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Obfuscated code

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Got some code which would take a Perl grand master to understand without running it? Post it in this section so we can stare at it in awe.

Word of warning, though: Don't be too cocky with your post — almost inevitably someone will post a reply that does the exact same thing in even fewer characters!

New Less than Readable Code
Let's play JAPH
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by stevieb
on Mar 19, 2024 at 04:50

    I've only ever written one. It was just shy of 10 years ago, according to a cursory review of past repositories. This is verbatim from that commit:

    use 5.10.0; $p=japh;push@a,w();$s=j4;sub n{"8fbac6c6e252"};unshift@a, "b4d6c7ea52a7";$k=crypt($s,$p);$o="aeafa7cfdbd58c";@h= map{sprintf"%x",ord$_}split//,$k;push@a,$o;$a[3]=pop@a; $a[2]=n();sub w{"bcb3d8dec8dd"}$x.=$_ for@a;@b=($x=~m/..?/g); push@z,@h until @z>@b;for(@b){push@japh,hex($_)-hex($z [$n]);$n++;}say map{chr$_}@japh;

    Want to play?

time sensitive message (JAPH)
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by harangzsolt33
on Jan 14, 2024 at 20:48
    $a=.9*time>>24,$b=23,print map chr$b+ord,split//,qq(3*$a);
My Perl Obfuscator
7 direct replies — Read more / Contribute
by harangzsolt33
on Jan 11, 2024 at 00:46
    I have written a similar program for JavaScript years ago, and now this is for Perl!

    Disclaimer: I'd still call myself a beginner Perl programmer, which means I am not familiar with every trick in the book! But I tried to write a perl program that reads another perl script and breaks it down into basic units such as symbols, strings, numbers, variables, barewords, regex, etc. It changes all the variable names to shortest possible names and then rejoins the code without unnecessary spaces. It knows to update the variable names inside double-quoted strings and backticks and inside regexes also. It removes all comments, pods, and anything that comes after __END__. It removes spaces and line breaks except when they occur inside strings or heredoc. The code becomes about 75% smaller.

    What I like to see is that even after it has squeezed the spaces out, I can run the obfuscator on the already obfuscated script, and it doesn't break the code. What I don't understand yet is that it's not supposed to throw away essential parts of the code, yet for some reason if I run the program on itself, it becomes smaller and smaller. If I feed the obfuscated code to the obfuscator again, it becomes a few bytes smaller each time. And the script still runs without errors. I don't understand what's going on. (Edit: I think, I know what's going on. Get rid of the Shuffle() function, and the program will generate the shortest code possible everytime.)

    I haven't done a lot of testing, but the program looks okayish. I have run it on two fairly complex scripts, and they still worked after being obfuscated, so that's good news. If you find any bugs, I would appreciate if you could share the problematic script that resulted in the errors, so I know what causes the glitch. Known problems: I know for a fact that I did not write the program to remove comments when they appear inside a multiline regex, so if you have a script with comments inside a multiline regex, I don't know how the obfuscator will handle that!

    EDIT: 1/11/2024: Completely eliminated the Shuffle() function as it made the output code larger.
    Made some minor changes to the CreateFile() ReadFile() functions suggested by Randal Schwartz. Thanks you!
    1/12/2024: Eliminated some unnecessary tests in detecting variables which made the code bloated such as testing for $A[$B] when this can be done in two steps. Also made a decision not to replace variables such as $^A in the code, because it could cause warnings to appear when running the obfuscated code.

    Before you run this script, you must change two variables -- $INPUT_FILE and $OUTPUT_FILE which are defined near the beginning of the file.

    This is what this program does when it is told to obfuscate itself:

