Calculate a square and a square root!

Question

You must make a polyglot that outputs the square of the input in one language and the square root of the input in another. The shortest answer in bytes wins!

You must have a precision of at least 3 decimal places, and the input will always be a positive float.

Answer 1

Jolf and MATL, 1 byte

U

Square root in Jolf, square in MATL.

Try it online! (MATL)

Try the Jolf code. Only works on Firefox.

These are both 1 byte, as MATL and Jolf both use ASCII/extended ASCII codepages, so all commands are 1 byte.

Answer 2

C and C++, 68 65 bytes

#include<math.h>
float f(float n){auto p=.5;return pow(n,2-p*3);}

Original answer:

#include<math.h>
float f(float n){return pow(n,sizeof('-')-1?2:.5);}

For both versions, C produces n^2 and C++ produces sqrt(n).

Answer 3

Python 2 & Python 3, 23 21 bytes

lambda n:n**(1/2or 2)

Python 2.x produces n^2, Python 3.x produces sqrt(n).

_{2 bytes saved thanks to @Dennis!}

Answer 4

2sable / Jelly, 2 bytes

*.

2sable computes the square. Try it online!

Jelly computes the square root. Try it online!

How it works

2sable

*   Read the input twice and compute the product of both copies.
    This pushes the square of the input.
 .  Unrecognized token (ignored).

Jelly

 .  Numeric literal; yield 0.5.
*   Raise the input to the power 0.5.
    This yields the square root.

Answer 5

C (clang) and Python, 109 107 69 53 bytes

#/*
lambda n:n**.5;'''*/
float a(i){return i*i;}//'''

C: Try it online!

Python: Try it online!

Works by using comments to polyglot. The rest is pretty explanatory.

First time using C!

• Saved quite a few bytes thanks to @Riker.
• Saved 2 bytes by removing unnecessary whitespace.
• Saved very many bytes by using a function for C instead of STDIN/OUT.
• Saved 16 bytes thanks to @Delioth by removing import statement at the top.

Answer 6

Ohm and Jelly, 3 bytes

Outputs the square in Ohm, the square root in Jelly.

Ohm and Jelly use different single-byte codepages, so the program will appear differently in each encoding.

xxd hexdump of the program:

00000000: fd7f 0a                                  ...

Jelly

Using Jelly's codepage, it appears like this:

’
½

Jelly takes the bottom most line to be its main link, and ignores the other links unless specifically called. So here it just does the square root (½) and implicitly outputs it.

Ohm

Using Ohm's codepage (CP437), it appears like this:

²⌂◙

² is the square function, and ⌂ and ◙ are both undefined, so the program just squares the implicitly read input and implicitly outputs it.

Answer 7

C89 and C99, 47+3 = 50 bytes

float f(float n){return n//*
/sqrt(n)//*/1*n
;}

Requires -lm flag (+3)

C89 produces n^2, C99 produces sqrt(n). To test in C89, Try it online!

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Getting C89 to do the sqrt version ought to take less code, but it insists on implicitly declaring the sqrt function with ints, so this is the best I could manage.

Answer 8

Octave / MATLAB, 31 29 bytes

 @(x)x^(2-3*any(version>60)/2)

This outputs the square in Octave, and the square root in MATLAB.

Explanation:

The syntax is of course identical in MATLAB and Octave (for this little piece of code at least).

This creates an anonymous function:

@(x)                                 % Take x as input
    x^(                     )        % Raise x to the power of ...   
               version                 % Returns the version number
                                       % 4.2.0 in Octave, 
                                       % '9.2.0.538062 (R2017a)' in MATLAB
               version>60              % 'R' is larger than 60. All others are smaller
         3*any(version>60)/2           % Checks if there is an 'R' and multiplies it by 1.5 if it is.
       2-3*any(version>60)           % 2-1.5*(is there an 'R')

Answer 9

Basic / Delphi – 6 characters

sqr(x)

Square root in Basic and square in Delphi.

You can use a debugger to inspect the expression, thereby fulfilling any output requirements!

