Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ingr!crossgl
From: crossgl@ingr.com (Gordon Cross)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: programming challenge (silly)
Message-ID: <4340@ingr.com>
Date: 9 Mar 89 21:24:13 GMT
References: <2102@jasper.UUCP>
Reply-To: crossgl@ingr.UUCP (Gordon Cross)
Distribution: na
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, Al
Lines: 32

In article <2102@jasper.UUCP> c415-23@alberta.UUCP (Morris Barbara L) writes:
%A friend and I tried to mimic the behaviour of the following program in
%the fewest characters possible.  The best we were able to do was 98
%characters (result of wc). Can anyone beat this?  Email for our solution.
%
%main()
%{
%	int n;
%
%	scanf( "%d", &n );
%	if ( n < 1 || n >= 10 )
%		printf( "error\n" );
%	else printf( "answer is %d\n", factorial( n ) );
%}
%
%int factorial( n )
%int n;
%{	
%	if ( n == 1 )
%		return( n );
%	else return( n * factorial( n - 1 ) );
%}

OK, how about 94 characters (line split here so you can see it better):

n,v;main(){scanf("%d",&n);for(v=n>0&n<10;v&&n;v*=n--);
printf(v?"answer is %d\n":"error\n",v);}
-- 

Gordon Cross             UUCP:      uunet!ingr!crossgl     "all opinions are
111 Westminister Way     INTERNET:  crossgl@ingr.com        mine and not those
Madison, AL 35758        MA BELL:   (205) 772-7842          of my employer."