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w use 5.004;$|=1;my$c=$0;my$d="Z:\\Test.pl";my$e=1;my$f=0;print"\n\nZsol +t's Perl Compressor & Obfuscator v1 FREEWARE";my$g=-s $c;print"\nRead +ing file: $c ($g bytes)";my$h=ReadTheEntireFile($c); $h=~tr|\r\n\t\x +20-\x7E||cd;my$i=$g-length($h);print"\nBinary characters removed: $i" +;$h=~s/\r\n/\n/g; $h=~tr|\r|\n|;my$j=$h=~tr|\n|\n|;print"\nNumber of +lines: ",($j+1);my$k=' a b _ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ENV ARG ARGV ARGVOUT + PID GID EGID UID EUID SUBSEP F INC ISA OSNAME SIG BASETIME MATCH PRE +MATCH POSTMATCH OFS NR RS ORS WARNING ERRNO PERLDB LIST_SEPARATOR PRO +CESS_ID PROGRAM_NAME REAL_GROUP_ID EFFECTIVE_GROUP_ID REAL_USER_ID EF +FECTIVE_USER_ID SUBSCRIPT_SEPARATOR OLD_PERL_VERSION SYSTEM_FD_MAX IN +PLACE_EDIT PERL_VERSION EXECUTABLE_NAME LAST_PAREN_MATCH LAST_SUBMATC +H_RESULT LAST_MATCH_END LAST_PAREN_MATCH LAST_MATCH_START LAST_REGEXP +_CODE_RESULT OUTPUT_FIELD_SEPARATOR INPUT_LINE_NUMBER INPUT_RECORD_SE +PARATOR OUTPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR OUTPUT_AUTOFLUSH ACCUMULATOR FORMAT_F +ORMFEED FORMAT_PAGE_NUMBER FORMAT_LINES_LEFT FORMAT_LINE_BREAK_CHARAC +TERS FORMAT_LINES_PER_PAGE FORMAT_TOP_NAME FORMAT_NAME EXTENDED_OS_ER +ROR EXCEPTIONS_BEING_CAUGHT OS_ERROR EVAL_ERROR COMPILING DEBUGGING V +ERSION ';my@l;my$m=2000;if($e){@l=GenerateShortVariableNames($m);}pri +nt"\nProcessing code...";my@n; my$o='';my$p=0;my$q; my$r='';my$s='';m +y$t='';my$u=0;my$v=0;my%w; my$x=0;for(;$x< length($h);$x++){$q=$o;$o= +substr($h,$x,1);$p=vec($h,$x,8);if($p==32||$p==9||$p==10){$v=1;next;} +if($p==123){$t='BLOCK';push(@n,'{');$u++;next;}if($p==125){$t='BLOCK' +;push(@n,'}');if($u>0){$u--;}else{print"\nWarning: Missing opening br +ace.\n";}if($f&& $u==0){push(@n,"\n");}next;}if($p==60){if($s eq'='|| +($t ne'VAR'&&$t ne'NUM')){my$y=substr($h,$x,32);if($y=~m/\<\<\s*['"]{ +,1}|\<\<[a-zA-Z\_]+/){CaptureHeredoc() and next;}}}if($o eq'='&&$q eq +"\n"){CapturePOD() and next;}if($p==47&&($t eq'WORD'&&index('])}',$s) +<0)||($o eq'~'&&index('=!',$q)>=0)){CaptureRegex() and next;}if($p==3 +6||$p==64||$p==37){if(index('*+-[{(;,=',$s)<0){if($v&&($t eq'VAR'&&$p +==36)||($t eq'WORD'&&index(' my our defined undef return '," $r ")<0) +){push(@n,' ');}}CaptureVariable() and next;}if($o eq'#'&&$q ne'$'){C +aptureComment();next;}my$z=index('[]()<>;,!?=$@%&:+*^|\\\/~-.',$o);if +($z>=0){if($v&& $o eq'.'