Shortest code to produce infinite output

Question

Write the shortest code you can that produces an infinite output.

That's all. You code will only be disqualified if it stops producing output at some point. As always in code golf, the shortest code wins.

Here's a list of answers that I think are really clever, so they can get credit:

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All answers disqualified because at some point the Earth will be swallowed by the sun, and at some point the universe will die :P — Doorknob
– Doorknob, Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 20:00
If I write mine in Piet, can I count the pixels of the text the other programs used? I believe the smallest possible repeating Piet program would be 6 pixels. That beats Befunge if "off" pixels still count. — DampeS8N
– DampeS8N, Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 20:27
@Izkata So any answer that crashes your computer is also allowed :D — ɐɔıʇǝɥʇuʎs
– ɐɔıʇǝɥʇuʎs, Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 20:11
@Doorknob So really, the challenge is to produce infinite output in a finite amount of time. Sounds easy enough. — Sanchises
– Sanchises, Commented Apr 10, 2015 at 21:15

Mayube · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-06 08:02:29Z

Fission 2, 2 bytes

R"

Try it online!

Same concept as the Befunge answer. An atom is spawned at the R, and moves right. It reaches the " and enters string mode, wraps to the beginning of the line and prints an R, then exits string mode and wraps again.

Outside of string mode, R simply changes the atom's direction to right, which is the direction it's already moving in.

caird coinheringaahing · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-06 20:18:41Z

0

Add++, 9 bytes

+1 W,+1,O

Prints 1 Followed by a newline for ever.

Try it online!

answered Jun 6, 2017 at 20:18

caird coinheringaahing♦

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

0

AHK, 11 bytes

Loop Send,a

Pretty boring but couldn't find an AHK answer in here and thought it worthy of submission.

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Jul 30, 2017 at 2:13

Engineer Toast

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MD XF · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-26 03:31:05Z

Bitwise, 19 bytes

OUT 0 &1 JMP &-2 &1

Prints a load of null bytes. Try it online!

OUT 0 &1 prints the 0th register when a literal 1 is truthy. JMP &-2 &1 jumps back two (one) lines when a literal 1 is truthy.

user62802 · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-01 13:23:22Z

Evil, 4 bytes

Continuously prints the Start of Heading character:

amwb

If NUL is allowed you could do mwb.

An alternative, that goes through the ASCII characters, would be:

mawb

Quick explanation of commands:

m = marking character;
a = increment accumulator;
w = write accumulator to STDOUT;
b = go backwards to marking character and continue execution from there.

Cyoce · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-02 20:44:23Z

J-uby, 11 Bytes

-:p|:+&1!~0

Explanation

!~ is iterate until constant: x = f(x) until x == f(x)

-:p is the global print function, and :+&1 increments a number

So -:p|:+&1 prints a number and returns the next integer

We start at 0

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

VBA, 18 Bytes

Anonymous VBE immediate window that outputs an infinite quantity of newline characters vbCrLf to the VBE immediate window

Do:DoEvents:?:Loop

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

0

QBIC, 3 2 bytes

{?

Explanation:

{ Start a DO-loop ? PRINT nothing, followed by \n The DO-loop is implicitly closed by QBIC.

edited Jun 17, 2020 at 9:04

CommunityBot

1

answered Jan 9, 2017 at 14:41

steenbergh

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:04:33Z

R, 15 chars (or 6)

repeat print(1)

or, you could cheat slightly with just

repeat

which will invisibly return NULL for each time through the loop. Thus it will return NULL infinite times, you just can't tell.

jq170727 · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-14 07:13:13Z

0

Jq 1.5, 9 bytes

repeat(1)

Try it online! (truncated at 128K)

answered Oct 14, 2017 at 7:13

jq170727

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Stephen · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-15 23:44:51Z

cQuents 0, 1 byte

Try it online!

Outputs 1,2,3,4,5,6... up to Python's int cap (aka as long as you have memory).

Alternately, any number would work, printing that number separated by commas infinitely:

Try it online!

This may work at some point with an empty program once I finish this language - theoretically it should print 0,0,0,0,0,0... for an empty program but I haven't implemented empty nodes.

ATaco · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-07 22:58:41Z

0

Funky, 13 bytes

for()print(1)

Try it online!

answered Nov 7, 2017 at 22:58

ATaco

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caird coinheringaahing · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-10 14:56:35Z

0

Whispers, 28 bytes

> 1 >> Output 1 >> While 1 2

Try it online!

answered Dec 10, 2017 at 14:56

caird coinheringaahing♦

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qqq · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-31 01:19:34Z

Aceto, 2 bytes

pO

 p prints the top stack element (implicit 0) O returns to the origin of the program

Try it online!

alternate version:

nO

n prints a newline, O returns to origin

MD XF · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12 05:08:34Z

Forked, 1 byte

Prints the top of stack (0 if empty). The IP wraps upon hitting the edge of the playing field, looping infinitely.

Jo King · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12 05:19:01Z

Wumpus, 2 bytes

OO

Try it online!

