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

Answer 1

Not mine, but interesting...

This is a well-known example from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obfuscated_code (author: James O. Coplien):

#include <stdio.h>
main(t,_,a)char *a;{return!0<t?t<3?main(-79,-13,a+main(-87,1-_,
main(-86,0,a+1)+a)):1,t<_?main(t+1,_,a):3,main(-94,-27+t,a)&&t==2?_<13?
main(2,_+1,"%s %d %d\n"):9:16:t<0?t<-72?main(_,t,
"@n'+,#'/*{}w+/w#cdnr/+,{}r/*de}+,/*{*+,/w{%+,/w#q#n+,/#{l,+,/n{n+,/+#n+,/#\
;#q#n+,/+k#;*+,/'r :'d*'3,}{w+K w'K:'+}e#';dq#'l \
q#'+d'K#!/+k#;q#'r}eKK#}w'r}eKK{nl]'/#;#q#n'){)#}w'){){nl]'/+#n';d}rw' i;# \
){nl]!/n{n#'; r{#w'r nc{nl]'/#{l,+'K {rw' iK{;[{nl]'/w#q#n'wk nw' \
iwk{KK{nl]!/w{%'l##w#' i; :{nl]'/*{q#'ld;r'}{nlwb!/*de}'c \
;;{nl'-{}rw]'/+,}##'*}#nc,',#nw]'/+kd'+e}+;#'rdq#w! nr'/ ') }+}{rl#'{n' ')# \
}'+}##(!!/")
:t<-50?_==*a?putchar(31[a]):main(-65,_,a+1):main((*a=='/')+t,_,a+1)
  :0<t?main(2,2,"%s"):*a=='/'||main(0,main(-61,*a,
"!ek;dc i@bK'(q)-[w]*%n+r3#l,{}:\nuwloca-O;m .vpbks,fxntdCeghiry"),a+1);}

"Although unintelligible at first glance, it is a legal C program that when compiled and run will generate the 12 verses of The 12 Days of Christmas. It contains all the strings required for the poem in an encoded form inlined in the code. The code iterates through the 12 days displaying what it needs to."

It won't win golf though, it is about 830 bytes.

Answer 2

Linq to objects, in 580 characters (without whitespace)

Console.WriteLine(Enumerable.Range(1, 13).SelectMany(day =>
    Enumerable.Repeat("\nOn the " + day + 
                      (day == 1 ? "st" : 
                      (day == 2 ? "nd" : 
                      (day == 3 ? "rd" : 
                      "th"))) + " day of Christmas my true love gave to me ", 1)
              .Concat((new []
                {
                    "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 gold rings,",
                    "four calling birds,",
                    "three french hens,",
                    "two turtle doves, and",
                    "a partridge in a pear tree."
                }).Reverse().Take(day).Reverse()))
              .Aggregate((a, b) => a + "\n" + b));

Answer 3

for d in range(12):print"On the %s day of Christmas, my true love gave to me\n\t%s\n"%("first|second|third|fourth|fifth|sixth|seventh|eighth|ninth|tenth|eleventh|twelfth".split("|")[d],"\n\t".join("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 gold rings|four calling birds|three french hens|two turtle doves and|a partridge in a pear tree.".split("|")[11-d:]))

Python, 422 chars

Answer 4

Perl.

use Lingua::EN::Numbers qw(num2en_ordinal);
print 'On the ', num2en_ordinal($_+1),' day of Christmas my true love gave to me, ', reverse(( split /\|/, "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, ")[ 0 .. $_ ]) for 0 .. 11;

( 459 Chars )

I wanted to make it a bit nicer and expressive, but this is a golf challenge.

This style violates proper coding standards somewhat. But that's golf for you.

Lingua::EN::Number

Here's the less compact version with less sneaky tricks.

use Lingua::EN::Numbers qw(num2en_ordinal);
my @gifts = (
    'a partridge in a pear tree.',
    '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, '
);
for my $verse_id ( 0 .. $#gifts ) {
    printf 'On the %s day of Christmas my true love gave to me, ', num2en_ordinal($verse_id +1);
    print reverse @verse[ 0 .. $verse_id ];
    print "\n";
}

Answer 5

Here's a Haskell version:

import Data.List
main=putStrLn$unlines$map(uncurry(\n->(++)("On the "++show n++case n of{1->"st";2->"nd";3->"rd";_->"th"}++" day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: ")))$zip[1..]$(\a->(drop 4$head a):tail a)$ map(intercalate", ".reverse)$tail$inits["and a partridge in a pair tree","two turtle doves","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"]

It comes in at 527 characters. Since without good spacing it's rather incomprehensible, here's a more spread-out version:

import Data.List
main = putStrLn
       $ unlines
       $ map (uncurry (\n -> (++) ("On the " ++ show n ++ case n of { 1 -> "st"; 2 -> "nd"; 3 -> "rd"; _ -> "th"} ++ " day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: ")))
       $ zip [1..]
       $ (\a -> (drop 4 $ head a) : tail a)
       $ tail
       $ map (intercalate ", " . reverse)
             (inits ["and a partridge in a pair tree", "two turtle doves", "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"])

Answer 6

Objective-C / Cocoa

NSArray *days = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"first", @"second", @"third", @"forth", 
                    @"fifth", @"six", @"seventh", @"eigth", 
                    @"ninth", @"tenth", @"eleventh", @"twelth", nil];

NSArray *gifts = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
                    @"a partridge in a pear tree.\n\n",
                    @"two turtle doves, and\n",
                    @"three french hens,\n",
                    @"four calling birds,\n",                      
                    @"five gold rings,\n",
                    @"six geese a-laying,\n",
                    @"seven swans a-swimming,\n",
                    @"eigth maids a-milking,\n",                     
                    @"nine ladies dancing,\n",
                    @"ten lords a-leaping,\n",
                    @"eleven pipers piping,\n",    
                    @"twelve drummers drumming,\n",
                    nil];

NSMutableString *aggregator = [NSMutableString string];
for(int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
    [aggregator insertString:[gifts objectAtIndex:i] atIndex:0];
    printf("on the %s day of xmas, my true love gave to me %s", [[days objectAtIndex:i] UTF8String], [aggregator UTF8String]);
}