Without using numbers, get the highest salary you can. But don't exaggerate!

Question 1

As I'm applying for some jobs whose job advert doesn't state the salary, I imagined a particularly evil interviewer that would give the candidate the possibility to decide their own salary ...by "golfing" it!

So it goes simply like that:

Without using numbers, write a code that outputs the annual salary you'd like to be offered.

However, being able to write concise code is a cornerstone of this company. So they have implemented a very tight seniority ladder where

employers that write code that is b bytes long can earn a maximum of (1ドル'000'000) · b^−0.75.

we are looking at (these are the integer parts, just for display reasons):

 1 byte → 1ドル'000'000 15 bytes → 131ドル'199
 2 bytes → 594ドル'603 20 bytes → 105ドル'737
 3 bytes → 438ドル'691 30 bytes → 78ドル'011
 4 bytes → 353ドル'553 40 bytes → 62ドル'871
 10 bytes → 177ドル'827 50 bytes → 53ドル'182

The challenge

Write a program or function that takes no input and outputs a text containing a dollar sign ($, U+0024) and a decimal representation of a number (integer or real).

Your code cannot contain the characters 0123456789.

In the output:

There may optionally be a single space between the dollar sign and the number.
Trailing and leading white spaces and new lines are acceptable, but any other output is forbidden.
The number must be expressed as a decimal number using only the characters 0123456789.. This excludes the use of scientific notation.
Any number of decimal places are allowed.

An entry is valid if the value it outputs is not greater than (1ドル'000'000) · b^−0.75, where b is the byte length of the source code.

Example output (the quotes should not be output)

"$ 428000" good if code is not longer than 3 bytes
"321023ドル.32" good if code is not longer than 4 bytes
" $ 22155.0" good if code is not longer than 160 bytes
"$ 92367.15 \n" good if code is not longer than 23 bytes
"300000 $" bad
" lorem $ 550612.89" bad
"109824ドル" bad
"$ -273256.21" bad
"2ドル.448E5" bad

The score

The value you output is your score! (Highest salary wins, of course.)

Leaderboard

Here is a Stack Snippet to generate both a regular leaderboard and an overview of winners by language.

To make sure that your answer shows up, please start your answer with a headline, using the following Markdown template:

# Language Name, $X (Y bytes)

where X is your salary and Y is the size of your submission. (The Y bytes can be anywhere in your answer.) If you improve your score, you can keep old scores in the headline, by striking them through. For instance:

# Ruby, <s>111111ドル.111... (18 bytes)</s> <s>111999ドル (17 bytes)</s> 123456ドル (16 bytes)

You can also make the language name a link, which will then show up in the leaderboard snippet:

