Question

Write a program in C which outputs its own source code.

Answer 1

i don't want the exact code, just discuss different logic with which we can do this....

Answer 2

Sounds pretty crazy...

Answer 3

yes...

Answer 4

Lets see now....

Answer 5

And the source code has to actually do something itself huh?

Answer 6

no restriction...it can do something else....or it can just output its own source code...

Answer 7

Cuz technically you could just write a whole bunch of nonsense as a string ansd then print that :P.

Answer 8

Idk why you would ever need to do this, is this some BS school assigment?

Answer 9

not assignment...just curious to know how..

Answer 10

Yeah I'm stumped on this one atm....

Answer 11

I asked on the code ranch for you, so lets see what they think up....

Answer 12

or just creating a billion print statements lol.

Answer 13

lol, a printf inside a printf inside a printf .....and so on..infinite
printfs

Answer 14

na more like int i = 0; printf("int i = 0);

Answer 15

etc.

Answer 16

but you could literally do printf("code code code code

more code

yay code");

If the code doesn't have to run... 1 GIANT print statement...

Answer 17

Dont know if this will work... but u can try file functions (read and write or standard output)...
(assuming u are going to save the source code file first) just ask your code to read that file (source.c) and maybe buffer it in some array .. and then print it :P

Answer 18

errr... do u want this code to be platform independent?

Answer 19

I was also thinking that, but you would have to say what you want to write and read in :p.

Answer 20

How about taking argv[0], appending ".c", if the file exists, open it, getc/putc and close it?

Answer 21

This is like asking to build a screwdriver using a screwdriver. :P

Answer 22

I found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing)

Answer 23

quine is interesting, but not in c.
rsmith, can u elaborate ?

Answer 24

Yeah, quine is an odd area of CS. This code will print everything but the include line.

#include <stdio.h>
int main() { char *s="int main() { char *s=%c%s%c; printf(s,34,s,34); }"; printf(s,34,s,34); }

Answer 25

C is a compiled language. The executing file isn't the source file. Therefore, the program becomes basically, a simple open a file read it in, output it and close the file. A simple guess for the source code file name is the executable file's name with ".c" appended.

Answer 26

They have c++ you can change what's needed youself...e

Answer 27

Hint:
You can save the code onto a textfile and thereafter display it directly via simple input functions :)

Answer 28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing)