Say "Hello" to the world in ASCII art

Question

Challenge: Produce the following output using as few chars as possible:

 _   _      _ _                             _     _ _
| | | | ___| | | ___    __      _____  _ __| | __| | |
| |_| |/ _ \ | |/ _ \   \ \ /\ / / _ \| '__| |/ _` | |
|  _  |  __/ | | (_) |   \ V  V / (_) | |  | | (_| |_|
|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___( )   \_/\_/ \___/|_|  |_|\__,_(_)
                    |/

Rules and restrictions:

• You may not use FIGLet or any similar tools. (Otherwise, figlet Hello, world! would be a trivial and pretty much unbeatable solution.)

• Your program must consist entirely of printable ASCII characters — specifically, code points 9 (TAB), 10 (LF) and 32 – 126. (If your language / OS requires CRLF line breaks, you may use those instead of plain LFs.) Yes, this regrettably disqualifies any language that requires non-ASCII characters (or non-textual data) as part of its syntax.

• The output must look exactly like the example above. You may, however, include extra whitespace around the output if you want. You may assume 8-character tab spacing (or your chosen platform's native default setting, if it has a consistent one).

Ps. To set the par, I came up with a 199-char Perl solution. I won't post it yet, though, in case someone comes up with it independently. (Also, it's kind of cheesy.) Of course, this shouldn't discourage you from posting your own solution, even if it's longer.

---

Update: Now that han has beaten it by one char, here's my cheesy 199-char Perl solution:

use Compress'Zlib;say uncompress unpack u,'M>-I]BT$*`S$,`^]YQ=R:0,&_Z<DP?8@?WVQJ]E2J"%E$$@)R(/(/MCJ*\U!OM`Z#=5`4Y>6M=L\L%DMP&DB0V.4GQL&OOGB$4:%`4TT4!R8O-Z(^BTZWNV?>F86K:9+""-35*-LNC:T^D:_$#%^`";"DD0'

It's very similar to D C's solution (and all the other zlib/gzip-based solutions in various languages), except that I used uuencoding instead of base64 for the compressed text and a few other minor golfing tricks.

---

Update 2: I think it's time to officially accept a winner. The first place goes to konsolenfreddy's PHP code, since, however you count the chars, it is the shortest submitted so far. In fact, combining it with the optimized DEFLATE stream from my 199-char Perl code yields an even shorter 176-char solution:

<?=gzinflate(base64_decode("fYtBCgMxDAPvecXcmkDBv+nJMH2IH99savZUqghZRBICciDyD7Y6ivNQbwOg3VQFOXlrXbPLBZLcBpIkNjlJ8bBr754hFGhQFNNFAcmLzeiPotOt7tn3plq2mSwgjU1SjbLo2tPpGvxAxfgA"));

However, I do think that han deserves a special honorary mention for getting so close without using any pre-written decompression tools. Congratulations to both of you, and a happy new year to everyone!

Answer 1

Stax, 137 bytes

"9&BO]h>&)>3ieuCoKVKVnuOoT'E-^Z(1.3u[);h1[RTOGqTZkoQx?KMy&9ctG&*y~HxR9%GYn.rYMdMcOOq^wXc@%zy*P[*Q"90|E|B"0+1"{%",``_|\/()V'"@]}R.1 |t54/m

Run and debug it

It works like this.

1. Start with a big string literal.
2. Convert to integer by decoding as a base-90 number.
3. Convert that number to binary.
4. Runs of 0s followed by a 1 are translated into non-space characters.
5. All remaining 1s are replaced with spaces.
6. The resulting string is split into 54-character lines.

Answer 2

Perl 5.10 - 195 198 202 203 characters

Here's an entry that does not require any libraries beyond basic regexp matching. The encoded string is 131 characters, and the code to decode and print it takes up 64 characters (assuming no newline at the end of the source). The idea is to represent common 3-character strings by lower case letters.

s!!xfefxxf\t\t\tf efyx
no| cnocfxefxceyxm|xmn
nm|wtnwtgt/uvy \\| 'ym|w`o|
pepyy/o| _ogrr/ _opn (ml
l lbyly|by( )fiihyjm lb,y_
\t\tf |/!;s!\w!substr'(_)\___   \_/|_| |  V \ / _',-95+ord$&,3!eg;say

The encoder is a lot longer and unfortunately not very readable right now. The basic idea is to use dynamic programming to find the shortest encoding for each line, given a fixed set of string substitutions. The string of substitutions on the last line was built by trial and error, and it is possible that another string of substitutions might lead to a shorter program than above.

One trick here is that some substitutions are shorter than 3 characters long: due to the way perl substr works, x is replaced by ' _' and y by '_'. The latter is necessary because \w in the regex matches '_', which is then replaced by '(_)'.