# [><>](http://esolangs.org/wiki/Fish), 126,126ドル (13 bytes)

var QUESTION_ID=171168,OVERRIDE_USER=77736;function answersUrl(e){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/questions/"+QUESTION_ID+"/answers?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+ANSWER_FILTER}function commentUrl(e,s){return"https://api.stackexchange.com/2.2/answers/"+s.join(";")+"/comments?page="+e+"&pagesize=100&order=desc&sort=creation&site=codegolf&filter="+COMMENT_FILTER}function getAnswers(){jQuery.ajax({url:answersUrl(answer_page++),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){answers.push.apply(answers,e.items),answers_hash=[],answer_ids=[],e.items.forEach(function(e){e.comments=[];var s=+e.share_link.match(/\d+/);answer_ids.push(s),answers_hash[s]=e}),e.has_more||(more_answers=!1),comment_page=1,getComments()}})}function getComments(){jQuery.ajax({url:commentUrl(comment_page++,answer_ids),method:"get",dataType:"jsonp",crossDomain:!0,success:function(e){e.items.forEach(function(e){e.owner.user_id===OVERRIDE_USER&&answers_hash[e.post_id].comments.push(e)}),e.has_more?getComments():more_answers?getAnswers():process()}})}function getAuthorName(e){return e.owner.display_name}function process(){var e=[];answers.forEach(function(s){var r=s.body.replace(/<(s|strike)>.*?<\/1円>/g,"");s.comments.forEach(function(e){OVERRIDE_REG.test(e.body)&&(r="<h1>"+e.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG,"")+"</h1>")});var a1=r.match(SCORE_REG),a2=r.match(LANG_REG),a3=r.match(BYTES_REG);a1&&a2&&e.push({user:getAuthorName(s),size:a3?+a3[1]:0,score:+a1[1].replace(/[^\d.]/g,""),lang:a2[1],rawlang:(/<a/.test(a2[1])?jQuery(a2[1]).text():a2[1]).toLowerCase(),link:s.share_link})}),e.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.score,a=s.score;return a-r});var s={},r=1,a=null,n=1;e.forEach(function(e){e.score!=a&&(n=r),a=e.score,++r;var t=jQuery("#answer-template").html();t=t.replace("{{PLACE}}",n+".").replace("{{NAME}}",e.user).replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",e.lang).replace("{{SCORE}}","$"+e.score.toFixed(2)).replace("{{SIZE}}",e.size||"?").replace("{{LINK}}",e.link),t=jQuery(t),jQuery("#answers").append(t);s[e.rawlang]=s[e.rawlang]||e});var t=[];for(var o in s)s.hasOwnProperty(o)&&t.push(s[o]);t.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.rawlang,a=s.rawlang;return r>a?1:r<a?-1:0});for(var c=0;c<t.length;++c){var i=jQuery("#language-template").html(),o=t[c];i=i.replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",o.lang).replace("{{NAME}}",o.user).replace("{{SCORE}}","$"+o.score.toFixed(2)).replace("{{SIZE}}",o.size||"?").replace("{{LINK}}",o.link),i=jQuery(i),jQuery("#languages").append(i)}}var ANSWER_FILTER="!t)IWYnsLAZle2tQ3KqrVveCRJfxcRLe",COMMENT_FILTER="!)Q2B_A2kjfAiU78X(md6BoYk",answers=[],answers_hash,answer_ids,answer_page=1,more_answers=!0,comment_page;getAnswers();var LANG_REG=/<h\d>\s*((?:[^\n,](?!\s*\(?\d+\s*bytes))*[^\s,:-])/,BYTES_REG=/(\d+)\s*(?:<a[^>]+>|<\/a>)?\s*bytes/i,SCORE_REG=/\$\s*([\d',]+\.?\d*)/,OVERRIDE_REG=/^Override\s*header:\s*/i;

body{text-align:left!important}#answer-list,#language-list{padding:10px;width:520px;float:left}table thead{font-weight:700}table td{padding:5px}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdn.sstatic.net/codegolf/all.css?v=83c949450c8b"> <div id="answer-list"> <h2>Leaderboard</h2> <table class="answer-list"> <thead> <tr><td></td><td>Author</td><td>Language</td><td>Score</td><td>Size</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="answers"> </tbody> </table> </div><div id="language-list"> <h2>Winners by Language</h2> <table class="language-list"> <thead> <tr><td>Language</td><td>User</td><td>Score</td><td>Size</td></tr></thead> <tbody id="languages"> </tbody> </table> </div><table style="display: none"> <tbody id="answer-template"> <tr><td>{{PLACE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{SCORE}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table> <table style="display: none"> <tbody id="language-template"> <tr><td>{{LANGUAGE}}</td><td>{{NAME}}</td><td>{{SCORE}}</td><td>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table>

Edit: (rounded) maximum allowed score per byte count, for a quicker reference - text here:

enter image description here

Question 2

This is one of the very few (imo) successful non-fixed-output no-input non-random challenge. Unique idea!

Question 3

Nice challenge! Can we output a fully formatted currency value, if desired? Like 80,662ドル.67 instead of 80662ドル.6659? Your rules seems to preclude the comma, which means I couldn't use any built-in currency functions.

Question 4

I hope you don't mind, I've added a variation of the Leaderboard Snippet that sorts by score instead of bytes. Excellent first challenge!

Question 5

Just noticed the new contributor tag. Well-constructed challenge, with such a high upvote and a vast amount of answers in only a few days, I wonder if this could be eligible for this years' Rookie of The Year ;)

Question 6

I've nominated this challenge as a candidate for "Rookie of the Year - Challenges" category in Best of PPCG 2018 as I said back then.

Question 7

bash, 127127ドル

x;echo \$$?$?

Try it online!

Since the x command doesn't exist, it errors and sets the exit code to 127.

Then, the code outputs a dollar sign followed by $? twice. The $? variable stores the exit code of the previous command, so this outputs 127127ドル in 13 bytes.

Question 8

Funnily enough if you're on Mac and you have XQuartz installed, this won't work because x does exist. As a bonus, it crashed when trying to open it, so I got 11ドル instead!

Question 9

Use ] instead of x, the former is less likely to exist.

Question 10

@numbermaniac Also, such commands were found for installing on ubuntu 19.04: e, q, r. But w is a thing (close to who) and exit successfully, so you get 00ドル for it!

Question 11

Java 8, 131,199ドル.00 (15 bytes)

v->"$"+'e'*'ԓ'

Try it online.

