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README.md

Advent of code challenge 2024, in GO

Here are my solutions to the "Advent of code" challenge of 2024 implemented in GO (aka Golang). See https://adventofcode.com/2024

I am doing this to keep learning GO, so this must be considered as "amateur code". I am coding it to try my hand at various GO idioms, not seeking efficiency, scalability nor optimality. But feedback is very welcome.

The code is in standard GO, with some housekeeping scripts in bash.

Usage

  • Everything below is in the days/ sub-directory, with a sub-directory dNN/ per day.
  • Day NN solutions are in program of source code days/dNN/dNN.go, and executable days/dNN/dNN
  • Run them with input data file (with suffix .txt or .test) as argument (defaults to input.txt).
  • The result will always be a number, alone on the last line of the output.
  • They run the algorithm for Part 2 of the daily problems, unless you give the option -1 where they will run the Part 1.
  • The -v argument ("verbose") prints more tracing / debugging info.
  • All source code is standalone, I will try to use only standard GO and standard library functions. I keep common convenience functions in the utils.go file in the same package "main" (copied from the TEMPLATES/ directory) rather than making a proper separate packages, as I am learning as I go, and can evolve it without fear of breaking backwards compatibility with the ones used in previous days.
  • Basically, all the dNN.go solutions consist of:
    • a main function
    • that read and preparse the input file via the function ReadInput
    • and depending on the presenc eof the command line option -1, calls either the Part1 of Part2 function to perform the calculations and return a number, the solution, that it prints.

Testing

  • Unit tests are performed via the standard GO testing system, in the optional source file days/dNN/dNN_test.go
  • Integration tests are done by looking at the comments // TEST: [option] input-file result in source files and running the code with the option and input and checking the last printed line is the result. The days/TESTALL bash script runs all the unit and integration tests, see it for technical details. I tend to use more these integration test than the GO unit test above, as they are impervious to the major refactoring that can happen as I try many different approaches in this style of experimental programming. I rely rather on many small input samples in files ex1.tx, ex2.txt...
  • Input files for tests can also be specified in a standalone way, as files containing the problem input but named input-DESCRIPTION,RESULT1,RESULT2.test. (E.g. input-negative-values,345,.test). The optional description is freeform, and result1 and result2, if present, are the expected results of the test. This avoids cluttering the Go source code, and if you ignore *.test files in your version control system (e.g. .gitignore), avoid publishing your personal input, as requested by the author of the adventofcode.
  • The examples given in the problem descriptions are used in GO unit tests dNN_test.go , whereas the input file is used for the high-level integration tests of TESTALL.

Misc

  • days/MAKEDAY NN is what I used to create a new day directory.
  • days/CLEANALL prepares for a git commit: cleans dir, check missing info
  • Notes per day may be found in each day directory, days/dNN as README.md files, if it warrants some explanations.
  • All solutions run under one second, unless mentioned.

More info

License

Author: (c)2024 Colas Nahaboo, https://colas.nahaboo.net License: free of use via the MIT License.

Day highlights

  • d04 Tried to use methods on generics, and immediately closed the Pandora can of worms I opened!
  • d06 Different implementation to test speeds for part2: 4 arrays bools or array of ints or bytes used as 4-bit bitfields. The latter is faster.
  • d14 How to recognize an xmas tree in the output? I suppose it is inside a box, and I look for horizontal lines
  • d23 I used the Bron Kerbosh algorithm to find the biggest clique in a graph. I coded after the deadline also alternative using the bitset package, and also the Bron-Kerbosch implementation in the graph/topo package, out of curiosity
  • d24 I solved part2 by hand to get to the finish line, but I plan to design a proper solution later.