Center The Text!

Question

Center The Text!

In this challenge you will be centering various lines.

Examples

Foo
barbaz

 Foo
barbaz

Hello
World

Hello
World

Programming Puzzles
&
Code Golf

Programming Puzzles
         &
     Code Golf

Specifications

Each input line will always have at least one non-whitespace character, you may assume the only whitespace character are spaces () and newlines. Each input line won't have any trailing and/or leading whitespace (except for the newline). Trailing whitespace in the output is not allowed.

You should be centering among the longest line in the input. If that line is even in length, your program/function should prefer to center to the left. The maximum line length is whatever your language can handle but your program should function on lines of at least 500 in length.

---

Leaderboard

Here is a Stack Snippet to generate both a regular leaderboard and an overview of winners by language.

To make sure that your answer shows up, please start your answer with a headline, using the following Markdown template:

# Language Name, N bytes

where N is the size of your submission. If you improve your score, you can keep old scores in the headline, by striking them through. For instance:

# Ruby, <s>104</s> <s>101</s> 96 bytes

If there you want to include multiple numbers in your header (e.g. because your score is the sum of two files or you want to list interpreter flag penalties separately), make sure that the actual score is the last number in the header:

# Perl, 43 + 2 (-p flag) = 45 bytes

You can also make the language name a link which will then show up in the leaderboard snippet:

# [><>](http://esolangs.org/wiki/Fish), 121 bytes

var QUESTION_ID=66731,OVERRIDE_USER=8478;function answersUrl(e){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/questions/"+QUESTION_ID+"/answers?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+ANSWER_FILTER}function commentUrl(e,s){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/answers/"+s.join(";")+"/comments?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+COMMENT_FILTER}function getAnswers(){jQuery.ajax({url:answersUrl(answer_page++),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){answers.push.apply(answers,e.items),answers_hash=[],answer_ids=[],e.items.forEach(function(e){e.comments=[];var s=+e.share_link.match(/\d+/);answer_ids.push(s),answers_hash[s]=e}),e.has_more||(more_answers=!1),comment_page=1,getComments()}})}function getComments(){jQuery.ajax({url:commentUrl(comment_page++,answer_ids),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){e.items.forEach(function(e){e.owner.user_id===OVERRIDE_USER&&answers_hash[e.post_id].comments.push(e)}),e.has_more?getComments():more_answers?getAnswers():process()}})}function getAuthorName(e){return e.owner.display_name}function process(){var e=[];answers.forEach(function(s){var r=s.body;s.comments.forEach(function(e){OVERRIDE_REG.test(e.body)&&(r="<h1>"+e.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG,"")+"</h1>")});var a=r.match(SCORE_REG);a&&e.push({user:getAuthorName(s),size:+a[2],language:a[1],link:s.share_link})}),e.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.size,a=s.size;return r-a});var s={},r=1,a=null,n=1;e.forEach(function(e){e.size!=a&&(n=r),a=e.size,++r;var t=jQuery("#answer-template").html();t=t.replace("{{PLACE}}",n+".").replace("{{NAME}}",e.user).replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",e.language).replace("{{SIZE}}",e.size).replace("{{LINK}}",e.link),t=jQuery(t),jQuery("#answers").append(t);var o=e.language;/<a/.test(o)&&(o=jQuery(o).text()),s[o]=s[o]||{lang:e.language,user:e.user,size:e.size,link:e.link}});var t=[];for(var o in s)s.hasOwnProperty(o)&&t.push(s[o]);t.sort(function(e,s){return e.lang>s.lang?1:e.lang<s.lang?-1:0});for(var c=0;c<t.length;++c){var i=jQuery("#language-template").html(),o=t[c];i=i.replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",o.lang).replace("{{NAME}}",o.user).replace("{{SIZE}}",o.size).replace("{{LINK}}",o.link),i=jQuery(i),jQuery("#languages").append(i)}}var ANSWER_FILTER="!t)IWYnsLAZle2tQ3KqrVveCRJfxcRLe",COMMENT_FILTER="!)Q2B_A2kjfAiU78X(md6BoYk",answers=[],answers_hash,answer_ids,answer_page=1,more_answers=!0,comment_page;getAnswers();var SCORE_REG=/<h\d>\s*([^\n,]*[^\s,]),.*?(\d+)(?=[^\n\d<>]*(?:<(?:s>[^\n<>]*<\/s>|[^\n<>]+>)[^\n\d<>]*)*<\/h\d>)/,OVERRIDE_REG=/^Override\s*header:\s*/i;

