Hump-day puzzler.
显示 更早的评论
If you have seen this before, please let others figure it out!
if (BLANK)
disp('I Love ')
else
disp('MATLAB')
end
What can replace BLANK to get the print-out (exactly): I Love MATLAB
How many solutions are there? For extra pride (or pain), how long did it take you to get it?
9 个评论
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
Extra challenge: I would love to see a solution for which BLANK returns TRUE.
Kenneth Eaton
2011-2-16
@Andrew: Your challenge has been met. See below...
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
Nice going! How about one that exercises the entire if/then block? Can it be done?
Jan
2011-2-17
@Matt: A too loose formulation. Please specify "print-out" and "exactly" exactly. And I assume you mean: "What can replace BLANK <in this code snippet> to get...". You like smilies? Here you have one :-)
Matt Fig
2011-2-17
Andrew Newell
2011-2-17
Personally, I prefer the solutions in which all the code introduced goes in the spot where BLANK is and there are no external routines.
Matt Fig
2011-2-17
Ned Gulley
2011-2-18
Matt, your puzzler got a mention on Loren's blog. http://blogs.mathworks.com/loren/2011/02/18/hump-day-puzzler-on-matlab-answers/
Matt Fig
2011-2-18
采纳的回答
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
~fprintf('I Love ')
Solved in... a small number of seconds.
8 个评论
Matt Fig
2011-2-16
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
About 1 minute for me too. Went down a couple of blind alleys like [0 1] first.
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
Probably someone who has programmed in C would solve this quickly. With a FORTRAN background, I tend to avoid having side effects in my conditions.
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
fprintf(...) can be replaced with fwrite(1,...)
Matt Fig
2011-2-16
Oliver
2011-2-23
Where in the MatLab documentation can I read why this answer works?
Jan
2011-2-23
@Oliver: "help fprintf" tells, that FPRINTF replies the number of printed characters. "help not" explains, that 0 is replied if the argument is not zero. Finally "help if" states, that the ELSE branch is executed, if the argument of IF is 0.
Andrew Newell
2011-2-24
In case that is not clear: >>n = fprintf('I Love ') prints 'I Love ' to the standard output and returns a value of 7 for n. In the command "if (~fprintf('I Love '))" the if statement sees ~n (which is zero, or false) and your command window sees 'I Love ' because it is by default the standard output.
更多回答（17 个）
Kenneth Eaton
2011-2-16
Here's a pretty goofy answer:
true) fprintf('I Love '); end; if (false
Kenneth Eaton
2011-2-16
In response to Andrew's extra challenge for a solution in which BLANK returns true, here's an absolutely insane one:
function output = BLANK
disp('I Love MATLAB'); % Display the output
assignin('caller','disp',@shadow_disp); % Shadow the DISP function in
% the caller workspace
output = true; % Return true
end
function shadow_disp(~) % This will be immediately invoked by the
evalin('caller','clear disp'); % next call to DISP in the caller
% workspace. It displays nothing, but it
end % unshadows DISP in the caller workspace
It will also work the same way if it returns false. ;)
Jan
2011-2-16
This prints the wanted string, but not in this Matlab:
if (system('matlab -r "disp(''I Love MATLAB'')" &'))
disp('I Love ')
else
disp('MATLAB')
end
4 个评论
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
Maybe this could be turned into a virus!
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
It doesn't satisfy the criteria that "I Love MATLAB" be the _only_ output.
Also in some versions there would be a loop of the prompt printing out over and over again in the spawned matlab, as you do not quit after the command.
Jan
2011-2-17
@Walter: Sorry, I cannot find an "only" in the question. There is an "exactly".
The DISP command should run once only. Which version creates a loop and print the string over and over again?
Matt Fig
2011-2-17
David Young
2011-2-17
If you can read very quickly:
[fprintf('I love MATLAB') regexp('x', '(?@quit)')]
Jan
2011-2-17
With a free interpretation of "print-out":
if (text(0.5, 0.5, 'I Love MATLAB'))
disp('I Love ')
else
disp('MATLAB')
end
I simply ignore the orphaned "I Love " - who cares about junk in the command window, if there is a fancy GUI.
Ah, "print-out" means most likely a print-out:
if ({axes('Visible', 'off'); text(0.5, 0.5, 'I Love MATLAB'); print})
disp('I Love ')
else
disp('MATLAB')
end
I admit, Matlab complains about too many output arguments for PRINT in Matlab 6.5 and about a not assigned VARARGOUT in Matrlab 2009a. But the actual print-out is clean.