&&$t eq'NUM'){push(@n,' ');}push(@n,$o);$s=$o +;$v=0;next;}if($p>47&&$p<58){if(index('<>,:;|[(%/*=+-',$s)<0){if($v&& +((index('.',$s)>=0)||($t eq'WORD'||$t eq'VAR'))){push(@n,' ');}}Captu +reNumber();next;}if($p==34||$p==39||$p==96){if(index('={}[]();,.',$s) +<0){if($v&& $s eq'$'||$t eq'STR'||$t eq'VAR'){push(@n,' ');}}CaptureS +tring();next;}if($p==95||($p>96&&$p<123)||($p>64&&$p<91)){if(index('* ++-[{(;,=',$s)<0){if($v&&($t eq'WORD'||$t eq'VAR'||$t eq'SYM')){push(@ +n,' ');}}$v=1;$s='x';my$A=CaptureWord();if($p==113&&index(' qq qw qx +qr q '," $A ")>=0){$r=$A;CaptureQQ();next;}if($r eq'sub'){print'.';}i +f($A eq'__END__'){pop(@n);last;}if($A eq'__DATA__'){$x++;CaptureTail( +);last;}$r=$A;next;}}undef%w; undef$h;undef@l; print"\nSaving file: $ +d ";CreateFile($d,@n);$g=-s $d;print"($g bytes)\n\n";exit; sub Captu +reRegex{my$B=$x;my$C='';my$D='';my$y=substr($h,$x,256);my$E=0;if($y=~ +m/^(\~\s*tr\s*)([^\t\n ]{1})/){$D='~tr';$E=length($1);$C=$2 x 2;}elsi +f($y=~m/^(\~\s*y\s*)([^\t\n ]{1})/){$D='~y';$E=length($1);$C=$2 x 2;} +elsif($y=~m/^(\~\s*s\s*)([^\t\n ]{1})/){$D='~s';$E=length($1);$C=$2 x + 2;}elsif($y=~m/^(\~\s*m\s*)([^\t\n ]{1})/){$D='~m';$E=length($1);$C= +$2;}elsif($y=~m/^(\~?)(\s*)\//){$D=$1;$E=length($D. $2);$C='/';}else{ +$x=$B;return 0;}length($D) and push(@n,$D);$x+=$E; $C=GetSeparatorCha +racters($C);CapturePattern($C);$t='REGEX';$r='';$s='x';$v=0;return 1; +}sub CaptureQQ{my$G=substr($h,++$x,1);my$C=GetSeparatorCharacters($G) +;CapturePattern($C);$t='REGEX';$r='';$s='x';$v=0;return 1;}sub Captur +ePattern{my$C=shift;my$G=substr($C,0,1);my$H=substr($C,1,1);my$I=(len +gth($C)==2)?1:2;my$J=$G eq $H;if($J){$I++;$C=$G;}my$K=0;my$L=0;my$B=$ +x;my$M='';for(;$x< length($h);$x++){my$o=substr($h,$x,1);$M.=$o; if(( +$o eq'\\'&&($K& 1)==0)||$o eq'$'||$o eq'@'){my$y=substr($h,$x,500);if +($y=~m/^([\$\@]{1}[a-zA-Z\_]{1}[a-zA-Z\_0-9]*)/){my$N=$1;$x+=length($ +N)-1;$M.=ReplaceVariable($N);}elsif($y=~m/^(Q\s*)([\$\@]{1}[a-zA-Z0-9 +\_]+)(\s*\\E)/){my$O=$1;my$N=$2;my$P=$3;$x+=length($O)+length($N)+len +gth($P)-1;$M.=ReplaceVariable($N)."\\E";}}if(($K& 1)==0){if($J){if($o + eq $C){$I--;}}else{if($o eq $G){$L++;}if($o eq $H){$L--;if($L==0){$I +--;}}}if($I==0){last;}}if($o eq'\\'){$K++;}else{$K=0;}}if($x+1==lengt +h($h)){print"\nError: Unexpected end of file in the middle of regex o +r quoted list.\n";return 0;}push(@n,$M);return 1;}sub GetSeparatorCha +racters{my$C=defined$_[0]?$_[0]:'';length($C) or return'';my$G=substr +($C,0,1);my$H=$G;if($G eq'('){$H=')';}if($G eq'['){$H=']';}if($G eq'< +'){$H='>';}if($G eq'{'){$H='}';}if($G eq $H){return(length($C)==1)?$G + x 2:$G x 3;}my$Q=$G. $H;return(length($C)==1)?