Explanation:

v-> // Method with empty unused parameter and String return-type
 "$"+ // Return a dollar sign, concatted with:
 'e'*'ԓ' // 131199 (101 * 1299)

\131,199ドル.00 < 131,199.31\$

I used a program to generate a printable ASCII character in the range [32, 126] which, when dividing 131199, would have the lowest amount of decimal values. Since 101 can divide 131199 evenly, resulting in 1299, I'm only 31 cents short of my maximum possible salary based on my byte-count of 15.

Question 12

Dang, impressively efficient score!

Question 13

... doesn't the program use numbers now after the edit, which is forbidden by the challenge?

Question 14

@Laikoni Woops.. I'm an idiot -_- Thanks, rolled back.

Question 15

CJam, (5 bytes) 294204ドル.018...

'$PB#

Try it online!

Explanation:

I derived it from Dennis' answer, but looked for combinations of numbers which would yield a higher result. I almost gave up, but I saw that P is the variable for \$\pi\,ドル and that \$\pi^{11} \approx 294000\$. The letter B has a value of 11 in CJam, giving the code above.

Question 16

Since your score is your salary, you should mention it in the header. This answer is currently winning. :)

Question 17

CJam, 5 bytes, 262ドル'144

'$YI#

Try it online!

How it works

'$ Push '$'.
 Y Push 2.
 I Push 18.
 # Pop 2 and 18 and perform exponentiation, pushing 262144.

Question 18

R, 20 bytes, `103540ドル.9`

T=pi+pi;cat("$",T^T)

Try it online!

The max for 20 bytes is 105737ドル.1, so this is quite close to the salary cap!

This would be a nice raise, and if I get paid to do code golf......

Question 19

might be a way to combine pi with a dataset's sum... would require a programmatic approach to evaluate various combination of operators/datasets/pi to get as close to the max as possible. No time for this now but it sounds like a nice challenge in itself.

Question 20

GS2, (5 bytes) 292,929ドル

•$☺↔A

A full program (shown here using code-page 437). (Maximum achievable salary @ 5 bytes is 299069ドル.75)

Try it online!

Builds upon Dennis's GS2 answer...

•$☺↔A []
•$ - push '$' ['$']
 ☺ - push unsigned byte:
 ↔ - 0x1d = 29 ['$',29]
 A - push top of stack twice ['$',29,29,29]
 - implicit print 292929ドル

Question 21

That's 11 bytes, even if it is 5 characters.

Question 22

@dotancohen: 0x0724011d41 is 5 bytes by my count...

Question 23

@eggyal: I missed the bit about code-page 437. Nice touch!

Question 24

Dear down-voter, could I have some feedback please; I don't see what is incorrect, not useful, or unclear.

Question 25

Self-modifying Brainfuck, 16 bytes, 124444ドル

<.<++.+.++..../$

Try it online!

Question 26

You didn't end up using the :, so you can remove it and add another + for 124444ドル.

Question 27

@Nitrodon Ah right, thanks.

Question 28

After printing the 1, why not count to 3 and then print only 3s? You would save a byte and print a higher number.

Question 29

@12431234123412341234123 You'd need to save two bytes. Otherwise, with 15 bytes, you're only allowed up to 131199,ドル 133333ドル is too much.

Question 30

How about <.<[-<++.+.>]/^C$ (The ^C is 003円) or 00000000: 3c2e 3c5b 2d3c 2b2b 2e2b 2e3e 5d2f 0324 <.<[-<++.+.>]/.$ ? Would be 16 Byte and output 124578ドル.

Question 31

JavaScript (ES6), 19 bytes, 109,839ドル

_=>atob`JDEwOTgzOQ`

Try it online!

\109839ドル\$ is the highest integer \$\le 109884\$ which does not produce any digit when prefixed with '$' and encoded in base64.

Without `atob()` (Node.js), 26 bytes, 86,126ドル

_=>'$'+Buffer('V~').join``

Try it online!

The concatenation of '$' with the ASCII codes of 'V' (86) and '~' (126).

Question 32

Wow Buffer. First time ever to acknowledge this class ;')

Question 33

@user71546 It could be done in 24 bytes for 91,126ドル if thousand separators were allowed. But apparently, they're not... :(

Question 34

Buffer constructor is deprecated, so that will get longer in future versions

Question 35

@mcfedr We don't care for code golf, as long as a working version of the interpreter is properly specified.

Question 36

R, 21 bytes 99649ドル.9

cat("$",min(lynx^pi))

Try it online!

A different R approach - see also Giuseppe's answer

Very close to the maximum of 101937ドル for this bytecount.

