Asked 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15

Solved language-agnostic code-golf rosetta-stone

The challenge

The shortest code by character count, that will output playing bricks tower series according to user input.

The input will be a series of numbers (positive, negative and zero) that represents the height of the current cube tower following their index. A height of 0 means no tower and is spaced.

A cube tower is composed of stacked cubes. If the input number on the current index is positive, the cubes go up, if the input number is negative, the cubes go down. A single cube is drawn using the 4 following lines:

   __
 /__ /|
|   | |
|___|/

Cubes are 3D - this means they hide each other when two towers are placed next to each other, generating fake perspective.

All input can be assumed to be valid and without errors - Each number is separated with a white space on a single line, with at least one number.

Test cases

Input:
    2 -3 -2 1 2 -1
Output:
       __              __
     /__ /|          /__ /|
    |   | |        _|   | |
    |___|/|      /__|___|/|
    |   | |__  _|   |   | |__
    |___|/__ /__|___|___|/__ /|
        |   |   | |     |   | |
        |___|___|/|     |___|/
        |   |   | |
        |___|___|/
        |   | |
        |___|/

Input:
    1 2 3 4 -2 4 3 2 1
Output:
                   __      __ 
                 /__ /|  /__ /|
               _|   | | |   | |__
             /__|___|/| |___|/__ /|
           _|   |   | | |   |   | |__
         /__|___|___|/| |___|___|/__ /|
       _|   |   |   | | |   |   |   | |__
     /__|___|___|___|/| |___|___|___|/__ /|
    |   |   |   |   | |_|   |   |   |   | |
    |___|___|___|___|/__|___|___|___|___|/
                    |   | |
                    |___|/|
                    |   | |
                    |___|/

Input:
    1 3 3 7 0 -2 -2
Output:
                   __
                 /__ /|
                |   | |
                |___|/| 
                |   | | 
                |___|/| 
                |   | | 
                |___|/| 
           __  _|   | | 
         /__ /__|___|/| 
        |   |   |   | | 
        |___|___|___|/| 
       _|   |   |   | | 
     /__|___|___|___|/| 
    |   |   |   |   | |    __  __
    |___|___|___|___|/   /__ /__ /|
                        |   |   | |
                        |___|___|/|
                        |   |   | |
                        |___|___|/

Code count includes input/output (i.e full program).

Beaverette answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(19)

The -3 cube seemed to have lost during formatting. I am sorry for that. My draft clearly has this one. Thanks to LFSR for fixing :) – Beaverette 22/10, 2009 at 20:20

So... very... tempted... to add an example for 1 3 7 3 3 – Alburnum 22/10, 2009 at 20:24

I've noticed a few more tiny space-related issues on the spec. Apparently SO doesn't like ASCII art :( – Beaverette 22/10, 2009 at 20:24

@Lira: use a <pre> block – Lubet 22/10, 2009 at 20:30

I also forgot to mention - to all of my weekly code golf fans: Next week will be a special Halloween edition code-golf! – Beaverette 22/10, 2009 at 20:41

Is this challenge to hard? why are there no answers? – Beaverette 23/10, 2009 at 1:47

@LiraNuna, I don't believe it's hard, just too elaborate. The whole negative thing adds a lot of code (for my solutions at least). I don't want to optimize a 600-character solution, really. – Epifocal 23/10, 2009 at 1:53

Aww, put the negative cubes back! – Bulahbulawayo 23/10, 2009 at 2:20

Negative cubes are back. Though bring answers so it won't look dull! – Beaverette 23/10, 2009 at 2:31

I think your 0 example is a space off. – Kadner 23/10, 2009 at 3:18

@Chris: Thank you! Another SO formatting issue... – Beaverette 23/10, 2009 at 3:36

@Epifocal You have a 600 char solution to optimize? Lucky bastard. I'm starting at about 1400. – Satirize 23/10, 2009 at 5:17

@mobrule, Surely not in perl?? – Gide 23/10, 2009 at 5:24

@gnibbler - Maybe mobrule applies good coding practices and is currently trying to shorten codeGolfCubingFunction before applying the name-shortening. :P – Kadner 23/10, 2009 at 5:36