$Q: $Q x 2;}sub Captur +ePOD{my$y=substr($h,$x,64);if($y=~m/^(\=[a-zA-Z]+)/){$x+=length($1);$ +x=index($h,"\n=cut",$x);if($x>0){$x+=4;}else{$x=length($h);}$s='x';$r +='';$v=1;return 1;}else{return 0;}}sub CaptureNumber{my$y=substr($h,$ +x,512);my$R='';if($y=~m/([0-9]+)/){$R=$1;}elsif($y=~m/(0x[0-9a-fA-F]+ +)/){$R=$1;}elsif($y=~m/(0b[01]+)/){$R=$1;}elsif($y=~m/([0-9\_]*[0-9]{ +3})/){$R=$1;}elsif($y=~m/([0-9]+\.[0-9]+)/){$R=$1;}elsif($y=~m/([0-9] ++[0-9.]*[eE]{1}[\-\+]{,1}[0-9]+)/){$R=$1;}elsif($y=~m/([0-9.]+)/){$R= +$1;}if(length($R)){$x+=length($R)-1;push(@n,$R);}else{print"\nWarning +: Unrecognized number.\n";return 0;}$t='NUM';$s='x';$v=0;}sub Capture +Word{my$y=substr($h,$x,512);my$A='';if($y=~m/^([a-zA-Z0-9\_]+)/){$A=$ +1;if($f&& $A eq'sub'){if(@n&& $n[$#n] ne"\n"){push(@n,"\n");}}push(@n +,$A);$x+=length($A)-1;}$t='WORD';$s='x';$v=0;return$A;}sub CaptureHer +edoc{my$S='';my$O='';my$B=$x; my$y=substr($h,$x,512);if($y=~m/^\<\<([ +a-zA-Z\_]{1}[a-zA-Z\_0-9]*)/){$S=$1;$x+=length($S);push(@n,'<<'.$S.'; +');}elsif($y=~m/^\<\<\s*(['"]{1})/){my$T=$1; my$U=index($y,$T); for($ +x=$U;$x< length($h);$x++){my$o=substr($h,$x,1);if($o eq $T&& substr($ +h,$x-1,1)ne"\\"){$S=substr($h,$U,$x-$U-1);last;}}push(@n,'<<'.$T. $S. + $T.';');}else{return 0;}my$V=index($h,"\n",$x);if($V<0){$x=$B; print +"\nError: Unexpected end of file in the middle of heredoc.\n";return +0;}$x=$V+1;my$W=index($h,"\n$S\n",$x);if($W<0){print"\nError: Heredoc + never ends.\n";return 1;}my$X=substr($h,$x,$W-$x);push(@n,$X."\n".$S +."\n");$t='HEREDOC';$s='x';$v=0;return 1;}sub CaptureVariable{my$y=su +bstr($h,$x,512);my$Y='';if($y=~m/^([\$\@\%\#]{1,2}[a-zA-Z\_]{1}[a-zA- +Z0-9\_]*)/){$Y=$1;}elsif($y=~m/^([\$\@\%]{1}[0-9<>()!?~=:;,.`'%@&#\-\ ++"\/\]\[\|\\]{1})/){$Y=$1;}elsif($y=~m/^([\$\@\%]{1,2}[a-zA-Z]*[\{\[] +{1}[a-zA-Z0-9\_]+[\}\]]{1})/){$Y=$1;}elsif($y=~m/^([\$\@\%]{1,2}\x5E[ +a-zA-Z0-9\_]+\{[a-zA-Z0-9\_]+\})/){$Y=$1;}elsif($y=~m/^([\$\x5E]{2}[a +-zA-Z\_]{1})/){$Y=$1;}else{return 0;}$x+=length($Y)-1;push(@n,Replace +Variable($Y));$t='VAR';$s='x';$v=0;return 1;}sub ReplaceVariable{my$Z +=shift; $e or return$Z;my$aa='';my$O='';if($Z=~m/^([\$\%\@\#]{1,2})([ +a-zA-Z0-9\_]+)/){$O=$1;$aa=$2;}if(length($aa)==0||length($O)==0){retu +rn$Z;}if(exists($w{$aa})){return$O. $w{$aa};}if(index($k," $aa ")>=0) +{return$Z;}my$ab=scalar keys %w; if(@l< $ab){print"\nWarning: Ran out + of variable names! Please increase the value of \$MAXVARS\n";return$ +Z;}my$ac=$l[$ab]; $w{$aa}=$ac; return$O. $ac;}sub ReplaceVarNameInsid +eString{my$y=substr($h,$x,512);if($y=~m/^([\$\@\%\#]{1,2})\{([a-zA-Z0 +-9\_]+)\}/){my$O=$1;my$aa=$2;my$N=$O. $aa;$x+=length($N)+1;$aa=substr +(ReplaceVariable($N),1);$_[0] .