Advent of Code 2020 - BaseA Style (Day 2)

Jean-Balteryx

Discussion thread for day 2 of the Advent of Code : https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/2

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NicoleJohnson

... When those workflows start running and carols start humming, we sing of good CHEEEEERRRR!!

It's the MOST wonderful TIIIIIIIIME of the YEARRRRRR....

Here's my solutions so far!! Goal this year is to make it to 25* = 8 more than last year. And am 100% going to play my West Coast time zone advantage to my benefit. #ruthless.

Day 1 Solution:

Spoiler

I ain't no quitter, so even though I solved this one pretty quickly with an Append strategy, I know from a few years on this AoC adventure that the efficient solution is the best solution in the long run, so I found a better way to do it in the end.

My first attempt chose the "append all the numbers to all the numbers" route, which in the grand scheme of things only cost me about 0.2 extra seconds and gave me the thrilling "you have earned a gold star" message... BUT I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON, Advent of Code. So I shaved ~0.2 seconds off my time by implementing a Formula at the beginning to determine eligible pairs, and then resorting to the Append method only for Part 2. Efficiency is King.

Day 2 Solution:

Spoiler

Ahhh, RegEx. What can you NOT do?

Filter formulas were the key here - and an excellent example of the power of Alteryx to do a lot of tricky things at once. With some strategic RegEx parsing, I was able to build quick formulas to determine not only those instances where the occurrences of letters were within the upper and lower bounds, but also to calculate the positions in which they occur for Part 2.

I find myself so incredibly eager for the next challenge... I know in about a week, this will no longer be the case (IntCode-from-2019, you are the thing of nightmares)... but the delusion of success is bound to endure for at least a few more days, so in the meantime, ONWARD!!