@UK Jon Skeet is busy doing something else probably. ;-) – Interpret 23/10, 2009 at 6:45

@mobrule, i see you managed to shave off 1214 bytes :p – Gide 23/10, 2009 at 9:32

I'm not gonna enter this one. Too stringy for a C lover. – Epifocal 24/10, 2009 at 21:24

@strager, I thought you must be working on the golfscript – Gide 25/10, 2009 at 2:49

@gnibbler, This is beyond my Golfscript ability. However, I have been convinced to work on a solution and will post it soon. – Epifocal 25/10, 2009 at 8:12

Perl 157 characters

This entry was inspired by gnibbler's Ruby entry, including the part about embedding the cube in the code. Also thanks to Kinopiko for schooling me on the 4 arg version of substr.

@O=($/.$"x99)x99;map{for$n(0..$_-1,$_..-1){map{substr$O[50-2*$n+$_],$W+4/$_,6,
(_,"__"
,"/__ /|",
"|   | |",
"|___|/")[$_]}1..4}$W+=4}@ARGV;print grep/\S/,@O

Explanation:

Line 1: Choose where cubes go
Lines 2-5: Put cubes where cubes go, print

Satirize answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(6)

map{substr$O[-2*$n-$_],$W+$_*$_/3,(6,7,6,2)[$_],("|___|/","| | |","/__ /|","__")[$_]}0..3} gets you two more. /\S/&&print for@O[-49..49] gets you one more. – Crissum 23/10, 2009 at 7:51

map{substr$O[-2*$n-$_],$W+($f=$_*$_)/3,6+$_-$f,("|___|/","| | |","/__ /|","__")[$_]}0..3} – Crissum 23/10, 2009 at 8:14

Have you seen the C entry? :p – Bulahbulawayo 23/10, 2009 at 22:17

@Robert P: The C version is just a translation of this algorithm into C. – Crissum 24/10, 2009 at 8:37

My ruby was based on my Python, so we have Python => Ruby => Perl => C :) – Gide 25/10, 2009 at 9:38

Grats for winning this week. You're in for a scare this weekend though. ;P – Epifocal 27/10, 2009 at 0:24

Ruby - 233

mutable strings ;) No arbitrary "99" limits. pfft :p
Had to lose the picture of the cube in the source though

S=gets.split.map{|x|x.to_i}<<0
S.max.downto(S.min){|y|e=" ";q=e*3;r=e*3
S.map{|x|a=0,x;if(w=a.min)<=y&&x!=0&&y<z=a.max
r[-3,4]="|   | |";q[-3,4]="|___|/"+(y>w ?"|":e)else(z=z!=y)?q+=e*4:q[-2,4]="/__ /|"
r+=z ?e*4:"__  "end}
puts r,q}

Ruby - 243

Delete the extra space I put in there to get the nice picture of the cube

S=gets.split.map{|x|x.to_i}<<0
S.max.downto(S.min){|y|e=" ";q=e*3;r=e*3
S.map{|x|a=0,x;if(w=a.min)<=y&&x!=0&&y<=z=a.max
if z==y;r+="__  "
 q[-2,3]="/__ /|"else
r[-3,4]="|   | |"
q[-3,4]="|___|/"+(y>w ?e:"|")end
else r+=e*4;q+=e*4 end}
puts r,q}

$ echo 1 3 7 3 3 |ruby pc.rb
           __              
         /__ /|            
        |   | |            
        |___|/|            
        |   | |            
        |___|/|            
        |   | |            
        |___|/|            
       _|   | |__  __      
     /__|___|/__ /__ /|    
    |   |   |   |   | |    
    |___|___|___|___|/|    
   _|   |   |   |   | |    
 /__|___|___|___|___|/|    
|   |   |   |   |   | |    
|___|___|___|___|___|/

Legality answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(3)

I voted for the answer with 253 chars. It looks amazing with the actual cube in the solution. – Interpret 23/10, 2009 at 6:48