=$O.'{'.$aa.'}';return 1;}if($y=~m/^([ +\$\@\%]{1}\#?[a-zA-Z\_]{1}[a-zA-Z0-9\_]*)/){my$N=$1;$x+=length($N)-1; +$N=ReplaceVariable($N);$_[0] .=$N;return 1;}if($y=~m/^(\$\x5E[a-zA-Z\ +_]{1})/){my$N=$1;$x+=length($N)-1;$_[0] .=$N;return 1;}if($y=~m/^(\x2 +4[0-9\<\>\(\)!?~=:;,.^`'%\@&#\+\_\[\]\|\/\\]{1})/){my$N=$1;$x++;$_[0] + .=$N;return 1;}return 0;}sub CaptureTail{pop(@n);push(@n,"\n__DATA__ +");push(@n,substr($h,$x));return 1;}sub CaptureComment{my$W=index($h, +"\n",$x); if($W<0){$x=length($h);return 1;}my$ad=substr($h,$x,$W-$x); +$x=$W; if(@n==0&&$ad=~m/^\#\!\//){push(@n,$ad."\n");}$r='';$s='x';$v= +1;return 1;}sub CaptureString{my$T=substr($h,$x,1);my$ae=$T;my$K=0;fo +r($x++;$x< length($h);$x++){my$o=substr($h,$x,1);if($o eq"\n"){$ae.=( +$K& 1)?'n': '\\n';$K=0;next;}if(($T eq'"'||$T eq'`')&&($K& 1)==0&&ind +ex('$@',$o)>=0){ReplaceVarNameInsideString($ae) and next;}$ae.=$o; if +($o eq $T){if(($K& 1)==0){push(@n,$ae);$t='STR';$s='x';$v=0;return 1; +}}if($o eq'\\'){$K++;}else{$K=0;}}push(@n,$ae);print"\nWarning: Unter +minated string constant.\n";return 1;}sub GenerateShortVariableNames{ +my$ab=shift;my@af=('a'..'z','A'..'Z','_',0..9);my$ag=join('',@af);my$ +ah=length($ag);my$ai=$ah-10;my$aa;@af=();for(my$aj=0;$aj< $ai;$aj++){ +$aa=substr($ag,$aj,1);if(index($k," $aa ")>=0){next;}push(@af,$aa);if +(@af>=$ab){return@af;}}for(my$aj=0;$aj< $ai;$aj++){for(my$ak=0;$ak< $ +ah;$ak++){$aa=substr($ag,$aj,1) .substr($ag,$ak,1);if(index($k," $aa +")>=0){next;}push(@af,$aa);if(@af>=$ab){return@af;}}}for(my$aj=0;$aj< + $ai;$aj++){for(my$ak=0;$ak< $ah;$aj++){for(my$al=0;$al< $ah;$ak++){$ +aa=substr($ag,$aj,1) .substr($ag,$ak,1) .substr($ag,$al,1);if(index($ +k," $aa ")>=0){next;}push(@af,$aa);if(@af>=$ab){return@af;}}}}return@ +af;}sub ReadTheEntireFile{my$F=defined$_[0]?$_[0]:'';$F=~tr`<>*?\"\|\ +x00-\x1F``d; length($F) or return'';-f $F or return'';my$am=-s $F; $a +m or return'';my$an='';local*FILE;sysopen(FILE,$F,0)or return'';my$ao +=sysread(FILE,$an,$am); close FILE;return$an;}sub CreateFile{defined$ +_[0]or return 0;my$F=shift; $F=~tr`<>*?\"\|\x00-\x1F``d;length($F) or + return 0;local*FILE;open(FILE,">$F")or return 0;binmode FILE;foreach +(@_){defined$_ and length($_) and print FILE $_;}close FILE;-f $F or +return 0;return 1;}
Mixed value encoding
1 direct reply — Read more / Contribute
by cavac
on Jul 25, 2023 at 10:41

