Code Golf: Playing Cubes

Question

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).

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 :) — LiraNuna, Oct 22 '09 at 20:20
I've noticed a few more tiny space-related issues on the spec. Apparently SO doesn't like ASCII art :( — LiraNuna, Oct 22 '09 at 20:24
I also forgot to mention - to all of my weekly code golf fans: Next week will be a **special Halloween edition** code-golf! — LiraNuna, Oct 22 '09 at 20:41
@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. — strager, Oct 23 '09 at 01:53
Negative cubes are back. Though bring answers so it won't look dull! — LiraNuna, Oct 23 '09 at 02:31
@strager You have a 600 char solution to optimize? Lucky bastard. I'm starting at about 1400. — mob, Oct 23 '09 at 05:17
@gnibbler - Maybe mobrule applies good coding practices and is currently trying to shorten `codeGolfCubingFunction` before applying the name-shortening. :P — Chris Lutz, Oct 23 '09 at 05:36
@gnibbler, This is beyond my Golfscript ability. However, I have been convinced to work on a solution and will post it soon. — strager, Oct 25 '09 at 08:12

mob · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-26T20:11:31.340

40

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

edited Oct 26 '09 at 20:11

answered Oct 23 '09 at 07:00

mob

117,087
18
149
283

`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. – Oct 23 '09 at 07:51
`map{substr$O[-2*$n-$_],$W+($f=$_*$_)/3,6+$_-$f,("|___|/","| | |","/__ /|","__")[$_]}0..3}` – Oct 23 '09 at 08:14
Have you seen the C entry? :p – Robert P Oct 23 '09 at 22:17
@Robert P: The C version is just a translation of this algorithm into C. – Oct 24 '09 at 08:37
My ruby was based on my Python, so we have Python => Ruby => Perl => C :) – John La Rooy Oct 25 '09 at 09:38
Grats for winning this week. You're in for a scare this weekend though. ;P – strager Oct 27 '09 at 00:24

John La Rooy · Answer 2 · 2009-10-23T21:08:39.557

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

I voted for the answer with 253 chars. It looks amazing with the actual cube in the solution. — Pratik Deoghare, Oct 23 '09 at 06:48
With three more strokes and a co-location facility, I could change that "99" limit to "9E9" ;-) — mob, Oct 26 '09 at 21:11

John La Rooy · Answer 3 · 2009-10-23T12:26:34.790

6

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()

edited Oct 23 '09 at 12:26

answered Oct 23 '09 at 02:03

John La Rooy

295,403
53
369
502

The problem has changed, which will probably make your code a lot shorter. – strager Oct 23 '09 at 02:04
doh! yeah, a lot shorter and about 1/10 as hard – John La Rooy Oct 23 '09 at 02:10
2

Negative cubes don't display correctly. For example, just try `-1 -2` – Eli Grey Oct 23 '09 at 02:25

DigitalRoss · Answer 4 · 2009-10-24T05:42:19.070

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]]

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

Ohh, do me a favor, render [[3,3],[1,2],[0,3],[0,7],[0,3],[0,3]] — John Gietzen, Oct 23 '09 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. — LiraNuna, Oct 24 '09 at 01:19

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 27 '09 at 19:12

6

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   <
>   ^                      @

edited Oct 27 '09 at 19:12

ephemient

198,619
38
280
391

answered Oct 25 '09 at 17:02

strager

88,763
26
134
176

1
It might look better if you put it in a
```
 block, instead of a code block.
```
– Brad Gilbert Oct 25 '09 at 20:56
@Gilbert, Heh, true. =] However, SO/Markdown doesn't like the < in my answer, so... – strager Oct 25 '09 at 21:35
1

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`. – Oct 26 '09 at 06:01
@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). – strager Oct 26 '09 at 06:07

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 23 '09 at 10:26

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}

John La Rooy · Answer 7 · 2009-10-27T18:14:32.170

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

score 4 · Answer 8 · 2009-10-24T01:36:17.210

4

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]);
}

edited Oct 24 '09 at 01:36

answered Oct 23 '09 at 10:40

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... – ephemient Oct 23 '09 at 17:49
I get double spaced output on GCC 4.4.1. – LiraNuna Oct 24 '09 at 01:15
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]. – Oct 24 '09 at 01:25
Ah, my terminal is a standard 80x24 in size. I think you need to specify it to whoever's testing :). – LiraNuna Oct 24 '09 at 05:31
@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. – LiraNuna Oct 24 '09 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 – strager Oct 26 '09 at 12:23
Thanks for the ideas though. I'll try using them next time. – Oct 26 '09 at 12:41

ChristopheD · Answer 9 · 2009-10-25T09:36:57.440

3

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)

edited Oct 25 '09 at 09:36

answered Oct 23 '09 at 06:17

ChristopheD

112,638
29
165
179

Anax · Answer 10 · 2009-10-23T13:40:10.603

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

gwell · Answer 11 · 2009-10-23T17:40:08.513

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

Paige Ruten · Answer 12 · 2009-10-23T05:29:20.387

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.

ChronoFish · Answer 13 · 2009-10-30T01:39:02.440

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

input is separated by spaces, not commas. – LiraNuna Oct 27 '09 at 05:39 — LiraNuna, Oct 27 '09 at 05:39