OFFENSIVE! OFFENSIVE! OFFENSIVE! j/k. – Beaverette 24/10, 2009 at 1:11

With three more strokes and a co-location facility, I could change that "99" limit to "9E9" ;-) – Satirize 26/10, 2009 at 21:11

Befunge-93 (too many characters)

Very unoptimized. My first Befunge program. =]

>~:88+`v6 >11p>:!|v                 g13$<       v            $<
 000090#8 + >      >68*31p  v >     1-:!|!:-1g14<p+g11g13+g12g 14<
   __  :* *      5 ^       < > 31pvvp16<>:41p1- 31g1+g :68*-!#^_ ^
 /__ /||\-6      >>1-:       |^8   < $<|       `g16 $<   <
|   | |>-*8 ^ ^ p11-2g11-1$  <    >31g   11g+:::51g` |   1
|___|/   8^0     >#-#<           v    ^<             >51p^
        <  <         |`0:       p 56 p34:p30:p26:p25:p22:p21:p20:*68<
^  v95:< 6^ *2:*  -10<           >21g4+21p 11
1  >*-   |            >     > 31g51gg,31g21g-3-!#v_v
1   >$ ^v<                 | ,+55-g16p15+1:g15   <
|!-*48 <~> ^                ^           p13+1g13   <
>   ^                      @

Epifocal answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(4)

It might look better if you put it in a <pre> block, instead of a code block. – Hilariohilarious 25/10, 2009 at 20:56

@Gilbert, Heh, true. =] However, SO/Markdown doesn't like the < in my answer, so... – Epifocal 25/10, 2009 at 21:35

I was looking forward to seeing how you were going to beat my C solution with some kind of bizarre trick, and all I get is this? It looks like more a.out. – Crissum 26/10, 2009 at 6:1

@Kinopiko, This isn't really my kind of problem. I'm redoing the Befunge solution and will hopefully have it in before the deadline (as if it mattered). – Epifocal 26/10, 2009 at 6:7

Ruby, 261 258 250 242

c=[]
n=99
$F.map{|e|e=e.to_i
c<<(e<0?[e,-1]:[0,e-1])}
m=[]
x=0
c.map{|d|x+=4
k,l=d
(k+n..l+n).map{|y|y*=2
[[3,3,2,'__'],[2,1,6,'/__ /|'],[1,0,7,'|   | |'],[0,0,6,'|___|/']].map{|e|a,b,c,s=e
(m[y+a]||=' '*79)[x+b,c]=s}}}
puts m.compact.reverse

Run with ruby -n -a v2.rb

This entry is slightly overdesigned in that it can begin and end stacks at any level, not just at 0. There is no way to specify this in the "competition version", but if you replace the first 4 lines with c=eval $_;n=99 then it drops to 203 bytes and you can do: <

[[-3,3],[-3,-2],[2,3],[-3,-3],[-2,-1],[3,3],[2,2],[1,1],[0,0]]

           __      __          __                                                  
         /__ /|  /__ /|      /__ /|                                                
        |   | | |   | |     |   | |__                                              
        |___|/| |___|/|     |___|/__ /|                                            
        |   | | |   | |         |   | |__                                          
        |___|/| |___|/          |___|/__ /|                                        
        |   | |                     |   | |__                                      
        |___|/|                     |___|/__ /|                                    
        |   | |            __           |   | |                                    
        |___|/|          /__ /|         |___|/                                     
        |   | |__       |   | |                                                    
        |___|/__ /|     |___|/|                                                    
        |   |   | |    _|   | |                                                    
        |___|___|/|  /__|___|/                                                     
        |   |   | | |   | |                                                        
        |___|___|/  |___|/

Supraorbital answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(3)

Ohh, do me a favor, render [[3,3],[1,2],[0,3],[0,7],[0,3],[0,3]] – Remorseful 23/10, 2009 at 21:13

your version was actually my original idea, but it has a different approach which I'm reserving for another code golf challenge. – Beaverette 24/10, 2009 at 1:19

Put your output in a <pre> block to prevent highlighting. – Hilariohilarious 24/10, 2009 at 5:10