Answer 10

05AB1E / Fireball, 3 bytes

The following bytes make up the program:

FD B9 74

05AB1E calculates square root, Fireball squares.

Explanation (05AB1E - ý¹t):

ý       Pushes an empty string to the stack (not entirely sure why)
 ¹      Push first input
  t     Square root

Explanation (Fireball - ²╣t):

²       Square input
 ╣      Unassigned
  t     Unassigned

Sometimes, it helps to have an incomplete language ;)

Answer 11

PHP7 + JavaScript, 62 61 58 bytes

This was actually more challenging than I expected! I am quite surprised of how long my code is.

eval(['alert((_=prompt())*_)','echo$argv[1]**.5'][+![]]);

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How does it work?

This works by selecting the code to run, from the array.
PHP and JavaScript detection is made with +![].

In PHP, [] (empty array) is a falsy value, while in JavaScript it is a truthy value (objects (except null) are always truthy, even new Boolean(false) is truthy!).
But, I need to get it to a numeric value, so, I just use a not (!) and convert it to integer (with the +).
Now, PHP yields the value 1, while JavaScript yields 0.
Placing the code inside an array, at those indexes, will allow us to select the right code for the desired language.
This can be used as [JS,PHP][+![]], to get the code of the right language.

On previous polyglots, I've used '\0'=="\0", which is true in JavaScript (since \0 is parsed as the NULL-byte) and false in PHP (the '\0' won't be parsed as the NULL-byte, comparing the literal string \0 with the NULL-byte).
I'm happy that I've managed to reduce this check to +!'0'.
I'm even more happy about @rckd, which reduced it to the current version!

From there on, it simply evals the code required.

PHP

PHP will execute echo$argv[1]**.5 (equivalent to echo sqrt($argv[1]);, square-root the number), receiving the value from the 2nd argument and displays it in the standard output.

JavaScript

JavaScript executes alert((_=prompt())*_), which displays the squared number in an alert.

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Thank you to @rckd for saving 1 byte, and @user59178 for saving 3 bytes!

Answer 12

05AB1E and Jelly, 4 bytes

nqƓ½

(05AB1E) - (Jelly)

nq   # Ignored by Jelly, push n**2 in 05AB1E then quit.
  Ɠ½ # Ignored by 05AB1E due to quit, push sqroot of input in Jelly.

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Someone else made a good point, I guess since the UTF-8 characters do not share the same operation across code pages that they are technically 2-bytes each to encode. However, when looking at this in terms of the hex dump:

6e 71 93 0a

In 05AB1E's CP1252 encoding this results in:

nq“\n

Meaning it will still output the square and quit, ignoring the rest. When these bytes are encoded using Jelly's codepage:

nqƓ½

Which is the original intended code, when executed, results in the desired result of taking the input and taking the sqrt.

Answer 13

CJam / MATL, 8 bytes

ld_*GX^!

Computes the square in CJam (Try it online!) and the square root in MATL (Try it online!).

Explanation of square in CJam

ld    e# Read input line and interpret as a double
_     e# Duplicate
*     e# Multiply. Pops the input number twice, pushes its square
G     e# Push 16
X     e# Push 1
^     e# Bitwise XOR. Pops 16 and 1, and pushes 17
!     e# Negate. Pops 17, pushes 0
      e# Implicitly display. This prints the squared input with decimals,
      e# immediately followed by the 0 coming from the negate operation
      e# Even if the square of the input number is an integer, say 5,
      e# it is displayed as 5.0, so including an extra 0 always gives a
      e# correct result

Explanation of square root in MATL

l      % Push 1. This is a number or equivalently a 1×1 array
d      % Consecutive differences. Pops 1, pushes [] (empty array)
_      % Negate (element-wise). This leaves [] as is
*      % Implicitly input a number and push it. Multiply (element-wise): 
       % pops [] and the input number, pushes []
G      % Push input number again
X^     % Square root. Pops number, pushes its square root
!      % Transpose. For a number (1×1 array) this does nothing
       % Implicitly display. The stack contains [] and the result; but 
       % [] is not displayed at all

Answer 14

PHP and CJam, 30 29 25 bytes

ECHO"$argv[1]"**2;#];rdmq

Calculates the square in PHP and the square root in CJam. Has to be run using -r in PHP.

