Questions tagged [tips]
For questions asking for tips on a specific piece of code, to make it a better answer to a programming challenge that is on-topic on this site. Tag [tips] questions with other appropriate tags, such as [python][code-golf] or [king-of-the-hill].
21
votes
1answer
1k views
Is it possible to make a clamp function shorter than a ternary in JS?
Imagine this short function to clamp a number between 0 and 255:
c = n => n > 0 ? n < 255 ? n : 255 : 0
Is this the shortest possible version of a clamp ...
4
votes
3answers
617 views
Tips for golfing in Dart
Dart is an object oriented programming language borrowing from both Java and Javascript. What general tips do you have for golfing in Dart? I'm looking for ideas that can be applied to code golf ...
4
votes
0answers
141 views
Tips for golfing in Scratch
Scratch is a visual programming language. For the sake of counting bytes, Scratch is usually written in scratchblocks2 syntax.
Post tips that specifically apply to Scratch or scratchblocks2.
1
vote
1answer
203 views
Programming in Bit [closed]
Control flow and tips in Bit
I'm new to Bit, and I'm not sure about how to do certain things like loops, if statements, and other control flow, could someone explain those concepts to me at a ...
8
votes
2answers
786 views
Python: shortest way to interleave items from two lists
I'm trying to get the shortest way (character possible) to obtain List 3.
List 1 and List 2 are already given to me as arguments and are the same length.
...
2
votes
0answers
178 views
Tips for golfing in TeaScript
TeaScript is a powerful JavaScript golfing language created by StackExchange, PPCG, user Downgoat. TeaScript compiles to JavaScript and contains many helpful features for golfing
This question is to ...
4
votes
5answers
999 views
Reducing a Python Script [closed]
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could shorten this program?
...
11
votes
0answers
246 views
quine program in C using only macros [closed]
Asked on Stack Overflow, but they suggested to move it here
A while ago I was reading about quines. It made me wonder if it possible to write a macro in C which will print itself, without writing any ...
12
votes
1answer
256 views
What's the shortest way to define an anonymous recursive function in Octave?
I love functional programming in Octave, but it's rather unwieldy in practice. I'm wondering about the shortest way to define an anonymous recursive function.
I have some ideas, but I'm wondering if ...
8
votes
2answers
227 views
Tips for golfing in The Powder Toy
Have fun with this one, The Powder Toy is a interesting challenge for golf, especially with filt logic.
The thing that makes TPT a challenge is the many many many many ways to approach a problem: <...
1
vote
0answers
170 views
Perl - convert ASCII art to use x operator [closed]
I would like to convert ASCII art to something that takes less bytes. I have string like this:
my $string = ' ██ ████ █';
And I would convert ...
15
votes
3answers
998 views
How to swap elements in a vector using an anonymous function in Octave?
Swapping two elements in a vector/matrix is very simple in Octave:
x='abcde';
x([4,1])=x([1,4])
x =
dbcae
Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to do this ...
5
votes
2answers
172 views
Tips for golfing in Sesos
If you have any tips regarding golfing in Sesos, a language made by Dennis, and nobody else has covered them yet, please post them here! Only one tip is allowed per answer. Your tip should be at least ...
8
votes
2answers
947 views
Creating a function over multiple lines
I'm attempting to create a function over multiple lines.
Parameters of the challenge:
Function returns 'barbarian'
Only 2 characters per line
40 lines maximum.
I keep trying to use a fat arrow to ...
11
votes
2answers
240 views
Tips for golfing with numpy, scipy, or pylab
There's already a comprehensive list of tips for python here, so what I'm asking for are tips that specifically apply to using the numpy, ...
1
vote
2answers
212 views
Tips for golfing in Visual Basic .NET
This page is not for Visual Basic Tips
Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) is an multi-paradigm dialect of basic that was developed and released by Microsoft in 2002 as a replacement for Visual Basic. The ...
2
votes
2answers
182 views
Tips for golfing in Visual Basic
This page is not for Visual Basic .NET Tips or VBA tips
Visual Basic (VB or VB6) is an object-oriented and event-driven dialect of basic that was developed and released by Microsoft in 1991. The last ...
1
vote
6answers
238 views
Tips for golfing Yabasic
Yabasic, or Yet Another Basic is a dialect of basic created by Marc-Oliver Ihm that may be run on Windows, Unix and PAL versions of the Sony PlayStation 2. Development for this language is ongoing.
...
5
votes
1answer
326 views
Help golfing this solution further
We are doing a PCG challenge at work, and I'm submitting answers in C#. This is a modification of the "M'Kay" challenge. My solution has been deemed correct by the requirements, I'm just trying to ...
17
votes
9answers
2k views
Tips for golfing in Clean
What general tips do you have for golfing in Clean? Please post only ideas that can be applied to code golf problems in general, and are at least somewhat specific to Clean.
If you've never heard of ...
2
votes
4answers
122 views
Tips for golfing in uBasic
UBASIC is a freeware basic interpreter written by Yuji Kida at Rikkyo University in Japan, specialized for mathematical computing. It is considered to be a "ready-to-run" language that and is capable ...
13
votes
2answers
567 views
How to solve the total task on “return true to win” in 21 chars
There is a site called "Return True to Win" with interesting tasks for Javascript programmers. The goal is to find arguments to a given function that force it to return true.
The following is one of ...
-4
votes
1answer
395 views
Number of leap years between two given years (inclusive) [closed]
Is there a better way to calculate the number of leap years between two given years? I want to make my code shorter (in Python). Do you have any suggestions?
Here is my solution:
...