Bonus: `object.size()`

R, 24 bytes 89096ドル

cat("$",object.size(ls))

Try it online!

This is probably system-dependent, but when I ra this on TIO I got 89096ドル - close to the limit of 92223 for 24 bytes.

Question 37

neat! I thought about trying to pick a good dataset but I can't figure out where to look to find them...I guess the datasets package makes a lot of sense.

Question 38

@Giuseppe I'm just trying prod and sum randomly... but prod increases too fast !

Question 39

sum(volcano) is 690907 but that would have to be about 1 byte to work, haha

Question 40

Great idea using datasets !

Question 41

@Giuseppe good catch I had completely overlooked that! duh.

Question 42

PHP, 131116ドル (8 bytes)

Didn't see one for php and wanted to throw one up. I know someplace in php is a bad typecast that would cut this in half but I can't find it right now.

$<?=ERA;

This just takes advantage of PHP short tags and the PHP built in constants.

Try it online!

Question 43

Ha I’ll switch it out for something else tomorrow

Question 44

Instead of <?="$"., just do $<?= and save a few bytes.

Question 45

@IsmaelMiguel nice thanks! Got it down to 8 bytes but didn't take long enough to figure out how to get the other ~70k of my salary.

Question 46

wow didnt knew about this constant, but I couldnt find in docs, can any one help on this?

Question 47

@Rafee it's actually not documented any place that I can find. It's a language constant that was added 17 years ago github.com/php/php-src/commit/…. I found it by dumping all available constants and then just starting to grep for the shortest ones. It seems to be provided by the OS seen here gnu.org/software/libc/manual/pdf/libc.pdf on page 195.

Question 48

GS2, 5 bytes, 291ドル'000

•$☺↔∟

This is a CP437 representation of the binary source code.

Try it online!

How it works

•$ Push '$'.
 ☺↔ Push 29.
 ∟ Push 1000.

Question 49

Excel 19 bytes 107899ドル.616068361

="$"&CODE("(")^PI()

Explanation:

 CODE("(") // find ASCII code of ( which is 40
 ^PI() // raise to power of Pi (40^3.141592654)
 "$"& // append $ to the front of it
= // set it to the cell value and display

Question 50

Welcome to PPCG!

Question 51

+1 Even better, they'll be impressed with your Excel skills and want you to be an account manager.

Question 52

@theREALyumdub is that supposed to be a good thing? I'm not sure I'd take this salary if it means I have to work with Excel on the daily ;)

Question 53

I'd argue with Excel's accounting formatting, that you can skip the $ entirely, and simply set the formatting to accounting.

Question 54

@Selkie Accounting format adds a comma, which is disallowed. You could use a custom format of $# though. I wouldn't be sure if I should count this as 15 characters with =CODE("*")^PI() for 125773,ドル or 17 characters (adding 2 for the the format letters) with =CODE(")")^PI() for 116603,ドル or if this is disallowed.

Question 55

vim, (削除) 99999ドル (削除ここまで) (削除) 110000ドル (削除ここまで) 120000ドル

i$=&pvh*&ur

Try it online!

Uses the expression register (note that there is a <C-r> character, which is invisible in most fonts, between the $ and =, for a total of 13 bytes) to insert the value of the 'pvh' option times the value of the 'ur' option.

'previewheight' is the option that controls the height of preview windows, which is 12 by default.

'undoreload' is the maximum number of lines a buffer can have before vim gives up on storing it in memory for undo, and it defaults to 10,000.

Question 56

Jelly, (削除) 256000ドル 256256ドル (削除ここまで) (6 bytes) 257256ドル

9‘"$;;

A full program. (Maximum achievable salary @ 6 bytes is 260847ドル.43)

Try it online!

How?

9‘"$;; - Main Link: no arguments
9 - Literal 256 256
 ‘ - increment 257
 "$ - single '$' character '$'
 ; - concatenate ['$',257]
 ; - concatenate ['$',257,256]
 - implicit print -> 257256ドル

Previous...

5 bytes 256256ドル

"$;9+

('$' concatenate 256, repeat 256 - causing interim implicit printing)

6 bytes 256000ドル:

×ばつȷṭ"$

(256 ×ばつ 1000 ṭack '$')

Question 57

That looks like 5 characters, but 11 bytes.

Question 58

@dotancohen Jelly uses a custom code page.

Question 59

@Carmeister:Nice!

Question 60

256512ドル

Question 61

@NieDzejkob indeed 6 bytes are available - I have 257256ドル now :)

Question 62

Python 3, (22 bytes) $ 98,442

print('$',ord('𘂊'))

Try it online!