Python - 249

The second for loop is indented with tab

S=map(int,raw_input().split())+[0]
for y in range(max(S),min(S)-1,-1):
 q=r=e=" "*4
 for x in S:
    w=x*(x<0);z=x*(x>0)
    if w<=y<z:r=r[:-3]+"|   | |";q=q[:-3]+"|___|/"+" |"[y>w]
    elif(y==z)*x:q=q[:-2]+"/__ /|";r+="__  "
    else:q+=e;r+=e
 print r+"\n"+q

Python - 393

S=map(int,raw_input().split())+[0]
for Y in range(max(S),min(S)-1,-1):
 Q=R="";B=s=t=" "*4;N=0
 for y in S:
  if(y>0)*(y==Y)+(Y==0)*(y<0):
   q="_  _";r=" /__";s="_   ";t=" /| "
   if(N<y>0)+(N==0):q="   _"
   if y<N>0:q="| |_";r="|/__"
  elif(y>Y>=0)+(y<=Y<0):q="|   ";r="|___";s="| | ";t="|/"+("| "[(y==Y<0)+(Y==0)])+" "
  else:q=s;r=t;s=t=B
  Q+=q;R+=r;N=y
 print Q.rstrip()+"\n"+R.rstrip()

Legality answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(3)

The problem has changed, which will probably make your code a lot shorter. – Epifocal 23/10, 2009 at 2:4

doh! yeah, a lot shorter and about 1/10 as hard – Gide 23/10, 2009 at 2:10

Negative cubes don't display correctly. For example, just try -1 -2 – Nought 23/10, 2009 at 2:25

Golfscript - 154

Newlines are significant. If you fail to strip the trailing newline you will get an extra number printed at the bottom! There is a TAB between - and 0

" "4*:s%{~}%0+: $):
;0=:g;{2,{:r;s {[
-   0
-]$(:b\(:t\;=!t!0t<1b>*2*+*[{s}[{"__  "}{-2<"/__ /|"}]r={-3<["|   | |""|___|/"["| "b!=]+]r=}]\=~+}%n}%
(:
g<!}do

Golfscript - 163

0`+" ":s%{~}%:A$):y;0=1-:g;{2,{:r;3s*A{[y- 0y-]$(:b\(:t\;=!:j;[{4s*}[{"__  "}{-2<"/__ /|"}]r={-3<["|   | |""|___|/"["| "b!=]+]r=}]0t=0t<1b>*2*+j*=~+}%n}%y(:y g>}do

Golfscript - 165

0`+" ":s%{~}%:A$):y;0=1-:g;{2,{:r;3s*A{[y- 0y-]$(:b\(:t\;=!:j;[
{4s*}.{"__  "
}{-2<"/__ /|"}
{-3<"|   | |"}
{-3<"|___|/"["| "b!=]+}]0t=2*0t<1b>*4*+r+j*=~+}%n}%y(:y g>}do

Legality answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(0)

Haskell, 349 characters:

r=replicate
f=foldl
k=repeat
o n a s=r n a++s++k a
main=do{a<-getLine;let{n=map read$words a;u=f max 0 n;d=f min 0 n;i=r(2*(1+u-d))$r(4*length n+3)' '};putStr$unlines$f(\j(x,n)->f(\i y->[[if a=='x'then b else a|(a,b)<-zip m n]|(m,n)<-zip(o(2*(u-y))(k 'x')$map(o(4*x)'x')["xxx__xx","x/__ /|","|   | |","|___|/x"])i])j[1+min 0 n..max 0 n])i$zip[0..]n}

Idolah answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(0)

C, 287 characters

#define F(r)for(r=0;r<98;r++)
#define C(y,s)for(k=0;s[k];k++)b[49-i][w+k+y]=s[k];i++;
char k,i,j,w,t,b[98][99];main(c,v)char**v;{F(i)F(j)b[i][j]=32;
for(j=0;j<c;j++){i=2*atoi(v[j]);t=0;if(i>0)t=i,i=0;for(;i<t;i-=2){
C(0,"|___|/")C(0,"|   | |")C(1,"/__ /|")C(3,"__")}w+=4;}F(i)puts(b[i]);}

(this character count excludes two newlines)

This runs as a command line program, like

./cubes 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 3 2 -1 -10

You can try running it here: http://codepad.org/tu4HDqSy (This version is altered because codepad.org doesn't allow command line arguments.)