PHP

Raises the first command line argument ($argv[1]) to the power 2 and outputs it. Here $argv[1] is actually put as an inline variable in a string, which is cast to a number before doing the exponentiation. This is because v is not a valid instruction in CJam and will cause it to error out while parsing, but putting it in a string won't cause any problems.

# starts a comment, so everything after is ignored.

Try it online!

CJam

The first part of the code, ECHO"$argv[1]"**2;# pushes a bunch of values and does a bunch of operations, all of which are thoroughly useless. The only important thing is that they doesn't cause any errors, because right afterwards is ];, which wraps the entire stack in an array and then discards it.

After that, it reads a double from input (rd), and gets its square root (mq), and implicitly outputs it.

Try it online!

Answer 15

Python 2 and Forth, 43 33 bytes

( """ )
fsqrt
\ """);lambda n:n*n

Try it online: Python 2 (square) | Forth (sqrt)

This evaluates to an anonymous function in Python, and a built-in function fsqrt in Forth. Python can have a named function f for 2 bytes more by putting f= in front of the lambda.

The Forth program takes a floating point literal, which in Forth must be written in scientific notation. Pi truncated to 3 decimal places (3.141) would be written like this:

3141e-3

Answer 16

JavaScript (ES6) / JavaScript (ES7), 52 bytes

f=a=>eval(`try{eval("a**2")}catch(e){Math.sqrt(a)}`)

Returns the square of the input in ES7 and the square root in ES6. Quite difficult to test, unless you have an older browser which support ES6 but not ES7.

f=a=>eval(`try{eval("a**2")}catch(e){Math.sqrt(a)}`)

console.log(f(4));

Answer 17

C, Operation Flashpoint scripting language, 52 bytes

;float f(float x){return sqrt(x);}char*
F="_this^2";

In an OFP script, a semicolon at the beginning of a line makes that line a comment, whereas C doesn't care about the additional semicolon.

C:

Try it online!

OFP scripting language:

Save as init.sqs in the mission folder, then call it with hint format["%1", 2 call F].

Result:

Answer 18

QBIC / QBasic, 26 18 bytes

input a
?a^2'^.25

In QBasic, it takes a number, and prints that number squared. The rest of the code is ignored because QBasic sees it as a comment (').

QBIC uses the same input statement. It then goed on to print that same number squared, then raised to the power of a quarter, effectively rooting it twice. This is because 'is seen as a code literal: Pure QBasic code that is not parsed by QBIC.

Answer 19

><> / Jelly, 9 bytes (7 bytes code + 2 for the '-v' flag in ><>)

Man, I'm really having fun with the Jelly link structure.

:*n;
½

Calculates the square in ><> , and the square root in Jelly.

Answer 20

Reticular / Befunge-98, 15 bytes

2D languages!

/&:*.@
>in:o#p;

Befunge-98

/&:*.@

/          divide top two (no-op)
 &         read decimal input
  :        duplicate
   *       square
    .      output
     @     terminate

Reticular

/           mirror up, then right
>in:o#p;

 i          read line of input
  n         cast to number
   :o#      square root
      p     print
       ;    terminate

Answer 21

Python 3 + JavaScript, 101 bytes

0//1or exec("function=lambda a:(lambda b:a);x=0")
y=2//2/2
f=(function(x)(x**y))//1 or(lambda x:x**y)

Square root in JS, square in Python.

Works on Firefox (tested on FF 52) and requires (function(x) x)(42) === 42 being valid syntax. Also requires ES7 for the ** operator.

Answer 22

bash and sh, 48 bytes

Update: I must concede defeat. Digital Trauma's bash/sh answer is far more elegant than this one.

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bc -l<<<"sqrt($1^(($(kill -l|wc -l)*3-3)/7+1))"

bash produces n^2, sh produces sqrt(n).

