R – Code Golf: Ulam Spiral

code-golflanguage-agnosticrosetta-stone

The Challenge

The shortest code by character count to output Ulam's spiral with a spiral size given by user input.

Ulam's spiral is one method to map prime numbers. The spiral starts from the number 1 being in the center (1 is not a prime) and generating a spiral around it, marking all prime numbers as the character '*'. A non prime will be printed as a space ' '.

alt text http://liranuna.com/junk/ulam.gif

Test cases

Input:
    2
Output:
    * *
      *
    *  
    
Input:
    3
Output:
    *   *
     * * 
    *  **
     *   
      *  
      
Input:
    5
Output:
        * *  
     *     * 
    * *   *  
       * * * 
      *  ** *
     * *     
    *   *    
     *   *   
    *     *

Code count includes input/output (i.e full program).

Best Answer

Golfscript - 92 Characters

~.(:S+,:R{S\-:|;R{S-:$|>' *'1/[|$.|]2/@:d|~)$<!^=~:$;:y.*4*$-y-)2d*$y-*+:$,{)$\%!},,2==}%n}%

97 characters
~.(:S+,:R{S\-:|;R{S-:$|>' *'1/[|$.|]2/@:d|~)$<!^=~:$;:y.*4*$-y-)2d*$y-*+.1=3*+:$,2>{$\%!},!=}%n}%

99 characters
~.(:S+,{S-}%:R{~):|;R{:$|>' *'1/[|$.|]2/@:d|~)$<!^=~:$;:y.*4*$-y-)2d*$y-*+.1=3*+:$,2>{$\%!},!=}%n}%

100 characters
~:S.(+,{S(-}%:R{~):|;R{:$|>' *'1/[|$.|]2/@:d|~)$<!^=~:$;:y.*4*$-y-)2d*$y-*+.1=3*+:$,2>{$\%!},!=}%n}%

101 characters
~:S.(+,{S(-}%:R{~):v;R{:$v>:d;' *'1/[v$.v]2/v~)$<!d^=~:$;:y.*4*$-y-)2d*$y-*+.1=3*+:$,2>{$\%!},!=}%n}%

x86 machine code (37 bytes)

Hexdump:

6800B807BF8007BE8200B40EAC3C0D741338D8740A720481EF400181C7A000AB86C3EBE8C3

Run in MS-DOS with 50 line console, the input is taken from the command line.

E.g.

wave.com 1234567890qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm

Download binary here

Update: Shaved off three bytes thanks to jrandomhacker

Code Golf: Seven Segments

Perl, 134 characters

All linebreaks may be removed.

@s=unpack"C*",~"P\xdbLI\xc3a`[\@AB\xe0t\xc8df";
$_=<>;for$s(6,3,0){print map$s[hex$&]&1<<$_+$s?$_%2?"_":"|":" ",
0..2while/./g;print$/}

Explanation

@s stores the bits for each segment. The entries are in order from 0 to F (thanks to hex()) and the bits map to segments in this order:

6 7 x
3 4 5
0 1 2

with 0 being the LSB. (Bit 6 is unused). The values are stored packed in the string bit-inverted so there are a lot more printable characters; the ~ operator flips the bits and unpack gives me numbers (perl's bitwise operators are much clumsier when it comes to strings).

With the data in hand I read the input and proceed to loop over it three times; the only difference between the three loops is the bitmask required. For each character of input three characters of output are printed. The character to be printed is

$s[ hex $& ] & (1 << ($_ + $s) )
? ($_ % 2 ? "_" : "|" )
: " "

where @s is the lookup table, $s is the shift in effect depending on the row, and $_ is whether we're printing the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd character in the row. If the right bit in the lookup table entry is false it prints a space; otherwise it prints a "|" on the sides or a "_" in the middle.