A handy tip for un-golfing is to run it through cpp and then indent:

char                k        , i, j, w, t, b[98][99];
main(c, v)
    char          **v;
{
    for (i = 0; i < 98; i++)
        for (j = 0; j < 98; j++)
            b[i][j] = 32;
    for (j = 0; j < c; j++) {
        i = 2 * atoi(v[j]);
        t = 0;
        if (i > 0)
            t = i, i = 0;
        for (; i < t; i -= 2) {
            for (k = 0; "|___|/"[k]; k++)
                b[49 - i][w + k + 0] = "|___|/"[k];
            i++;
            for (k = 0; "|   | |"[k]; k++)
                b[49 - i][w + k + 0] = "|   | |"[k];
            i++;
            for (k = 0; "/__ /|"[k]; k++)
                b[49 - i][w + k + 1] = "/__ /|"[k];
            i++;
            for (k = 0; "__"[k]; k++)
                b[49 - i][w + k + 3] = "__"[k];
            i++;
        } w += 4;
    } for (i = 0; i < 98; i++)
        puts(b[i]);
}

Sioux answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(7)

Static-initialized elements are default zero, so ={} is superfluous. Using the pre-ANSI main(c,v)char**v;{} prototype shaves off two characters. Pretty clever, though! I wish I could find more to cut... – Joiejoin 23/10, 2009 at 17:49

I get double spaced output on GCC 4.4.1. – Beaverette 24/10, 2009 at 1:15

Are you sure it isn't just the line wrap? If your terminal is less than 98 characters wide it wraps around. My gcc is gcc version 4.2.1 20070719 [FreeBSD]. – Crissum 24/10, 2009 at 1:25

Ah, my terminal is a standard 80x24 in size. I think you need to specify it to whoever's testing :). – Beaverette 24/10, 2009 at 5:31

@Kinopiko: yes, I can resize my terminal, that's not the problem - the entry does not specify that it needs it, so I had no idea that this solutions outputs a static 98x98 buffer. – Beaverette 24/10, 2009 at 18:26

Since I'm not doing a C solution myself I'll help you with yours. =] Replace if(i>0)t=i,i=0;for(; with for(i>0?t=i,i=0:0;. For your C macro, remove "" from use and use #s instead of s. Remove i=2*atoi(v[j]) and char**v; and replace for(j=0;j<c;j++){t=0; with for(;scanf("%d",&i);t=0){i*=2; This will read the numbers from stdin. You can now reuse any parameters to main. (You will probably use i as a parameter to main because it has to be an int.) Your init loop can be written as a single loop with a pointer (not sure if it helps in code size). – Epifocal 26/10, 2009 at 12:23

Thanks for the ideas though. I'll try using them next time. – Crissum 26/10, 2009 at 12:41

Python (2.6), 1092 905 623 501 478 345 --> 318 characters

All comments welcome!

r=range;p="  __","/__ /|","|   | |","|___|/"
l=map(int,raw_input().split())+[0];d=max(l)
g=[[" "]*(len(l)+1)*4 for i in r(d-min(l)+1)*2]
for i,e in enumerate(l):
 for x,y in sorted([(i*4,(d-e+y-(0,1)[e<0])*2)for y in r(0,e,(1,-1)[e<0])])[::-1]:
  for i in r(4):g[y+i][(x,x+1)[i<2]:x+6]=p[i]
for k in g:print ''.join(k)

Pileup answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(0)

627 bytes of VB.NET 9 (without counting new lines)

