jsburke/golf

Code Golf

Code Golf

A small repo for code diversions and doing weird stuff with C. Try to write C programs using as few bytes as possible in the source code by using a lot of dumb tricks for fun. If you think you can make any of these smaller, let me know please! Code is written to be small in source, not performant.

Building Binaries

Makefile at top level to come. Code in all directories should compile with gcc -o name source.c.

List of Golf Tricks in C

• implicit int : simply enumerating variables on a line, for example like x,y,z; will save three bytes by implying int
• global implicit initialization : declaring int variables like above in global scope will set them to 0
• main's argc to initialize : declaring an int in main's argument will default it as one if the binary is invoked as ./a.out
• implicit library includes : many libraries like stdio will be inluded by the compiler if functions like printf are used
• for(;COND;) looping : for and while loops take up the same amount of bytes, but for is generally preferable since the semi-colons in it can eat others in regular code
• serial assignment : variables set to the same value can save a little space via x=y=z=0; vs x=0;y=0;z=0;
• assign to input param : when subfunctions that return a value are needed, f(a){return 2<<a&3;} can be converted into f(a){a=2<<a&3;} since the compiler will generally have the return value stored at the input
• ternary operator : often is a tighter stand in for if..else
• ternary condition as result : for some compilers (gcc) a?:c gives the same result as a?a:c. This sits on the fact that only one of the results will be evaluated

Tricks Specific to Problems

TBD

Ungolfed Source

Each problem will have an ungolfed, hopefully readable, source. The golfed sources will be suffixed with a _terse in the filename.