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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T21:28:18+00:00

The challenge The shortest code by character count to draw an ASCII representation of

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The challenge

The shortest code by character count to draw an ASCII representation of a Code 39 bar code.

Wikipedia article about Code 39: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_39

Input

The input will be a string of legal characters for Code 39 bar codes. This means 43 characters are valid: 0–9 A–Z (space) and -.$/+%. The * character will not appear in the input as it is used as the start and stop characters.

Output

Each character encoded in Code 39 bar codes have nine elements, five bars and four spaces. Bars will be represented with # characters, and spaces will be represented with the space character. Three of the nine elements will be wide. The narrow elements will be one character wide, and the wide elements will be three characters wide. A inter-character space of a single space should be added between each character pattern. The pattern should be repeated so that the height of the bar code is eight characters high.

The start/stop character * (bWbwBwBwb) would be represented like this:

                       #   # ### ### # 
                       #   # ### ### # 
                       #   # ### ### # 
                       #   # ### ### # 
                       #   # ### ### # 
                       #   # ### ### # 
                       #   # ### ### # 
                       #   # ### ### # 
                       ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^
                       | | || | | | |||
           narrow bar -+ | || | | | |||
           wide space ---+ || | | | |||
           narrow bar -----+| | | | |||
         narrow space ------+ | | | |||
             wide bar --------+ | | |||
         narrow space ----------+ | |||
             wide bar ------------+ |||
         narrow space --------------+||
           narrow bar ---------------+|
inter-character space ----------------+
  • The start and stop character * will need to be output at the start and end of the bar code.
  • No quiet space will need to be included before or after the bar code.
  • No check digit will need to be calculated.
  • Full ASCII Code39 encoding is not required, just the standard 43 characters.
  • No text needs to be printed below the ASCII bar code representation to identify the output contents.
  • The character # can be replaced with another character of higher density if wanted. Using the full block character U+2588, would allow the bar code to actually scan when printed.

Test cases

Input:
ABC
Output:
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### # #   # ### # ### #   # ### ### ### #   # # #   # ### ### # 

Input:
1/3
Output:
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # ### #   # # ### #   #   # #   # ### ###   # # # #   # ### ### # 

Input:
- $     (minus space dollar)
Output:
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### # 
#   # ### ### # #   # # ### ### #   ### # ### # #   #   #   # # #   # ### ### #

Code count includes input/output (full program).

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    J, 102 characters

    8#,:' #'{~,0,.~#:(3 u:'䝝啕啕啕䑅儑啕啕啕啕䗝䔑啕䕷煝䑑凝瑗屗眕凗瑵屵具瑝屝啕啕啕啕啕啕啕甗崗睅圗病巅呷甝崝圝畇嵇睑均痑巑嗇畱嵱坱煗䝗燕䗗煵䝵'){~32-~a.i.'*'(,,[)

    Explanation. Read from the bottom up.:

    8#,:         NB. Copy 8 times
' #'{~       NB. Turn binary 0 and 1 into space and #
,            NB. Link the array into a list
0,.~         NB. Append a 0 to the end of each row of the array.
#:           NB. Turn the list of numbers into a binary array where each row is the base-2 representation of the corresponding number
(3 u:'䝝啕啕啕䑅儑啕啕啕啕䗝䔑啕䕷煝䑑凝瑗屗眕凗瑵屵具瑝屝啕啕啕啕啕啕啕甗崗睅圗病巅呷甝崝圝畇嵇睑均痑巑嗇畱嵱坱煗䝗燕䗗煵䝵') NB. Turn this wchar string into a list of ints in range 0-65535.
{~           NB. Select numbers from the string-list whose indices are...
32-~         NB. ... 32 less than ...
a.i.         NB. ... the ascii values of ...
'*'(,,[)     NB. ... the input string with a '*' on either side!
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