body{text-align:left!important}#answer-list,#language-list{padding:10px;width:290px;float:left}table thead{font-weight:700}table td{padding:5px}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdn.sstatic.net/codegolf/all.css?v=83c949450c8b"> <div id="answer-list"> <h2>Leaderboard</h2> <table class="answer-list"> <thead> <tr><td></td><td>Author</td><td>Language</td><td>Size</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="answers"> </tbody> </table> </div><div id="language-list"> <h2>Winners by Language</h2> <table class="language-list"> <thead> <tr><td>Language</td><td>User</td><td>Score</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="languages"> </tbody> </table> </div><table style="display: none"> <tbody id="answer-template"> <tr><td>{{PLACE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table> <table style="display: none"> <tbody id="language-template"> <tr><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table>

---

This is code-golf so shortest code in bytes wins!

Answer 1

Pyth, 19 17 bytes

2 bytes thanks to Jakube

V.ztr+1.[l.T.zNd6

Demonstration

I think this is the first time the center-pad function of .[ has been useful. The length of the longest line is found using non-truncating transpose (.T).

Trailing spaces are removed by adding a non-space character to the front, stripping spaces, then removing the added character.

Answer 2

vim, 43 36 35 bytes

VGrx:sor
G:let &tw=col("$")
uu:%ce

Too good not to post. Note the trailing newline; it is significant.

Thanks to @Marth for saving a character!

vim-friendly format:

VGrx:sor<cr>G:let &tw=col("$")<cr>uu:%ce<cr>

Explanation:

VGrx                   replace every character with an "x"
:sor<cr>               sort (since all chars are now same, sorts by line length)
G                      go to the very last line
:let &tw=col("$")<cr>  set &tw to column number of last char on this line
                         "let &tw" is equivalent to "set tw"
                         tw is short for textwidth, used in :center
uu                     undo the sort, and the replacing-with-x too
:%ce<cr>               center over entire file (%), using textwidth set earlier

Answer 3

Mathematica, 96 bytes

StringRiffle[#~StringPadLeft~Floor[Max@(l=StringLength)@a/2+l@#/2]&/@(a=#~StringSplit~"
"),"
"]&

Don't ask me how it worked, I just fiddled with it until it produced the correct output.

Answer 4

Funciton, non-competitive

This challenge has highlighted the sore lack of a “maximum value” (and minimum value) function for lazy sequences, so... I added them to the core library (they’re called ⊤ and ⊥, respectively). Therefore I didn’t bother to submit this as a golfed answer (it would have to include the ⊤ function declaration to be valid), so here’s just the main program.

Execute (function(){$('pre,code').css({lineHeight:5/4,fontFamily:'DejaVu Sans Mono'});})() in your browser console to get some nicer rendering.

   ╓───╖         ╔════╗  ┌───╖  ╔═══╗
 ┌─╢ ‡ ╟─┐       ║ 10 ╟──┤ ǁ ╟──╢   ║
 │ ╙───╜ │       ╚════╝  ╘═╤═╝  ╚═══╝
 │ ┌───╖ │  ┌──────────────┴──────────────────┐
 └─┤ ‼ ╟─┘┌─┴─╖ ┌───╖ ┌───╖ ┌───╖ ┌───╖       │     │
   ╘═╤═╝  │ ɱ ╟─┤ ⊤ ╟─┤ + ╟─┤ ~ ╟─┤ ℓ ╟───┐ ┌─┴─╖ ┌─┴─╖ ╔════╗
     │    ╘═╤═╝ ╘═══╝ ╘═╤═╝ ╘═══╝ ╘═══╝   │ │ ɱ ╟─┤ ʝ ╟─╢ 10 ║
    ┌───╖ ╔═╧═╕ ╔═══╗ ┌─┴──╖ ┌───╖ ╔════╗ │ ╘═╤═╝ ╘═══╝ ╚════╝
  ┌─┤ ℓ ╟─╢   ├─╢ 1 ║ │ >> ╟─┤ … ╟─╢ 32 ║ │   │
  │ ╘═══╝ ╚═╤═╛ ╚═╤═╝ ╘═╤══╝ ╘═╤═╝ ╚════╝ │ ╔═╧═╕ ╔═══╗
  └─────────┘     └─────┘      │   ┌───╖  ├─╢   ├─╢ 0 ║
                               └───┤ ‡ ╟──┘ ╚═╤═╛ ╚═══╝
                                   ╘═╤═╝      │
                                     └────────┘

Explanation

I believe this may be the first Funciton answer on this site that uses lambda expressions.