Outputs infinite 0s

Funnily enough, even though a single O causes an infinite loop, a new command is only executed once it leaves the current cell, meaning the pointer gets trapped inside the O triangle, bouncing off the walls. Adding another cell (which could be almost any cell that doesn't end the program such as @ or %) allows the pointer to escape and execute the Output instruction again.

Esolanging Fruit · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12 07:10:40Z

0

Momema, 5 bytes

j0!j1

Try it online! Outputs to STDERR. Requires the -d interpreter flag.

The Momema interpreter has a -d (debug) flag that enables a ! instruction, which outputs some debugging information to STDERR.

Explanation

j 0 # label j0: jump past label j0 (no-op) ! # debug j 1 # label j1: jump past label j0 (back to start)

answered Feb 12, 2018 at 7:10

Esolanging Fruit

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\$\begingroup\$ Remember, non-standard flags add to byte count by default \$\endgroup\$

Draconis
– Draconis

2018-05-18 03:11:24 +00:00
Commented May 18, 2018 at 3:11
\$\begingroup\$ @Draconis Per a five-month old meta consensus they dont. \$\endgroup\$

Esolanging Fruit
– Esolanging Fruit

2018-05-18 03:35:44 +00:00
Commented May 18, 2018 at 3:35
\$\begingroup\$ Ah, my bad! Apologies! \$\endgroup\$

Draconis
– Draconis

2018-05-18 03:54:44 +00:00
Commented May 18, 2018 at 3:54

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qqq · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12 20:17:21Z

0

axo, 2 bytes

{_

Try it online!

 Implicit 0 on top of the stack { prints it _ returns to origin, or 0,0

answered Feb 12, 2018 at 20:17

qqq

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12Me21 · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12 20:36:42Z

FALSE, 7 bytes

[^.^]3#

This works in some FALSE interpreters (http://www.quirkster.com/iano/js/false-js.html (Paste the code, click "show", then click "step" a bunch of times (not "run" because it's an infinite loop!))). Outputs an infinite amount of -1s.

Explanation:

Some versions of FALSE are weakly typed, so a normal number can be used as a function pointer.

[^.^] pushes a function to the stack. (specifically, the character in the code that is starts at.) In this case, it pushes the number 0.

3 Pushes the number 3, which when called as a function will start execution at the ] of the previous function (meaning that it skips all the code)

# Is a "while" loop. It pops two functions, then calls the first function (that is, the one which was PUSHED first). It then pops a value from the stack, and if this value is true, it runs the second function and repeats. If the value is false, it continues.

Our function [^.^] will first use ^ to push the next character of STDIN (if input is empty, it pushes -1), then . prints the numerical value (-1), and ^ pushes the next value of input again. This is the value which will be "returned" and used in the loop. Because it is non-zero, the second "function" is called (which is just a number pointing to a location in the code), and the interpreter immediately sees a ], causing it to return from the function.

Weijun Zhou · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-28 17:15:23Z

0

Stax, 3 bytes

W1P

Run and debug it

Outputs 1 forever. Since Stax terminates when trying to peek or pop an empty stack, I am not sure how to do it in 2 bytes or less.

answered Mar 28, 2018 at 17:15

Weijun Zhou

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\$\begingroup\$ Since W1Q also works and differs in only the final bit, the first 23 bits of this work regardless of the 24th; could it be claimed that this is 2.875 bytes? Is this a dumb question? \$\endgroup\$

Khuldraeseth na'Barya
– Khuldraeseth na'Barya

2018-04-06 11:21:50 +00:00
Commented Apr 6, 2018 at 11:21
\$\begingroup\$ Interesting idea, but I honestly don't know. Sadly W1Q will stack overflow after some time ... \$\endgroup\$

Weijun Zhou
– Weijun Zhou

2018-04-07 00:30:20 +00:00
Commented Apr 7, 2018 at 0:30

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JosiahRyanW · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-03 19:33:27Z

ORK, 170 bytes

There is such a thing as a o A o can i When a o is to i: I have a scribe called W W is to write "!" I am to loop When this program starts: I have a o called O O is to i

Try it online!

Objects R Kool. Maybe, but they're inconvenient (why can't I just loop the main function?).

mroman · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-15 11:10:35Z

Burlesque - 2 bytes

bc bc box cycle

Rather boring. bc encloses the top of the stack in a block and then infinitely repeats this block and thus when the value is printed when the program stops it'll obviously never stop producing output.

maxb · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-27 13:34:32Z

MathGolf, 4 3 bytes

Äo↔

Try it online!

Explanation

Ä start block of length 1 o print TOS without popping ↔ do while false without popping

guest271314 · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-27 19:04:24Z

0

JavaScript + HTML, 56 bytes

(g=_=>requestAnimationFrame(_=>document.writeln(g())))()

answered Nov 27, 2018 at 19:04

guest271314

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MilkyWay90 · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-13 01:51:04Z

Turing Machine But Way Worse, 13 bytes

0 0 1 1 0 1 0

Try it online!

prints chr(128),chr(128+64),chr(128+64+32),...,chr(128+64+...+2+1) infinitely.

No explanation since the code is self-explanatory.