15
votes
6answers
600 views
Tips for golfing in Husk
Husk is a quite new golfing language, created by PPCG users Leo and Zgarb. It has begun being more and more competitive, often staying close or even beating languages known to be very terse, such as ...
15
votes
4answers
576 views
Tuple addition in pointfree
What is the shortest way we can express the function
f(a,b)(c,d)=(a+c,b+d)
in point-free notation?
pointfree.io gives us
...
7
votes
1answer
130 views
Tips for Golfing in Standard ML
Standard ML (or golfier: SML) is a general-purpose, modular, functional programming language with compile-time type checking and type inference. (from Wikipedia)
Though you almost certainly will ...
6
votes
2answers
141 views
How to improve Ruby code under some restrictions
I'm (still) trying to make another submission to the Largest Number Printable question, and I've got the following bit of code:
...
1
vote
0answers
260 views
Trying to optimize a solution to a puzzle with PHP [closed]
I got inspired by this: Print every character your program doesn't have
But with the exception that the letters have to be between ASCII 32 to 126. We started fooling around with it at the office ...
12
votes
0answers
384 views
How to reduce EXE size of x86 ASM compiled with FASM?
As an exercise, I've created a simple solution for this challenge, in x86 Assembly Language. I'm running this with FASM on Windows. Here's my source code:
...
12
votes
12answers
583 views
Tips for golfing in QBasic
What general tips do you have for golfing in QBasic? I'm looking for ideas that can be applied to code golf problems in general that are at least somewhat specific to QBasic (e.g. "remove comments" is ...
10
votes
0answers
179 views
Tips for Golfing in SQLite?
I was looking for this page to help me enhance my first answer with SQLite, but I couldnt find one. So here we are!
What general tips do you have for golfing in SQLite? I'm looking for ideas that can ...
13
votes
3answers
831 views
Advice for ruby
How can I shorten:
p=gets.to_i
a=gets
b=gets.to_i
If my input is an integer, followed by a string, followed by an integer?
12
votes
2answers
2k views
3
votes
2answers
360 views
Golfing Newton's Method
I have the following code which I've written to emulate Newton's method for deriving the square root of a number:
...
70
votes
11answers
13k views
How on earth did llhuii output the Evil Numbers in 42 bytes of Python?
This is a tips question for golfing in Python concerning the Evil Numbers question on Anarchy Golf.
An number is evil if its binary expansion has an even number of 1's. The challenge is to print the ...
5
votes
5answers
277 views
Tips for golfing in Proton
Proton is a quite new language created by PPCG user Hyper Neutrino.
It is very similar to Python, and has similar syntax to the language Cheddar, hence there are some clever tricks you can use in ...
4
votes
3answers
286 views
Compare char to other chars in javascript
In my answer, I have this code:
s.match(/[AEIOU]/)
This seems too verbose to check if a string is one of A, ...
13
votes
1answer
2k views
Most common elements of a list in Python
This is a tips question for golfing in Python, which is on topic for main.
I'm looking for the shortest way to get all of the most common elements of a list in Python, in the shortest way possible. ...
24
votes
18answers
1k views
Tips for golfing in x86/x64 machine code
I noticed that there's no such question, so here it is:
Do you have general tips for golfing in machine code? If the tip only applies to a certain environment or calling convention, please specify ...
6
votes
2answers
167 views
lastIndexOf in CJam
For the question Find the highest unique digit , here is my answer :
9A,sqfe=W%X#-
At the end I am essentially trying to achieve a lastIndexOf. I do that by ...
7
votes
1answer
420 views
Code Golfing Split String in Bash [closed]
Let us play a little golfing game.
Given a single line of N space separated numbers from STDIN, one must output those numbers on N lines.
So far, I came up with the three following bash solutions :
...
17
votes
9answers
1k views
SQL select number ranges
I found it quite hard to achieve a range of numbers as rows in MySQL.
For example the range 1-5 is achieved by:
...
2
votes
2answers
194 views
Tips for Fastest Code challenges [closed]
What general tips do you have for how to answer fastest-code challenges?
Please post one tip per answer.
The objective of these challenges is to make the program that will run in the least amount of ...
20
votes
3answers
461 views
Tips for golfing in Kotlin
Given Google's recent announcement of official Kotlin support for Android development, I thought it might be timely to poll the community for some awesome golfing tips for this relatively new JVM ...
1
vote
1answer
766 views
A+B using C++ language
I'm golfing a program to sum two numbers in C++.
Example:
10 3
13
I found out that this problem can be solved in 54 symbols (without spaces and so on) using C++....
5
votes
2answers
157 views
Tips for golfing in V
What general tips do you have for golfing in V? I'm looking for ideas which can be applied to code-golf problems and which are also at least somewhat specific to V (e.g. "remove comments" is not an ...
13
votes
2answers
631 views
Are there any functional programming languages designed for code-golfing?
Are there any functional programming languages designed for code golfing? I know that golfscript and CJam fulfill the same category for stack based, but I couldn't find a functional code golfing ...
28
votes
13answers
3k views
Tips for golfing in TeX/LaTeX
What tips do people have for golfing in TeX/LaTeX? Please post one tip per answer, each at least somewhat specific to TeX/LaTeX.
Context: I noticed this answer and that there is no tips question for ...
20
votes
12answers
2k views
General tips for representing large numbers
Sometimes, while golfing, one needs to represent large number(s) in their code. Writing them as is can significantly increase the byte-count.
What general1 tips do you have for representing long ...
9
votes
1answer
356 views
Tip? Short way to generate up to 12 repeated characters in JavaScript
'---------'
'-'.repeat(9) // longer!
'------------'
(x='----')+x+x
'-'.repeat(12) // same length
Is there any cleverer way of generating strings of up to 12 ...
