Oct 10, 2016 at 15:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Titus 0^3.12 result in 3 which is necessary \$\endgroup\$ Oct 10, 2016 at 17:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ $i=0 is unnecessary. ++$i> still saves one byte over $i++>=. And You can save one more byte by moving that increment to the pre-condition: ++$i<2*$l=... instead of $i+1<2*$l=..., swap true and false branches of the outer ternary, $i instead of ++$i and $t[$i/2-.5] instead of $t[$i++/2]. \$\endgroup\$
    – Titus
    Oct 11, 2016 at 17:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ Defining inward as 1 and outward as 2, should enable you to save another 3 bytes : ($l>>1) instead of (0^$l/2+1); but I haven´t tested any of these. \$\endgroup\$
    – Titus
    Oct 11, 2016 at 17:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Titus this will result in greater spaces \$\endgroup\$ Oct 11, 2016 at 23:05

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