Answer 3

Brainfuck - 862 characters:

>++++[<++++++++>-]>-----[<---->---]<+++>>--[<+>--]<---<<.>.<...>.<....
..>.<.>.<.............................>.<.....>.<.>.>>++++++++++.<.<<.
>>.<<.>>.<<.>>.<<.>...>.<<.>>.<<.>>.<<.>...<....>..<......>.....<..>.<
.>..>.<<.>>.<<.>..>.<<.>>.<<.>>.>.<.<<.>>.<.>.<<.>>.>>>-[<->+++++]<---
-.<<<<.>.<.>---.+++<.>>.<<.>>.>>.<<<<.>.<.>---.<...>.<.>.<.>>>>.<<<.<.
>>>>.<<<<.>>>>.<<<<.>+++.<.>---.>.<<.>>>>>>---[<+>+++++++]<++.<<<<+++.
.>.<<.>>.>>.<<<<.>.+.-<.>>.<<.>>.>.<.<<..>.<..>>.<<..>..>>>.<<<<.>>.<<
.>>.<<.>>>>>+.<<<<.>>>>+.<<<<<.>>.<<...>---.<.>------.<..>.<.>>>>.<<<<
.>>>>>-.<<<<+++++++++.>>>>+.<<<<<.>>.<<.>>.<<..>>.<<.>>.<<.>>>>>-.<<<<
.>.<<.>>.<.>.>.<.<.>.<<.>>.<.>.<---.+++...>.<.>.<.>.<---.+++...>>>>.<<
<<<.>>>>>+.<<<<<...>---.+++.>>>.<<<---.+++.>>>.<<<<.>---.+++...>>>.<<.
<.>.<<..>>.<.>.<---.+++..>>>>+++.<<<<.>>>>----.<<<<.>>>>+.<<.<<<......
..............>>.>>.<.

Answer 4

Python (2.x), 194 characters

print'eNo9T8ENxCAMe5cp/DsqVco2fSH5BsnwZ4ccEIhxbAIgAK9KvDRwGBEjsSfJA6r2N7EISbmrpbLNKFRYOABaC6FAEYkPW/Ztm1t7Z1S3ydtHuV4ooolEV6vPyJ2XH8kGE7d9DAVMhFUte6h7xv5rxg8sf0Qc'.decode('base64').decode('zip')

Answer 5

This answer is longer than just printing the string; however, just for the fun of it, here it is:

Python, 485 characters ☺

import sys

data= ',C6UBKq.)U^\\ 8[hHl7gfLFyX6,;p\'SlYpN@K-`Kbs#fSU+4o~^_h\\dJDy{o9p?<GnLTgG{?ZM>bJE+"[kHm7EavoGcS#AQ^\\>e_'
table= " _|\\/(\n)V'`,"
key= (0,(1,((((7,5),(6,(8,(11,(9,10))))),(4,3)),2)))

number= 0
for char in data:
    number= number*95 + ord(char) - 32

mask= 1<<655
decoder= key
while mask:
    index= mask & number and 1
    try:
        decoder= decoder[index]
    except TypeError:
        sys.stdout.write(table[decoder])
        decoder= key[index]
    mask>>= 1

Since I have one of the shortest ASCII representations of the compressed original text, I must have the longest scrollbar in my code! It's a win! :)

Answer 6

Javascript, 273 265 264 characters

" _2_22_ _2222222226_26_ _10 0 3_0 | 3_2 32233_6_ 30 30 |10_0/ _ 4 0/ _ 424 4 /4 / / _ 4| '30/ _` 01|6_6|63/ 0 (_) |24 V6V / (_) 060 (_0_|1|_0_|43_|_543_( )24_/4_/ 43_/56543,_(_)12222226|/".replace(/\d/g,function(a){return'| |,\n,   ,__,\\,|_|,  '.split(',')[a]})

:(

Answer 7

In other languages: C (original version), 209 chars; Perl, 200 chars.

J, 167 160 chars (47 + 113)

Another no-builtin-compression submission. Uses a pretty straightforward variable-length encoding, encoding each character as a series of 1 bits and separating characters by 0 bits. The compressed string is a mere 113 characters.