Much like Doorknob's Ruby answer, the 4 byte Unicode character used here, 𘂊, has an ordinal value of the maximal integer salary achievable in 22 bytes.

Note that print() prints its unnamed arguments separated by spaces by default (sep is an optional named argument).

Question 63

you can do slightly better than that using f strings: print(f"${ord('𘫿')}") is 21 bytes and outputs 101119ドル

Question 64

@Matt that is 24 bytes (I thought of f-string but realised that the extra braces would cost 2 bytes)

Doorknob 72.1k20 gold badges146 silver badges393 bronze badges · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-25 18:01:54Z

123

\$\begingroup\$

bash, 127127ドル

x;echo \$$?$?

Try it online!

Since the x command doesn't exist, it errors and sets the exit code to 127.

Then, the code outputs a dollar sign followed by $? twice. The $? variable stores the exit code of the previous command, so this outputs 127127ドル in 13 bytes.

Share

Improve this answer

answered Aug 25, 2018 at 18:01

Doorknob's user avatar

Doorknob

72.1k20 gold badges146 silver badges393 bronze badges

\$\endgroup\$

3

65

\$\begingroup\$ Funnily enough if you're on Mac and you have XQuartz installed, this won't work because x does exist. As a bonus, it crashed when trying to open it, so I got 11ドル instead! \$\endgroup\$

numbermaniac
– numbermaniac

2018年08月28日 07:53:07 +00:00
Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 7:53
16

\$\begingroup\$ Use ] instead of x, the former is less likely to exist. \$\endgroup\$

pts
– pts

2018年08月28日 22:30:49 +00:00
Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 22:30
\$\begingroup\$ @numbermaniac Also, such commands were found for installing on ubuntu 19.04: e, q, r. But w is a thing (close to who) and exit successfully, so you get 00ドル for it! \$\endgroup\$

val - disappointed in SE
– val - disappointed in SE

2019年06月23日 22:00:44 +00:00
Commented Jun 23, 2019 at 22:00

Add a comment |

Without using numbers, get the highest salary you can. But don't exaggerate!

The challenge

Example output (the quotes should not be output)

The score

Leaderboard

152 Answers 152

bash, 127127ドル

Java 8, 131,199ドル.00 (15 bytes)

CJam, (5 bytes) 294204ドル.018...

CJam, 5 bytes, 262ドル'144

How it works

R, 20 bytes, 103540ドル.9

GS2, (5 bytes) 292,929ドル

Self-modifying Brainfuck, 16 bytes, 124444ドル

JavaScript (ES6), 19 bytes, 109,839ドル

Without atob() (Node.js), 26 bytes, 86,126ドル

R, 21 bytes 99649ドル.9

Bonus: object.size()

R, 24 bytes 89096ドル

PHP, 131116ドル (8 bytes)

GS2, 5 bytes, 291ドル'000

How it works

Excel 19 bytes 107899ドル.616068361

vim, (削除) 99999ドル (削除ここまで) (削除) 110000ドル (削除ここまで) 120000ドル

Jelly, (削除) 256000ドル 256256ドル (削除ここまで) (6 bytes) 257256ドル

How?

Python 3, (22 bytes) $ 98,442

C#

Full program, (削除) 72 bytes, 40448ドル (削除ここまで) 66 bytes, 43008ドル

Explanation

Lambda, (削除) 19 bytes, 109568ドル (削除ここまで) 17 bytes, 118784ドル

PHP, 13 Bytes, 144000ドル Salary

brainfuck, 43 bytes, 58888ドル

How it works

Gol><>, 207680ドル in 8 bytes

How it works:

brainfuck, 34 bytes, 69999ドル

Explanation:

Mathematica, 18 bytes, 107,163ドル.49

05AB1E (5 bytes), 262626ドル

JavaScript (Node.js), 23 bytes, 65535ドル

JavaScript (Node.js), 30 bytes, 78011ドル

or: 29 bytes, 80020ドル

A joke one (15B, 130000ドル), not vaild at all but just for fun

Jelly, 8 bytes, 210176ドル.48625619375

Perl 5.26.2, 12 bytes, 146002ドル

MATLAB, 17 bytes, 112222ドル

Ruby, 119443ドル

MathGolf, 353535ドル (4 bytes)

Explanation

Disclaimer

dc, 169169ドル 10 bytes

Japt, 5 bytes, 262144ドル

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Hot Network Questions

R, 20 bytes, `103540ドル.9`

Without `atob()` (Node.js), 26 bytes, 86,126ドル

Bonus: `object.size()`