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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:

Leaderboard

var QUESTION_ID=13152,OVERRIDE_USER=8611;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;s.comments.forEach(function(e){OVERRIDE_REG.test(e.body)&&(r="<h1>"+e.body.replace(OVERRIDE_REG,"")+"</h1>")});var a=r.match(SCORE_REG);a&&e.push({user:getAuthorName(s),size:+a[2],language:a[1],link:s.share_link})}),e.sort(function(e,s){var r=e.size,a=s.size;return r-a});var s={},r=1,a=null,n=1;e.forEach(function(e){e.size!=a&&(n=r),a=e.size,++r;var t=jQuery("#answer-template").html();t=t.replace("{{PLACE}}",n+".").replace("{{NAME}}",e.user).replace("{{LANGUAGE}}",e.language).replace("{{SIZE}}",e.size).replace("{{LINK}}",e.link),t=jQuery(t),jQuery("#answers").append(t);var o=e.language;/<a/.test(o)&&(o=jQuery(o).text()),s[o]=s[o]||{lang:e.language,user:e.user,size:e.size,link:e.link}});var t=[];for(var o in s)s.hasOwnProperty(o)&&t.push(s[o]);t.sort(function(e,s){return e.lang>s.lang?1:e.lang<s.lang?-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("{{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 SCORE_REG=/<h\d>\s*([^\n,]*[^\s,]),.*?(\d+)(?=[^\n\d<>]*(?:<(?:s>[^\n<>]*<\/s>|[^\n<>]+>)[^\n\d<>]*)*<\/h\d>)/,OVERRIDE_REG=/^Override\s*header:\s*/i;
body{text-align:left!important}#answer-list,#language-list{padding:10px;width:290px;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>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></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>{{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>{{SIZE}}</td><td><a href="{{LINK}}">Link</a></td></tr></tbody> </table>

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    \$\begingroup\$ All answers disqualified because at some point the Earth will be swallowed by the sun, and at some point the universe will die :P \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 20:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ Does "infinite until your computer crashes" count? <_< \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 10, 2013 at 1:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ 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. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 20:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Izkata So any answer that crashes your computer is also allowed :D \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 20:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Doorknob So really, the challenge is to produce infinite output in a finite amount of time. Sounds easy enough. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 10, 2015 at 21:15

349 Answers 349

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Brain-Flak, 10 bytes

(()){(())}

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I don't know if this counts as a valid answer because Brain-Flak prints the contents of the active stack and this code just fills the stack.

(()) push 1 on stack { while top of stack != 0 (()) push 1 on stack }
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0
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Lua, 18 bytes

::a::print()goto a

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Shortest I was able to came up with (beats any loop). Prints newlines forever.

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0
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MarioLANG, 7 bytes

>:< ===

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Infinitely prints zeroes; not much else to say about it.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I've been reading trough the answers here and I'm sure I've seen the 100% identical one. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 11:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ I do see an identical one now that you mention it, but I also see its post date being 9 days after mine, unless there's a third somewhere. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 23, 2020 at 7:31
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Element, 5 bytes

!{A`]

This outputs A to the console forever.

TIO

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0
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AlphaBeta, 2 bytes

MN

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Outputs infinite null bytes.

Explanation

 # All registers are initialized to 0 M # Output the number in register 3 N # If register 3 is 0, goto the position at the position register.
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0
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Brainetry --live-output, 55 bytes

Uses the --live-output flag, otherwise output to the console would be deferred to the end of the program, which never happens because we have an infinite loop going on.

a b c d a b c d e f g h a b c d e f g a b c d e f g h i

This is a golfed version of this program:

Lets produce infinite output. This is really simple, all it takes is: A cell with a non zero value and the --live-output flag also needs to be on.

If you want to try this, clone the linked github repo and run python brainetry.py btry/infinite_output.btry --live-output.

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0
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C, 29 28 26 23 bytes

main(){main(puts(""));}

-2 @steadybox

-3 @rtpatx

gcc won't like it, but it compiles.

Outputs null bytes continuously. You can swap out the 0 for anything 0-9.

You can use 7 if you really hate your speakers.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ 26 bytes: main(){for(;;)putchar(0);} \$\endgroup\$ Commented Dec 25, 2017 at 1:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ Suggestion coming a long time later, 23 bytes main(){main(puts(""));} \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 24, 2020 at 19:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @rtpatx nice! Editing. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 24, 2020 at 19:51
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Knight, 4 bytes

W1O1

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Prints 1 forever.

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0
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Pyth, 4 bytes

Pyth is a new programming lenguage, so this answer doesn't count.

.V"0 Explanation: .V - Forever loop "0 - Outputs zeros
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1
  • \$\begingroup\$ This can be golfed to #0 \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 20, 2016 at 12:56
0
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Röda, 12 bytes

{[0]while{}}

This is an anonymous function that prints zeros infinitely.

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0
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Pascal, 50 B

Full program compatible to ISO standard 7185 “Pascal”.

program p(output);begin while 8=8 do writeLn end. 
program p(output);begin while 0=0 do write(1)end.

Some dialects such as Free Pascal do not require and actually ignore the program header (the program p(output);). There you could omit those 18 bytes, so it’s 32 bytes in total.

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0
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Phooey, 4 bytes

=[?]

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Outputs a debug dump repeatedly.

>>> DEBUG <<< Tape: [>1<] Stack: >>> DEBUG <<< Tape: [>1<] Stack: >>> DEBUG <<< Tape: [>1<] Stack: >>> DEBUG <<< Tape: [>1<] Stack: ... 
= tape = tape == stack since tape and stack are 0, sets it to 1 [ While tape is not 0 ? Dump debug info ] End

Phooey (interpreter bug, eventual crash), 2 bytes

<?

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Based on my "Raise a SIGSEGV" entry, where an interpreter bug is used to cause an infinite printing loop.

The bug is thoroughly explained in that post.

However, as one might expect, this does eventually (and quickly) segfault. If there was no memory protection, it would run infinitely.

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0
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Raku (Perl 6) (rakudo), 14 bytes

.say for 1 xx*

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0
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Python3, 36 bytes

x=[1];[print(x.append(1))for i in x]

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0
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Jalapeño, 3 bytes

‽1W

Hex-Dump of Bytecode

 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 0000: a2 31 11

Crashed my computer a few times to write it. Essentially while(1){write()}

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0
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'Python' is not recognized, 6 bytes

js1|js

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0
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FRACTRAN -a, 3 bytes

1/1

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0
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Quipu, 8 bytes

0& /\ ??

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Explanation

0& Literal 0 /\ Output that value and pass it to the following knot: ?? Jump to that thread

Since there is only one thread (0-indexed), this results in a loop that outputs 0 infinitely.

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-1
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C# (72)

using System; class P {static void Main(){for(;;) Console.Write('-');}}

Output enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ This can easily be shortened to: class P{static void Main(){for(;;System.Console.Write(1));}} (60); if you insist on - to be outputted it would be 62 (replacing 1 with "1"). \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 2, 2014 at 12:31
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    \$\begingroup\$ I have no idea how to code in C# but I can still golf this" class P{static void main{for(;;) Console.Write(0);}} \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 1:52
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