Write a function that prints an n big tree, e.g. for n=5:

     * 
    * * 
   * * * 
  * * * * 
 * * * * * 
    | |

Here is what I came up with in C:

N,i;a(n){for(i=N=N?N:n+2;i--;printf(i?"* "+(N-n-1<i):--n?"\n":"\n%*s",N,"| |"));n&&a(n);}

// the invocation isn't part of the golf:
main(){a(5);}

PS: Code blocks currently wrap around when they are too long, I’ve already submitted a patch to make them scroll horizontally instead.

  • l4sgc
    2·
    1 year ago

    My JavaScript solution - 82 103 chars:

    a=n=>{for(s=‘’,i=1;i<=n;i++)s+=’ ‘.repeat(n-i)+’* ‘.repeat(i)+’\n’;console.log(s)}

    a=n=>{for(s='',i=0;++i<=n;)s+=' '.repeat(n-i)+'* '.repeat(i)+'\n';console.log(s+' '.repeat(n-2)+'| |')}

    I’m happy I was able to beat ChatGPT, it had the same strategy but used additional for loops instead of string.repeat(), so it was 113 chars. But I suspect further improvements might be possible with array.reduce or other prototype functions I’m forgetting about.