• First, we use ǁ to split the input string at the newlines (ASCII 10). This returns a lazy sequence.
• We pass that sequence through ɱ (map), giving it a lambda that calculates the length of each string, and then pass the final sequence through ⊤ to get the length of the longest line.
• We also pass that sequence through another ɱ, giving it a lambda that calculates the length of each string, subtracts it from the maximum line length calculated earlier, divides that by 2 (actually shift-right 1), generates that many spaces (ASCII 32) and then concatenates the string onto those spaces. (For geometric reasons, I declared a ‡ function that calls ‼ (string concatenate) with the parameters reversed.)
• Finally, we use ʝ to put all of the strings back together, using newlines (ASCII 10) as the separator.

Answer 5

Retina, 54 52 bytes

+m`^(.)+$(?<=(?=[^\t]*^..(?<-1>.)+(?(1)^))[^\t]*)
 $0 

The \ts can replaced with actual tabs, but I've used \t here, because otherwise SE will convert the tabs to spaces. Note that there is a leading space on the second line.

Try it online.

Explanation

The basic idea is to match a line which is at least two characters shorter than the longest line (or technically, two characters shorter than any other line), and surround it in two spaces. This is repeated until we can no longer find such a line, which means that all lines are within one character of the maximum length (where the one character is to account for parity mismatches, and guarantees that these lines are shifted to the left off-centre).

As for the actual regex:

^(.)+$

Just matches any one line while pushing one capture onto group 1 for each character.

(?<=...[^\t]*)

Is a lookbehind which is matched right-to-left and moves the cursor to the beginning of the string, so that the lookahead inside can check the entire string. Note that due to a lack of an anchor, the lookahead could be applied from anywhere else, but that does not create additional matches. We know that [^\t] will always match any character in the string, because the input is guaranteed to contain only spaces and linefeeds as far as whitespace is concerned.

(?=[^\t]*^..(?<-1>.)+(?(1)^))

This lookahead tries to find a line which is at least two characters longer than the one we're currently matching. [^\t]* moves through the string in order to be able to match any line. ^ ensures that we're starting from the beginning of the line. .. then matches the two additional characters we require for the longer line. Now (?<-1>.)+ matches individual characters in that line while popping from group 1 (note that . cannot match a linefeed, so this is constrained to one line). Finally, (?(1)^) asserts that we managed to empty the entire group 1. If the line is shorter than required, this is not possible, because there are not enough characters in the line to pop from group 1 often enough to empty it.

Answer 6

CJam, 26 23 19 bytes

qN/_z,f{1$,m2/S*\N}

My first time using CJam! Four bytes saved thanks to Martin Büttner. Try it online.

Explanation

qN/    e# Read input and split each line
_z,    e# Transpose a copy and get its length to find the longest line
f{     e# For each line...
  1$,- e# Subtract its length from the longest length
  2/   e# Divide by two to get just the spaces to add to the left
  S*\  e# Add a string with that many spaces to the beginning
  N    e# Add a newline to go on to the next line
}

Answer 7

Jolf, 3 bytes

Noncompeting, update postdates question.

Try it here!.

pci
pc  center
  i  string input

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I thought it'd be a useful function.

Answer 8

JavaScript (ES6), 93 91 bytes

s=>(m=l=s.split`
`).map(x=>(v=x.length/2)<m?v:m=v).map((x,i)=>" ".repeat(m-x)+l[i]).join`
`

2 bytes saved thanks to @edc65!

Explanation

s=>(
  m=                // m = max line length (divided by 2)
    l=s.split`
`)                  // l = array of lines
.map(x=>            // for each line
  (v=x.length/2)    // v = current line length / 2
    <m?v:m=v        // set m to the max line length and return v
)
.map((x,i)=>        // for each line length / 2
  " ".repeat(m-x)   // add spaces before
    +l[i]           // add line text
)
.join`
`                   // return lines as a newline-separated string

Test

var solution = s=>(m=l=s.split`
`).map(x=>(v=x.length/2)<m?v:m=v).map((x,i)=>" ".repeat(m-x)+l[i]).join`
`

<textarea id="input" rows="4" cols="20">Programming Puzzles
&
Code Golf</textarea><br />
<button onclick="result.textContent=solution(input.value)">Go</button>
<pre id="result"></pre>

