Code Golf: Print the entire “12 Days of Christmas” song in the fewest lines of code

Answer 1

In the D programming language, using switch statement fall-through:

import std.stdio;

void main() {
    for(uint i = 1; i < 13; i++) {
        writeln("On the ", i, " day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:");
        switch(i) {
            case 12:
                writeln("twelve drummers drumming,");
            case 11:
                writeln("eleven pipers piping,");
            case 10:
                writeln("ten lords a-leaping,");
            case 9:
                writeln("nine ladies dancing,");
            case 8:
                writeln("eight maids a-milking,");
            case 7:
                writeln("seven swans a-swimming,");
            case 6:
                writeln("six geese a-laying,");
            case 5:
                writeln("five gold rings,");
            case 4:
                writeln("four calling birds,");
            case 3:
                writeln("three french hens,");
            case 2:
                writeln("two turtle doves, and");
            case 1:
                writeln("a partridge in a pear tree.\n");
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Here's a PHP solution:

$day = Array('first','second','third','fourth','fifth','sixth','seventh',
             'eighth','ninth','tenth','eleventh','twelfth');
$gifts = Array('Twelve drummers drumming,',
               'Eleven pipers piping,',
               'Ten lords a-leaping,',
               'Nine ladies dancing,',
               'Eight maids a-milking,',
               'Seven swans a-swimming,',
               'Six geese a-laying,',
               'FIVE GOLDEN RINGS,',
               'Four calling birds,',
               'Three French hens,',
               'Two turtle doves, and',
               'A partridge in a pear tree');

for ($i = 0; $i < 12; ++$i) {
    printf("On the $day[$i] of Christmas my true love gave to me\n" . 
         implode("\n", array_slice($gifts,-($i+1))) . "\n\n");
}

Answer 3

h

In my made-up language where the command h prints "Hello, World!". Oh wait, you mean that's not what we're talking about?

Answer 4

How about one line! This is in C#.

Xmas(){Console.WriteLine("On the first day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nA partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the second day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the third day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the fourth day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the fifth day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nFive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the sixth day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nSix geese a-laying,\r\nFive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the seventh day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nSeven swans a-swimming,\r\nSix geese a-laying,\r\nFive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the eighth day of Christmas,\r\nmy true, love sent to me\r\nEight maids a-milking,\r\nSeven swans a-swimming,\r\nSix geese a-laying,\r\nFive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the ninth day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nNine ladies dancing,\r\nEight maids a-milking,\r\nSeven swans a-swimming,\r\nSix geese a-laying,\r\nFive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the tenth day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nTen lords a-leaping,\r\nNine ladies dancing,\r\nEight maids a-milking,\r\nSeven swans a-swimming,\r\nSix geese a-laying,\r\nfive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the eleventh day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nEleven pipers piping,\r\nTen lords a-leaping,\r\nNine ladies dancing,\r\nEight maids a-milking,\r\nSeven swans a-swimming,\r\nSix geese a-laying\r\nFive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree.\r\n\r\nOn the twelfth day of Christmas,\r\nmy true love sent to me\r\nTwelve drummers drumming,\r\nEleven pipers piping,\r\nTen lords a-leaping,\r\nNine ladies dancing,\r\nEight maids a-milking,\r\nSeven swans a-swimming,\r\nSix geese a-laying,\r\nFive golden rings,\r\nFour calling birds,\r\nThree French hens,\r\nTwo turtle doves,\r\nAnd a partridge in a pear tree!");}

Answer 5

PHP

$g = array("a partridge in a pear tree.\n",
    "two turtle doves, and",
"three french hens,",
"four calling birds,",
"five gold rings,",
"six geese a-laying,",
"seven swans a-swimming,",
"eight maids a-milking,",
"nine ladies dancing,",
"ten lords a-leaping,",
"eleven pipers piping,",
"twelve drummers drumming,"
);
$d = array("first", "second", "third", "fourth", "fifth", "sixth",
 "seventh", "eighth", "nineth", "tenth", "eleventh", "twelfth");
foreach($d as $i=>$v){
    echo "On the $v day of Christmas my true love gave to me";
    for($j=$i;$j>=0;$j--) echo " ",$g[$j];
}

Answer 6

26 bytes!..

As the URL implies, it may be considered.. cheating:

http://github.com/dbr/so_scripts/tree/master/golf_tdoc/cheating.bash