Kitten · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-13 02:44:47Z

JVM bytecode (OpenJDK asmtools JASM), 194 bytes

enum i {public static Method main:"([Ljava/lang/String;)V" stack 2 locals 1 {l:getstatic java/lang/System.out:"Ljava/io/PrintStream;";ldc 0;invokevirtual java/io/PrintStream.print:(I)V;goto l;}}

Ungolfed

enum i { public static Method main:"([Ljava/lang/String;)V" stack 2 locals 1 { l: getstatic java/lang/System.out:"Ljava/io/PrintStream;"; ldc 0; invokevirtual java/io/PrintStream.print:(I)V; goto l; } }

First we get a reference to System.out, then we just invoke void print(int) with zero. Repeat until the heat death of the universe, since this method never returns.

Using enum instead of class saves 1 byte, along with using ldc 0 instead of iconst_0 to save 2 more bytes.

Bonus points for not decompiling correctly in the Fernflower decompiler, no?

Merin Nakarmi · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-14 21:37:03Z

0

Python: (16 characters)

while 1:print(0)

edited Feb 14, 2019 at 21:37

answered Feb 14, 2019 at 20:02

Merin Nakarmi

2571 silver badge6 bronze badges

2

\$\begingroup\$ I don't believe you need the parentheses around the 1. while 1:print(0) should work just fine. \$\endgroup\$

Wheat Wizard
– Wheat Wizard ♦

2019-02-14 20:30:58 +00:00
Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 20:30
\$\begingroup\$ You can also save a byte on the print by using python 2 \$\endgroup\$

Beefster
– Beefster

2019-02-14 21:34:49 +00:00
Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 21:34
1

\$\begingroup\$ you don't even need the 0 since python prints a newline \$\endgroup\$

Jo King
– Jo King

2019-02-14 22:11:48 +00:00
Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 22:11
\$\begingroup\$ You are right @Joking. New line is invisible output. \$\endgroup\$

Merin Nakarmi
– Merin Nakarmi

2019-02-14 22:14:40 +00:00
Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 22:14
\$\begingroup\$ while 1:print() would print a newline \$\endgroup\$

MilkyWay90
– MilkyWay90

2019-03-03 17:45:35 +00:00
Commented Mar 3, 2019 at 17:45

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Esolanging Fruit · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-23 05:16:06Z

0

Tamsin, 15 bytes

main={print 1}.

Try it online!

answered Mar 23, 2019 at 5:16

Esolanging Fruit

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bb94 · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-14 05:44:33Z

0

Perl 6, 11 bytes

loop {.say}

Try it online!

answered Apr 14, 2019 at 5:44

bb94

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Dorian · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-23 13:46:12Z

Brian & Chuck, 8 bytes

!{? !{.?

Try it online!

Brian simply restarts Chuck and Chuck sets Brian's instruction pointer to the left end, prints it and restarts Brian.

Produces endless "!!!!!!..."

Stack Exchange Network

Shortest code to produce infinite output

Leaderboard

349 Answers 349

Fission 2, 2 bytes

Add++, 9 bytes

AHK, 11 bytes

Bitwise, 19 bytes

Evil, 4 bytes

J-uby, 11 Bytes

VBA, 18 Bytes

QBIC, 3 2 bytes

Explanation:

R, 15 chars (or 6)

Jq 1.5, 9 bytes

cQuents 0, 1 byte

Funky, 13 bytes

Whispers, 28 bytes

Aceto, 2 bytes

Forked, 1 byte

Wumpus, 2 bytes

Momema, 5 bytes

Explanation

axo, 2 bytes

FALSE, 7 bytes

Explanation:

Stax, 3 bytes

ORK, 170 bytes

Burlesque - 2 bytes

MathGolf, 4 3 bytes

Explanation

JavaScript + HTML, 56 bytes

Turing Machine But Way Worse, 13 bytes

JVM bytecode (OpenJDK asmtools JASM), 194 bytes

Tamsin, 15 bytes

Perl 6, 11 bytes

Brian & Chuck, 8 bytes

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Shortest code to produce infinite output

Leaderboard

349 Answers 349

Fission 2, 2 bytes

Add++, 9 bytes

AHK, 11 bytes

Bitwise, 19 bytes

Evil, 4 bytes

J-uby, 11 Bytes

VBA, 18 Bytes

QBIC, 3 2 bytes

Explanation:

R, 15 chars (or 6)

Jq 1.5, 9 bytes

cQuents 0, 1 byte

Funky, 13 bytes

Whispers, 28 bytes

Aceto, 2 bytes

Forked, 1 byte

Wumpus, 2 bytes

Momema, 5 bytes

Explanation

axo, 2 bytes

FALSE, 7 bytes

Explanation:

Stax, 3 bytes

ORK, 170 bytes

Burlesque - 2 bytes

MathGolf, 4 3 bytes

Explanation

JavaScript + HTML, 56 bytes

Turing Machine But Way Worse, 13 bytes

JVM bytecode (OpenJDK asmtools JASM), 194 bytes

Tamsin, 15 bytes

Perl 6, 11 bytes

Brian & Chuck, 8 bytes

Linked

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