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bc is only needed so that sqrt can be calculated. The difference in behaviour is between bash and sh.

OK, technically the "sh" I'm using is still bash, but bash in "POSIX" mode (which happens if you invoke /bin/sh instead of /bin/bash on systems where /bin/sh is an alias for bash). If this is the case on your system, you can test with:

/bin/bash prog.sh 4
/bin/sh prog.sh 4

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This is based on one of the differences explained here: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-POSIX-Mode.html

Answer 23

Jelly / Pip, 6 bytes

EDIT: It's a byte shorter to reverse operations.

RTa
²

Try Jelly online!

Jelly starts execution at the bottom of the code (its 'main link') and sees if it needs anything higher: it sees the command to square and takes care of input and output implicitly.

Try Pip online!

Pip executes the top line, squaring the (implicitly read from the cmd line) var a and implicitly prints that. The bottom line is ignored.

Answer 24

Wolfram Language / PHP, 25 bytes

Get the square of a number in Wolfram Language and get the square root in PHP;

n^2
echo sqrt(_GET["n"]);

First line is Wolfram Language. First, you are the ones to change n in the searchbar in Wolfram Alpha so the code is also the input. Then it's will generate the answer upon pressing enter

n^2

Second line is PHP, It gets the square root of the n which is to be inputted in the address bar (eg. ppcg.php.net?n=213, where 213 is n's value)

echo sqrt($_GET["n"]);

Answer 25

PHP 5.6 and PHP 7, 55 bytes

function f($n){list($a[],$a[])=[.5,2];echo $n**$a[0];}

PHP 5.6 produces n^2, PHP 7 produces sqrt(n).

Answer 26

macOS Bash and sh, 24 bytes

p=^4 :
bc<<<"sqrt($1)$p"

On the Mac, sh is bash running in Posix mode, and in this case as per https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-POSIX-Mode.html:

Assignment statements preceding POSIX special builtins persist in the shell environment after the builtin completes

Thus for sh, the variable p has the value ^4 after the : is run, but for bash, the variable p only has this value while : is run, and is empty afterwards.

Being still really bash under the covers, some bashisms such as <<< herestrings still work for both the bash and sh cases.

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Bash and dash (and GNU utils), 27

On Ubuntu 16.01, sh is a symlink to dash, which doesn't do <<< herestrings. So we have this instead:

p=^4 :
echo "sqrt($1)$p"|bc

Try it online.

Answer 27

Octave / Cardinal, 28 bytes

This program squares the input in Cardinal and gets the square root in Octave

 %:=t.
disp(sqrt(input("")))

Try it online! (Octave)

Try it online! (Cardinal)

So % is single line comment in Octave so it just gets input and prints the square root

disp(sqrt(input("")))

So that the Cardinal program doesn't encounter a divide by 0 error and die, the program

%:=t.

has been shifted with a space, which is ignored by both programs

Explanation of the Cardinal program:

The program starts at the %
It receives input and stores the value as active :
It sets the inactive to be equal to the active =
It multiplies the active by the inactive t
Finally it outputs the active value .

Answer 28

PHP / JavaScript, 43 bytes

<body onload=alert(<?=$x*$x.')>'.sqrt($x)?>

Input goes like:

<?php $x = 10; ?>

Kinda self-explaining, but does it fit the rules? My first code golf tho :-)

Answer 29

CGL (CGL Golfing Language) / JS (ES6), 13 bytes(non-competing)

Non-competing because:

1. CGL was released after this question.
2. CGL is not a valid language. Because of ＋ and ⓟ, CGL is technically a valid language.

Code:

 x=>x**2
//-₂

JS:

Simple: an anonymous arrow function that returns its first argument squared. The unnamed language code is commented out.

CGL:

The non-breaking space before the first line acts like a comment. The /s are no-ops. The - in the second line means to decrement the current stack number, which by default is 0. That then sets it to -1, where input is stored. The ₂ replaces the first item in the current stack with its square root, which is now where input is placed. By default, the current stack is outputted, outputting the square root of the input.