General Discussions
Discuss any topics that are not product-specific here.
This was a really fun puzzle!
Spoiler
Part 1: I overcomplicated this at first, until I realized I could simply sort a cross tab to get the ranks of each hand.
Part 2: Mostly a copy and paste from part 1. I could go back and clean this up so that it's a parameterized workflow instead of two separate workflows for each part.... but AOC isn't always about elegance :)
Luckily was able to determine early that forming the best hand just means adding the number of jokers to the card with the highest frequency & strength in each hand. My lone JJJJJ hand dropped off in a join, which threw off my answer until I looked more critically at my record count.
Part 2: Mostly a copy and paste from part 1. I could go back and clean this up so that it's a parameterized workflow instead of two separate workflows for each part.... but AOC isn't always about elegance :)
Luckily was able to determine early that forming the best hand just means adding the number of jokers to the card with the highest frequency & strength in each hand. My lone JJJJJ hand dropped off in a join, which threw off my answer until I looked more critically at my record count.
I've pretty much given up on trying use fewer tools, at this point 😅 But this was a really fun one, I'm really pleased I got it!
Edit: it's fascinating to see how many different approaches there are in this thread!!
My solution.
Today, I couldn't perform as well as I could because I have some work. So, I took so much time for part 2 due to a small mistake.
Not winning any tool golf here but very much enjoyed today's challenge! Part 2 was interesting to work through.