('a _|\/',CR,'()V`,'''){~#;.2,(6$2)#:40-~3&u:'8H1(((((H:f[4ZS4ZP2(RPMAMANf[>CZD[F;I[OVFF;TgfS5aGd[7T9JW4[eG[+Of7ddg?d[.AfT]WUASE=S>bSdgI]cS[RWBYSE?gSeG_X(()WG('

Answer 8

PHP, 194 189 characters

php -r'=gzinflate(base64_decode("dU/BDcQgDPszhX+lUqVs0xeSb5AMf3ZI+7qDACa2EwABeNXR4M/goxqJPUm+oLinEishKTdbKtuMQsTCC6C1EApUInHIvOlP+9zbO6PaTZ6+ynZDEZ1INFuNRu5z+ZVsMHHax1DAibCqZRdVZ/z6esYX"));'

It's basically the same as the Python and Perl answer, slightly shorter

Answer 9

bash, 196 192

base64 -d<<<H4sIAO4SqFMCA3VPQQ7AIAi7+4re5pIl/GYnk+4hPH4U0dOmILUUUBCAPEOBn8Wlao65SW6QudWJSYSUM5sqlQlZJAY2QPiAhSEJx8GSPVWm0TppOa3z1DWqboRZEY7K5pzmMw49kgU6TtXRwiDCpCrZxejTvn7u1l5z59MGKQEAAA|zcat

Answer 10

Python (2.7.x), 218 characters

import base64,zlib;
print zlib.decompress(base64.b64decode("eNo9T8ENxCAMe5cp/DsqVco2fSH5BsnwZ4ccEIhxbAIgAK9KvDRwGBEjsSfJA6r2N7EISbmrpbLNKFRYOABaC6FAEYkPW/Ztm1t7Z1S3ydtHuV4ooolEV6vPyJ2XH8kGE7d9DAVMhFUte6h7xv5rxg8sf0Qc"))

Pretty straightforward... not terribly pleased with this attempt.

Answer 11

Bash, 199 196 193 characters

base64 -d<<<H4sIAAAAAAAAAz1PQQ6AIAw7S+IfelMTk/3GE0l9CI+3HRPYoHQtAxCAMzduGliMiL0NzElygSz+LiYhLWc1VekzDFU6FoCyIxRIYuBgyd7f5+5eGdnv5OWjbA8UUcRAVbORfBN0v5MFTlw2MhQwEVaV7KYu2tv88IgPjUlb7QoBAAA=|zcat

Close enough...

EDIT: Down to 193!

Answer 12

Perl, 294 290 bytes.

The compressed string alone, is 151 130 bytes.

This isn't short, but it was really fun to write.

@t=split//,"_|\\/\n()V',`";$b.=substr unpack("B8",chr(-48+ord)),2,6 for split//,'Ph?`@Ooooo1l410````0066600?03l0001PP06600HHB1Q064L4D<8h8^::<DLL4@J0032>1D<90h<>00hHI@6QhYllLX3@`hHI@1Q04P@1Q04@002080R001I^80a074001Q07208P0B0X34ooo`ST';$b=~s/(1)|(0.{4})/$1?" ":$t[ord pack"B8","000$2"]/eg;print$b

@t=split//," _|x"x4 ."\\/\n()V',`";$b.=substr unpack("B8",chr(-48+ord)),2,6 for split//,'4100A0000000001017:8R5HR5@1@05E15R5R;:9Ra4`8\\A<0<30a`<C4C2=URa7PRbP@PG4R<g@P<3D=C4cM288S=RK:HV`EVK1G<d0`LL74`EaV2K1Mg=db0000002ab';$b=~s/1(1.{4})|(..)/$t[ord pack"B8","000".($2?"000$2":$1)]/eg;print$b

Answer 13

Perl, 346 bytes

The compressed string alone, is 111 bytes.

@t = split//, " _|\\/\n()V',`";
$k=[0,[1,[2,[[3,4],[[5,6],[7,[[8,9],[10,11]]]]]]]];

$b .= substr unpack("B8", chr(-48+ord)), 2, 6 for split//,'@P900000PBlc<b[<bX:0ZXUIUIVlcFKZLI^Y`LLMhjjW<oJcMGncNHS5MIW]l`ho3lMNgc<IW]V]i[=KUF]KUG[hL^l^^EMeSFiGmNggP001^Pl';

$d = $k;
$o.=$d=~/^\d/?$t[$s=$d,$d=$$k[$_],$s]:($d=$$d[$_],"")for split//,$b;
print $o

Trying to understand what the python with key= (0,(1,((((7,5),(6,(8,(11,(9,10))))),(4,3)),2))) was doing, I ended up making a very similar looking perl version.