Answer 9

Python 2, 83 81 bytes

def f(s):
 t=s.split('\n')
 for y in t:print(max(len(f)for f in t)-len(y))/2*' '+y  

Thanks to @xnor for saving 2 chars

example input:

f("""Programming Puzzles
&
Code Golf""")

example output:

Programming Puzzles
         &
     Code Golf

And ending in second place with 84 bytes using str.center() and str.rstrip (thanks @J F).

def f(s):
 t=s.split('\n')
 for y in t:print y.center(max(len(f)for f in t)).rstrip()

Answer 10

LabVIEW, 3 or 35 LabVIEW Primitives

Finds lines until none are left, then calculates how many spaces to add and puts everything together.

Alternatively you could use the built-in center alignment on string indicators, it kinda does feel like cheating though.

Answer 11

TeaScript, 24 bytes

£p.R((aßln)¯-ln)/2)+l,§)

Loops through lines, adds floor((max line length - line length) / 2) spaces to the beginning.

Ungolfed

£   p.R((aß  ln)¯  -ln)/2)+l,§   )
xl(#p.R((am(#ln)X()-ln)/2)+l,`\n`)

xl(#    // Loops through newlines
    p.R(   // Repeats spaces
      (
       am(#ln)    // Map all line lengths
              X() // Get largest line length
       -ln)       // Subtract current line length
      /2)  // Divide by two
      +l,  // Add current line text
`\n`)

Try it online

Answer 12

PowerShell, 58 67 bytes

down to 58 bytes thanks to @mazzy's comments:

param($a)$a|%{$_|% *ft(($a|% le*|sort)[-1]/2+$_.length/2)}


# It takes an array of strings as input
PS C:\Temp> .\center.ps1 'aaa','bb','c'
aaa
bb
 c


# Or here, read from a file
PS C:\Temp> .\center.ps1 (gc t.txt)
info0:info1:info2:info3
      info0:info1
          ttt
          tt
           t

• It takes an array of strings as $a, loops over each string with |%{...}.
• calls the string.padleft() method on each string, via % -member shortcut, which takes desired final line length as a parameter.
  • we need array_longest_line_length/2 + current_line_length/2
  • the end part is current_line_length/2 -> $_.length/2
  • the other part is recalculating the array's maximum line length every time through the loop, and it does so with a nested loop making an array of line lengths, sorts that, then takes the last one.

Answer 13

Emacs Lisp, 203 bytes

(let((f 0)(l 0))(dolist(s(split-string(buffer-string)"\n"))(set'l(string-width s))(when(> l f)(set'f l)))(let((fill-column f))(goto-char(point-min))(while(<(point)(point-max))(center-line)(next-line)))))

Ungolfed:

(let ((f 0) (l 0))
  (dolist (s (split-string(buffer-string) "\n"))
    (set 'l (string-width s))
    (when (> l f)
      (set 'f l)))
    (let ((fill-column f))
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (while (< (point) (point-max))
        (center-line)
        (next-line)))))

Centered:

               (let ((f 0) (l 0))
 (dolist (s (split-string(buffer-string) "\n"))
           (set 'l (string-width s))
                 (when (> l f)
                  (set 'f l)))
             (let ((fill-column f))
            (goto-char (point-min))
         (while (< (point) (point-max))
                 (center-line)
                (next-line)))))

Answer 14

HTML, 40 bytes

<xmp style=float:left;text-align:center>

<xmp style=float:left;text-align:center>
Programming Puzzles
&
Code Golf
</xmp>

Snippet includes </xmp> tag because the code snippet viewer wants my tags to be balanced.

Answer 15

MATL, 22 31 bytes

`jtYz~]xXhc4X4H$ZuZ{Zv

Each line is input with a trailing line (that is, an enter keystroke). An empty line (two enter keystrokes) marks the end of input.