    While a lot of obfuscated code tries to make code unreadable, i find that it's not always required. Data blocks with custom encoding are fine, and you can always argue with "efficiency". But i find that the real joy of reading someone else's code comes from mixing of decimal, hex and octal values; as well as from misusing the ascii table to provide values for math equations.

    The code itself is "a bit long", so it's in readmore tags. It also requires at least Perl 5.34 and a somewhat decent Linux terminal. (If you know my posts earlier this month, you can probably guess why...)

    I hope you like this attempt. But if not, i can only quote Shakespeare to beg for forgiveness:

    “If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.”
    PerlMonks XP is useless? Not anymore: XPD - Do more with your PerlMonks XP
This Japh will self-destruct in 45 days – sorry SBECK
No replies — Read more | Post response
by ambrus
on Feb 07, 2023 at 16:32
    use Date::Manip::Date; $d = Date::Manip::Date->new; for (36,18,-17,7,-45) { $d->parse(111111 . $_); print substr $d->printf("%j%a%p%h" x 4), -$_, 1; } print "\n";
    Intermediate question
    The date format has the four letters j a p h. Of the four letters in the output, which one do we extract from the output of which format letter?
    Advanced question
    This code will stop working about 45 days after it's posted. How can you fix the code so it works even after that date? I'll show a solution inside the spoiler, in case someone arrives here too late and wants to try this obfu.
    Expert question
    Among the five loop iterations, the string is parsed in five different ways. How many of these are deliberate features of Date::Manip?

    Update 2023-02-07T22:53Z: improved the obfuscation by changing the list of numbers from 36,18,2,7,-45 to 36,18,-17,7,-45. Now the obfuscation outputs JaPh instead of Japh and the five iterations parse the date in five different formats rather than just four. There's one drawback:

well-spaced JAPH
1 direct reply — Read more / Contribute
by Discipulus
on Oct 13, 2022 at 06:21
    $_ = sub { print chr shift }; 74->$ _; 65->$ _; 80->$ _; 72->$ _; 44->$ _;

    L*

    There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
    Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.
Advent of Code, Day 15, golfed!
1 direct reply — Read more / Contribute
by Jasper
on Dec 17, 2021 at 12:32
    I was doing the advent of code (https://adventofcode.com/2021/), until I got to day 16, started to read the instructions, got about a third of the way through, and decided that that was enough for the year! LOL

    However, I really enjoyed day 15, on finding the score path of least resistance through something like

    19999 19111 19191 19191 11191
    which (being a non-computer scientist), started as a recursive path-finding algorigthm. That worked for tiny sample grids, but for bigger grids (the problem grid was 100x100), I needed to start being clever, so I started remembering the lowest score to a position, and then if I came across that position again with a lower score, I could say, oh, now the score from there can now be this. Then I realised I'd have to start adjusting scores for every point I'd ever moved to (etc.) any previous time I'd been to that point and that became an absolute nightmare. I eventually ended up googling shortest path algorithms, and implementing Dijkstra's shortest path method.

    Then the golfing started :) I've ended up with this:

    # run with perl -ln prog.pl input push@a,/./g;$r||=@a}{print$s{-1+map{$u{$_}||=$a[$_]+$s{$g-1}for grep$a[$_]*!$s{$_},$g+$r,$g-!!($g%$r),$g-$r*($g>=$r),++$g*!!($g %$r);($g)=sort{$u{$a}-$u{$b}}keys%u;$s{$g}=delete$u{$g}}@a}

    So, the idea is to enter the maze at the top left and work out what the score of the path is (with no diagonal moves) ending up bottom right. The input is always a square in AoC/2021/15.

    Dijkstra's algorithm says put the starting position in your tree set (%s) with a score, then add the positions (and the aggregate scores) you can move to the unused set (%u), choose from unused the position with the lowest aggregate score, delete that from unused, add it to the tree set. From that new position, calculate the scores of the positions you can move to from there and continue.

    Here's my golfed solution blown up:

    1 push @a,/./g; 2 $r||=@a 3 }{ 4 print $s{ 5 -1 + map{ 6 $u{$_}||=$a[$_]+$s{$g-1} for 7 grep $a[$_] * !$s{$_}, 8 $g+$r, 9 $g-!!($g%$r), 10 $g-$r*($g>=$r), 11 ++$g*!!($g %$r); 12 ($g)=sort{$u{$a}-$u{$b}}keys%u; 13 $s{$g}=delete$u{$g} 14 }@a 15 }

    The }{ at line 3 means (when you run with perl -ln) that the lines above are run on each line of input (with the input as $_) and those below are run after all the input has been read.

    So,

    line 1 when the input is read, I'm filling @a with each digit in the maze. It's a single digit array, so I have to be a little bit cleverer later when working out what "coordinates" I can move to from the current position.