Answer 14

PHP 590

obviously, i'm not trying to win, just got interested on trying another compression scheme, altough it can't even beat the simpler 302 plain text PHP solution of just copy-pasting

it works as a bitmap on 10 channels

"golfed"

<? $l=['_'=>['l8kqo,ei','9uo6,2fko0','52m0w,5r1c','540lc,5maq','lifeo,19i7ai'],'|'=>[0,'1h39j4,105','1h2k8w,q9x','14l2jk,wlx','1h39j4,wlc','1s,0'],'/'=>[2=>'b9c0,n3kao','pa8,18y68','0,mihog','w,0'],'\\'=>[2=>'pc5,a0zy8','2,0','b9c1,am2kg'],'('=>[3=>'e8,b8lc','1s,4'],')'=>[3=>'3k,2t4w','g,1'],'V'=>[3=>'0,18y680'],'`'=>[2=>'0,g'],"'"=>[2=>'0,6bk'],','=>[4=>'0,g'],];$p=@str_pad;$b=@base_convert;$i=-1;while($i++<5){$h=' ';foreach($l as$c=>$r)if(@$r[$i]){$a=explode(',',$r[$i]);$d=str_split($p($b($a[0],36,2),27,0,0).$p($b($a[1],36,2),27,0,0));foreach($d as$j=>$v)$v&&$h[$j]=$c;}echo"$h\n";}

readable

<?php
$l = ['_'=>['l8kqo,ei','9uo6,2fko0','52m0w,5r1c','540lc,5maq','lifeo,19i7ai'],
      '|'=>[0,'1h39j4,105','1h2k8w,q9x','14l2jk,wlx','1h39j4,wlc','1s,0'],
      '/'=>[2=>'b9c0,n3kao','pa8,18y68','0,mihog','w,0'],
     '\\'=>[2=>'pc5,a0zy8','2,0','b9c1,am2kg'],
      '('=>[3=>'e8,b8lc','1s,4'],
      ')'=>[3=>'3k,2t4w','g,1'],
      'V'=>[3=>'0,18y680'],
      '`'=>[2=>'0,g'],
      "'"=>[2=>'0,6bk'],
      ','=>[4=>'0,g'],
      ];
$p=@str_pad;
$b=@base_convert;
$i=-1;
while($i++<5){
    $h = str_repeat(' ',54);
    foreach($l as $c=>$r)
        if(@$r[$i]){
        $a = explode(',',$r[$i]);
        $d = str_split($p($b($a[0],36,2),27,0,0).$p($b($a[1],36,2),27,0,0));
        foreach($d as$j=>$v)
            if ($v)
                $h[$j]=$c;
        }
    echo "$h\n";
}

Answer 15

Perl, 230 characters

use Compress::Zlib;
use MIME::Base64;
print uncompress(decode_base64('eNo9T8ENxCAMe5cp/DsqVco2fSH5BsnwZ4ccEIhxbAIgAK9KvDRwGBEjsSfJA6r2N7EISbmrpbLNKFRYOABaC6FAEYkPW/Ztm1t7Z1S3ydtHuV4ooolEV6vPyJ2XH8kGE7d9DAVMhFUte6h7xv5rxg8sf0Qc'));

This is basically the same as my Python answer. I'd like to see the 199-character version.. sounds like magic.

Answer 16

Pylongolf2, 300 bytes

" _   _      _ _                             _     _ _
| | | | ___| | | ___    __      _____  _ __| | __| | |
| |_| |/ _ \ | |/ _ \   \ \ /\ / / _ \| '__| |/ _` | |
|  _  |  __/ | | (_) |   \ V  V / (_) | |  | | (_| |_|
|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___( )   \_/\_/ \___/|_|  |_|\__,_(_)
                    |/"~

I couldn't find any classy encoding methods, so I'm probably not competing.

Answer 17

Golf-Basic 84, 325

:"                     "_Str1t` _   _      _ _ "d`Str1d`Str1t`_     _ _"t`| | | | ___| | | ___    __      _____  _ __| | __| | |"t`| |_| |/ _ \ | |/ _ \   \ \ /\ / / _ \| '__| |/ _` | |"t`|  _  |  __/ | | (_) |   \ V  V / (_) | |  | | (_| |_|"t`|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___( )   \_/\_/ \___/|_|  |_|\__,_(_)"t`                    |/"

Assuming a calculator could print backticks, backslashes, single pipes, and underscores.

Answer 18

HTML + JS (223 unicode characters)

Just for fun:

<body onload=p.innerHTML=unescape(escape("").replace(/uD./g,''))><pre id=p>

NB: you have to save it in a "UTF-8 with BOM" HTML file.

Answer 19

PowerShell, 220 byes = script:9 + archive:211

tar xOf t

Try it online!

The Powershell script to create the archive t (see TIO):

(
" _   _      _ _                             _     _ _",
"| | | | ___| | | ___    __      _____  _ __| | __| | |",
"| |_| |/ _ \ | |/ _ \   \ \ /\ / / _ \| '__| |/ _` | |",
"|  _  |  __/ | | (_) |   \ V  V / (_) | |  | | (_| |_|",
"|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___( )   \_/\_/ \___/|_|  |_|\__,_(_)",
"                    |/"
) | Set-Content f -Force
tar zcfo t f
Get-ChildItem t # output info about archive size