Return each number from a group of numbers

Perl 25 26 25

$_ is the sequence string

s/-/../g;$_=join",",eval

Sample session:

[~/] $ perl -M5.010 -pe 's/-/../g;$_=join",",eval' <<< "1,3-5,9,16,18-23"
1,3,4,5,9,16,18,19,20,21,22,23

Added 1 character to the character count for the -n-p option (thanks Gareth, ..kinda).

GolfScript (24 chars)

','/{~.,!{~)),>~}*}%','*

E.g.

$ golfscript.rb expand.gs <<<"1,3-5,9,16,18-23"
1,3,4,5,9,16,18,19,20,21,22,23

I actually have four 24-char solutions, but I chose this one because it doesn't have any alphanumeric characters.

How it works

# On the stack: a string such as "1,3-5,9,16,18-23"
','/
# Split on commas to get ["1" "3-5" "9" "16" "18-23"]
{
    # This is executed for each of those strings in a map
    # So stack holds e.g. "1" or "3-5"

    # Evaluate the string.
    # If it's a single number, this puts the number on the stack.
    # Otherwise it's parsed as a positive number followed by a negative number.
    ~
    # Stack holds e.g. 1 or 3 -5
    # Duplicate the last element on the stack and make a list of that length.
    # If it's negative or zero, the list will be empty
    .,
    # Negate. An empty list => 1; a non-empty list => 0
    !
    # If the string was a single number "n", the stack now holds n 0
    # If the string was a range "m-n", the stack now holds m -n 1
    # The following block will be executed 0 times for "n" and once for "m-n"
    {
        # Here we rely on twos-complement numbers satisfying ~n = -n -1
        # Stack: m -n
        ~))
        # Stack: m -(-n)-1+2  =  m n+1
        ,
        # Stack: m [0 1 2 ... n]
        >
        # Stack: [m m+1 ... n]
        ~
        # Stack: m m+1 ... n
    }*
}%
# On the stack: e.g. [1 3 4 5 9 16 18 19 20 21 22 23]
','*
# Joined by , to give the desired output

golfscript, 46 45

My first ever golf script program, took hours to complete.

{','/{'-'/{~}%.,1-{))+{,}/\-~}{~}if}%","*}:r; 

# call:
"1,3-5,9,16,18-23"r

# return:
1,3,4,5,9,16,18,19,20,21,22,23

You can try it at http://golfscript.apphb.com/

My best throw at explaining this atrocity:

{...}:r;     # makes a function block ... and names it r

','/         # slices the top element of stack from each ','
             # so we get ["1" "3-5" "9" "16" "18-23"]

{...}%       # makes a function block ... and calls it for 
             # each element in the list

'-'/{~}%     # slices the list by '-' and evals each element 
             # from string to int. ["1"] becomes [1], 
             # ["3-5"] becomes [3 5]

.,1-         # adds the length of the list -1 on top of the stack
             # so for [1] the stack becomes [1] 0, for [3 5]
             # it becomes [3 5] 1

# next we add two function blocks, they, like the 0/1 just before
# are used by an if clause a tiny bit later. First block is for 
# lists that have a 1 on top of them, the latter for ones with 0.

# First block, we have something like [3 5]

))+          # pops the top element of the array, increments 
             # it and puts back. [3 6]

## It seems {...}%~ is same as {...}/
## this is why these two are not in the code any more

{,}%         # , makes a list from 0 to n-1, where n is the parameter
             # so we get [[0 1 2] [0 1 2 3 4 5]]

~            # Dumps the outer array, [0 1 2] [0 1 2 3 4 5]

\            # swaps the two arrays

-            # set complement [3 4 5]

~            # dumps the array, so the elements are left in the stack

# Second block, we have something like [16]

~            # just dumps the array, 16

# Blocks end

if           # takes the top three elements of the stack, evaluates the 
             # first (0 or 1), runs second if true (anything but 
             # [], "", 0 or {} ), otherwise the third.

","*         # joins an array with ","

edit 1: changed the last {}%~ to {}/, also my description was likely wrong.