    Line 2 I'm taking the width of the grid, and the ||= just means don't overwrite this when reading input lines 2, 3, 4... or you'd be remembering it wrong!

    Lines 5-14 is the meat of the map loop, over @a. As I said above, for Dijkstra's algorithm you choose an unused position from your grid and move it into the tree set on each loop, so mapping over @a gives us enought loops to score the entire grid.

    Line 6-11 is finding the next possible moves, and putting them into the unused hash %u, with a score.

    $g is the current position, $r is the width of the grid, so on lines 8-11 are the possible moves:

    move down $g+$r - if we're on the last row, $a[$g+$r] is out of range and 0, the grep on line 7 filters it out,
    move left $g-!!($g%$r) - so $g-1 if $p%$r (i.e. we're not in the first column) otherwise $g, and because $s{$g} exists (that's the position we're in currently), that won't pass through the grep
    move up $g-$r*($g>=$r)<code/> if we are on row two or more, <code>$g>=$r is true (1), so we pass through $g-$r*1, otherwise $g-$r*0 ($g, which gets filtered)
    move right ++$g*!!($g %$r) - which is ($g+1)*!!(($g+1)%r) with a lot less bracketing - checking if we're in the rightmost column, and passing $g+1 or $g.

    Those 4 positions get filtered by $a[$_] * !$s{$_} - i.e. is this a valid position with a score in the grid (luckily 0 wasn't a valid score in this AoC), and it hasn't already been put in the set %s.

    Line 6 - So now we have valid, unused position, we score them, and assign them to the unused hash %s: $a[$_] is the score of the position, and $s[$g-1] is the score of the current position (we did ++$g in line 11, remember, so we have to subtract 1. The ||= we have, because you can move to all positions from more than one place, so we've possibly seen this location before, and if we have seen it before, it had a lower score (or the same score) last time.

    So now we have added some more unused possibles positions, and the scores to get there, to the %u hash, in line 12 we choose the lowest scoring one of those, and in line 13 we remove it from %u, and put it in %s.

    Actually, the first time we go through this loop, $g is undef. Dijkstra says you should assign the starting position to %s at the beginning, but it turns out we don't need to do that explicitly. Since we start with undef, 0 for $a[$g] purposes, in the top left, means that $g-!!($g%$r) gets passed through, so 0 and a score (not the right score for starting at 0, but who cares, this is golf) will eventually get assigned to %s.

    At this stage, we have done the whole loop, so we finish with the print $s{-1+ map{...} @a  }, sort of equivalent to $s{$#a}, the path score of the last element of @a.

    And that's that. Hope that was clear enough! Hope those of you who are continuing with Advent of Code are still enjoying it. Merry Christmas!
A twisty little maze of ampersands, all different
1 direct reply — Read more / Contribute
by haj
on Jun 08, 2021 at 18:54
    The following code prints a 0, a 1, a 2, and an empty line. But which is which?
    use 5.020; sub one { 1 } sub two { 2 } say one&two ; say &one&two ; say &one&&&two ; say &&&one&&&two;

    It is not that difficult to figure out, it was a accidental discovery while messing around with syntax highlighting. For the friends of JAPH, here's one with five consecutive ampersands:

    use 5.020; sub s { say }; $_ = 'Jusst another Perl hacker'; s&s&&&&&s
reftype obfu -- oneliner
1 direct reply — Read more / Contribute
by Discipulus
on Apr 22, 2021 at 16:06
    perl -MScalar::Util=reftype -e "$}=qr/=.=/,print+(join$\,map{chr(ord($_)-8)}((reftype$})=~/./g))=~s/$}/A/r"

    or

    perl  -e "$}=qr/=.=/,print+(join$\,map{chr(ord($_)-8)}((uc ref$})=~/./g))=~s/$}/A/r"

    L*

    There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
    Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.
The Backslash Challenge
4 direct replies — Read more / Contribute
by choroba
on Mar 24, 2021 at 16:12
    To return the character that's used as the delimiter in a quote-like operator, you can use a backslash.
    '/' eq q/\// or die "Failed";

    Your task is to return a backslash using a backslash as the delimiter. Use qq\\ for level easy, use q\\ for level guru.

    map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]||0,1}[\*||{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^*ARGV,3]

Set the new obfuscation standard
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