Dim a As New List(Of Int32)
Dim b=InputBox("").Split(" ".ToCharArray)
For Each d In b
a.Add(Int32.Parse(d))
Next
Dim e=New String(){"|___|/","|   | |","/__ /|","__"}
Dim f=a.Min
Dim g=a.Max
Dim h=a.Count
Dim i As New List(Of String)
Dim j=(If(g>0,g,0)+If(f<0,-f,0))*2+1
For d=0To j
i.Add(Space(h*6))
Next
For d=f To g
If (d<>0) Then
For k=0To 3
Dim l=i(j)
Dim m=0
While m<h
If (d<0And a(m)<=d)Or(d>0And a(m)>=d) Then
Dim n=m*4+If(k>1,(k-2)*2+1,0)
l=l.Substring(0,n)&e(k)&l.Substring(n+e(k).Length)
i(j)=l
endif
m+=1
End While
j-=1
Next
j+=2
EndIf
Next
For Each d In i
Console.WriteLine(d)
Next

Lenzi answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(0)

PHP - ~~447~~ 398

I Know it's not as short as the others here, but I'm happy with it ;)

<?$g=$argv;unset($g[0]);$c=array('|___|/',' '=>'|   | |','/__ 
/|',3=>'__');$x=max(max($g),0);$m=$i=min(min($g),0);$row=$y=0;
while($x>=$i){$n=$row++*2;foreach ($c as $w=>$p){
$L[]=str_pad('',count($g)*4," ");$t='';$y=0;foreach ($g as $h)
{if((($h>=$i&&$i>0)||($h<$i&&$i<=0)))$L[$n]=substr_replace($L[$n],$p,4*$y+$w,
strlen($p));$y++;}$n++;}$i++;}array_splice($L,$n);krsort($L);
print implode("\n",$L);?>

Input / Output

   C:\development\code-golf>php cubes1.php 1 2 1 -5 -5 4 3 3
                       __
                     /__ /|
                    |   | |__  __
                    |___|/__ /__ /|
       __           |   |   |   | |
     /__ /|         |___|___|___|/|
   _|   | |__       |   |   |   | |
 /__|___|/__ /|     |___|___|___|/|
|   |   |   | |__  _|   |   |   | |
|___|___|___|/__ /__|___|___|___|/
            |   |   | |
            |___|___|/|
            |   |   | |
            |___|___|/|
            |   |   | |
            |___|___|/|
            |   |   | |
            |___|___|/|
            |   |   | |
            |___|___|/

Milli answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(1)

input is separated by spaces, not commas. – Beaverette 27/10, 2009 at 5:39

313 bytes of Ruby

c=gets.split.map{|n|n.to_i}+[0];l=[" "*(c.length*5)]*((c.max-c.min)*2+2)
c.each_index{|i|h=c[i];h==0&&next
(h<0?(h...0):(0...h)).to_a.each{|b|y=c.max*2+1-b*2;x=i*4;s=(x+7)..-1
4.times{|a|l[y-a]=l[y-a][0,x+[0,0,1,3][a]]+['|___|/','|   | |','/__ /|','__'
][a]+(l[y-a][[(x+6)..-1,s,s,s][a]]||'')}}};l.each{|e|puts e}

(There is one newline that doesn't count, it's only there because otherwise there would be a very long line in there.)

I used the obvious method of making a 2D array of characters and pasting in the cubes one at a time, bottom to top and left to right.

Enjambement answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(0)

Lua, 453 characters

s=io.read("*l")x={}for v in s:gmatch("-?%d+")do x[#x+1]=tonumber(v)end m=math
u=unpack s=string c={s.byte("   __   /__ /||###|#||___|/ ",1,28)}t=m.max(0,u(x))-1
b=m.min(0,u(x))l=#x*4+3 a={}for n=b,t do for p,v in ipairs(x)do y=n<0 and v<=n
or n>=0 and v>n for i=1,4 do e=(t-n)*2+i a[e]=a[e]or{}for j=1,7 do
d=c[(i-1)*7+j]f=(p-1)*4+j a[e][f]=y and d~=32 and d or a[e][f] or 32 end
end end end for i,v in ipairs(a)do print((s.char(u(v)):gsub("#"," ")))end

Carlist answered 22/10, 2009 at 20:15 Comment(0)

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