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
Corrected as per Matt's note about output arguments:
function TF = BLANK
disp('I Love MATLAB');
quit
end
Major time waste: trying to find a way to execute return or quit or break or exit or dbstop in an expression context to avoid having to use a named function.
4 个评论
Matt Fig
2011-2-16
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
Fixed, thanks Matt. This version is distinctly different than your variation. It works by quiting Matlab to avoid executing the rest of the "if" statement. This is within the boundaries of the puzzle conditions as they did not require that Matlab continue execution afterwards.
Matt Fig
2011-2-16
David Young
2011-2-17
Time has been wasted: you can use regexp to execute quit in an expression. See my answer below (or above, as the case may be).
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
0 个投票
Perhaps someone might be able to get this approach to work properly:
evalc('fwrite(1,''I Love MATLAB''),quit')
The evalc() works, the quit happens, but the text is not displayed. Adding in an fseek(1,0,0) should in theory force a flush but it doesn't, not even if you add a pause() statement to give time for execution. Though now that I think of it, that might be because the output is being captured by the evalc().
eval() alone cannot process the "quit" portion: it complains about unexpected matlab expression.
1 个评论
Jan
2011-2-16
if ({fprintf('I Love MATLAB\n'), evalc('keyboard')}), ...
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
A variation on Kenneth's answer that prints the message to the left of the prompt:
true) fprintf('I Love MATLAB'); end; return; if (false
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
A variation on Kenneth's shadowing:
function output = BLANK
assignin('caller','disp',@shadow_disp);
output = true;
end
function shadow_disp(S)
disp([S 'MATLAB']);
evalin('caller','clear disp');
end
This has the difference of using what is passed to the disp()
2 个评论
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
Note that the shadowing solutions do not work if the test is rewritten on a single line, as
if (BLANK); disp('I Love '); else; disp('MATLAB'); end
as in these cases, the value for disp() is taken at parsing time. Also, these shadowing solutions might perhaps not work in 2011b scripts as the JIT is now applied to scripts.
Jan
2011-2-17
@Walter: This does not "replace BLANK", but *defines* it.
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
0 个投票
Andrew:
To exercise the entire if/else block, put the test in named file and execute it, with BLANK set to BLANK(mfilename) . BLANK.m would have a persistent variable; if the persistent variable is empty, then set the variable to something, evalc() the mfile whose name was passed in, fwrite(1) the string returned by evalc, and return false . If the persistent variable is not empty, then set it empty and return true .
The mfile would start executing, would call BLANK, which would set its internal flag and recurse the mfile. The second call to BLANK would detect the flag being set and would return true (no recursion), so that recursed call would display the "I Love " and then exit the recursion. Now back at the first level, BLANK has captured the "I Love " and displays it suppressing the newline, and returns false, so the non-recursed mfile executes the else, printing out the "MATLAB" and exiting.
1 个评论
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
Whew! If we are allowed to call this code from outside, then a simpler approach could be used (see my separate post).
Andrew Newell
2011-2-16
If we are allowed to save the if/else block to a file (say LoveMatlab.m), then this code could exercise both parts of the block:
BLANK=true;
S = evalc('LoveMatlab');
BLANK=false;
T = evalc('LoveMatlab');
disp([S(1:end-1),T])
1 个评论
Walter Roberson
2011-2-16
I don't feel that this fits within the spirit of the question, that the code structure shown should be what is executed and somehow that causes the desired action.
David Young
2011-2-17
Assuming that execution time isn't a concern, and, please, no typing while the code is running:
[fprintf('I love MATLAB') input('')]
Nikolay Chumerin
2011-2-19
My version#1 is:
true), [char(8*ones(1,8)) 'I Love MATLAB'], return%
2 个评论
Walter Roberson
2011-2-19
Unfortunately backspace, char(8), does not back up past the carriage return and linefeed that would be output after the 'ans = ' that is emitted for the expression.
Nikolay Chumerin
2011-2-19
Hmm... on my system (Matlab 2009b 32bit, on Win7x86) it works.
Nikolay Chumerin
2011-2-19
My version#2 is:
isunix), a=12; else a=8*ones(1,8); end; [char(a) 'I Love MATLAB'], return %
works on Matlab 2007b, 2009b, Linux x64 as well as on Matlab 2009b on Win7x86 and Matlab 2010b on WinXPx86.
类别
在 帮助中心 和 File Exchange 中查找有关 Characters and Strings 的更多信息
Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!
Translated by 
