BrainFuck part 2 - Working with arrays

Go to the beginning / end of the array

With arrays stored in memory, we should be able to access memory either before or after the array location.

We know that our cells are not null, and thanks to this we can use the magic operation [>] (or [<]) : move to the right / left until you find an empty cell.

Let's start

• Memory: 0, Array, 0
• Cursor: on first 0 cell
• Input: any

Process

• move to the right (into the array)
• while current cell is not null
  • move to the cell on the right
• loop

Code

>     move to the right (into the array)
[     while current cell is not null
  >   move to the cell on the right
]     loop

Minified version

>[>]

Final state

• Memory: 0, Array, 0
• Cursor: on second 0 cell
• Input: unchanged
• Output: unchanged

Variants

To go back to the first 0 cell

<[<]

To reach array first cell while in the array

[<]>

To reach array last cell while in the array

[>]<

Test program

This program reads multiple chars from input (at least 3 chars are expected).

The N chars are split in memory into

• first char
• N-2 middle chars
• last char

Then, it goes back to the first char and print it; then on the last one and print it; and finally prints the array from 2nd to N-1th items.

,          read first char
>>,[>,]    have a 0 separator for the array then read all the other chars
<[->+<]    move the last input char to have a 0 separator
           Memory looks like A 0 B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y 0 Z
           if input was the entire alphabet; and the cursor is just before Z
<[<]<.     Go to first char and print
>>[>]>.    Go to last char and print
<<[<]>     Go to array first value
[.>]       Iterate on the array : print and move