Example

>> matl `jtYz~]xXhc4X4H$ZuZ{Zv
> foo
> barbaz
> 
 foo
barbaz

Explanation

`          % do...
  j        % input one string
  tYz~     % is it not empty?
]          % ...while
x          % delete last input (empty string)
Xh         % concatenate all inputs into a cell array
c          % convert to char (2D array). This fills with spaces to the right
4X4H$Zu    % center justify
Z{         % convert to cell array of strings
Zv         % remove trailing blanks of each string

Answer 16

Ruby, 76 68 61 bytes

->t{(s=t.split$/).map{|l|l.center(s.map(&:size).max).rstrip}}

Sample run:

2.1.5 :001 > puts ->t{(s=t.split$/).map{|l|l.center(s.map(&:size).max).rstrip}}["Programming Puzzles\n&\nCode Golf"]
Programming Puzzles
         &
     Code Golf

Answer 17

Haskell, 111 81 77 bytes

l=length
f s|q<-lines s=unlines[([1..div(maximum(l<$>q)-l w)2]>>" ")++w|w<-q]

Input to the f function, the output is not printed.

Usage: load in interpreter ghci center.hs and then if you want to print the output of f on a given string putStr$f"Programming Puzzles\n&\nCode Golf"

Edit: Thanks to nimi for 34 bytes, great job! :D

Answer 18

R, 126 bytes

code

for(z in 1){l=scan(,"");m=sapply(l,nchar);t=max(m[m==max(m)]);for(i in 1:length(m))cat(rep(" ",(t-m[i])/2),l[i],"\n", sep="")}

ungolfed

for(z in 1){                          # any way to get rid of this?
  l=scan(,"")
  m <- sapply(l,nchar)
  t <- max(m[m==max(m)])
  for(i in 1:length(m)){
    cat(rep(" ",(t-m[i])/2),l[i],"\n", sep="")
  }
}

Probably there are waay better ways to do this, still working on it.

Answer 19

Gema, 160 bytes

\L<T>=@push{i;$0}@set{m;@cmpn{@length{$0};${m;};$m;$m;@length{$0}}}
?=
\Z=@repeat{@sub{@line;1};@set{o;@right{@div{@add{$m;@length{$i}};2};$i}\n${o;}}@pop{i}}$o

Written mostly for my curiosity to see what can be done in a language without proper array structure and proper loop instruction.

Sample run:

bash-4.3$ gema '\L<T>=@push{i;$0}@set{m;@cmpn{@length{$0};${m;};$m;$m;@length{$0}}};?=;\Z=@repeat{@sub{@line;1};@set{o;@right{@div{@add{$m;@length{$i}};2};$i}\n${o;}}@pop{i}}$o' <<< $'Programming Puzzles\n&\nCode Golf'
Programming Puzzles
         &
     Code Golf

Answer 20

Perl 6, 61 bytes

$/=(my@l=lines)».chars.max;for @l {put ' 'x($/-.chars)/2~$_} # 61 bytes

usage:

$ perl6 -e '$/=(my@l=lines)».chars.max;for @l {put " "x($/-.chars)/2~$_}' <<< \
'Programming Puzzles
&
Code Golf'

Programming Puzzles
         &
     Code Golf

Answer 21

Japt, 28 25

¡V=VwXl}R;¡Sp½*(V-Xl¹+X}R

Try it online!

How it works

¡     V=VwXl}R;¡     Sp½*(V-Xl¹ +X}R
UmXYZ{V=VwXl}R;UmXYZ{Sp½*(V-Xl) +X}R

           // Implicit: U = input string, V = 0
UmXYZ{  }  // Map each item X in U through this function,
         R // splitting U at newlines beforehand:
  V=VwXl   //  Set V to max(X, Y.length).
           // V is now set to the length of the longest line.

UmXYZ{  }  // Map each item X in U with this function,
         R // again splitting U at newlines beforehand:
 ½*(V-Xl)  //  Take V minus X.length, and multiply by 1/2.
Sp         //  Repeat a space that many times.
        +X //  Concatenate X to the end.

Answer 22

PHP, 98 bytes

function($s){foreach($a=explode("
",$s)as$l)echo str_pad($l,max(array_map(strlen,$a)),' ',2),"
";}

Try it online!

Ungolfed:

function str_center( $s ) {
    $a = explode( PHP_EOL, $s );
    $m = max( array_map( 'strlen', $a ) );
    foreach( $a as $l ) {
        echo str_pad( $l, $m, ' ', STR_PAD_BOTH ), PHP_EOL;
    }
}

Output:

Programming Puzzles
         &         
     Code Golf   

Answer 23

05AB1E, 2 bytes

.c

Builtins ftw ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Try it online or verify all test cases.

Explanation:

.c   # Centralize the (implicit) multi-line input-string with preference to the left
     # (output the result implicitly)

(Preference to the right would be with a capital .C instead: see the differences.)

Answer 24

Japt, 1 byte

û

Try it or run all test cases