Advent of Code 2024 Day 4 (BaseA Style)

Discussion thread for day 4 of the Advent of Code - https://adventofcode.com/2024/day/4

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Whoo! I enjoyed this tremendously. I will include a more thorough explanation for my approach below later (in the form of a YouTube video), but for now here is my solution.

Solution Screenshot (Updated to Simplify):

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Tool Golf V3 Solution (10 Tools per Part):

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Tool Golf V4 (Part 1: 6 Tools, Part 2: 7 Tools):

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Main V3 (Tool Golf).yxmd

Main V4 (Tool Golf).yxmd

Main V2.yxmd

ScottLewis

That was a really neat one. Similar to some of the harder ones last year, but with fewer complications. Part 2 seemed easier than Part 1, though that could just be having done Part 1 first. Interesting to see the different ways people deal with this.

Sharing file this time because it's pretty and I like the solution. Those have not both been true on previous days.

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I approach graph type problems by transforming the data in to row/column/value triplets. You can then map movement in a direction to a simple 1 point change in row/column and get a new value by re-joining with the original data set. In this example, we rejoin with the next 3 (XMAS) or with one in each diagonal (X-MAS). Part 1 requires generate rows to get all the possible directions.
I think I could have left out the filter to throw out out-of-bounds values and let the joins do that but that's the sort of thing that causes errors in harder problems so I like to keep up good habits. Conversely, hard coding the maximum row/column count is a terrible habit that we allow as a concession to speed. In a production world this would be join with count of rows and filter on row<=Maxrow.

Day4Scott.yxmd

AncientPandaman

have to use macro this time. diagonal is hard to do without macro

and luckily I save some macro last few years. like split to x and y. and generate the adjacent location.

it save some time to re-build it.

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part1: skipped for vertical and horizon. diagonal I use filter to find the beginning cells and use macro to search for next cells (move up or move down to right)

part2: easier than part1, haha.
filter for data value "A", get adjacent, check the diagonal values
Screenshot 2024-12-04 140036.png

Day 04.yxzp

kelsey_kincaid

This one was a fun challenge! There's a lot of sloppy design in this first pass, but I'm excited to clean up the logic later this week.

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I spent far too much time wondering why my Multi-Row formulas weren't behaving - turns out I forgot to sort first. I also started at position 1 in my string instead of position 0. This was a good reminder that it's often the fundamentals that cause issues, and that building workflows is probably done after a good night's rest, not before

Eager to clean up the macro so that I can use a single macro for both parts. I also want to see if I can use Regex to count matches in the diagonals, but I'll need some sleep before I work that out!

I took the lazy way out and set my max iterations to the size of the data. NOT best practice, but it worked for me to get a faster answer, so I went with it for now.

This is one of my multi-row formulas. I used each to look at diagonals going different directions. In hindsight, I don't know that I need all 4, so that's another thing I'll look at tomorrow.

Substring([data],[Engine.IterationNumber],1)+
SubString([Row-1:data],[Engine.IterationNumber]+1,1)+
Substring([Row-2:data],[Engine.IterationNumber]+2,1)+
SubString([Row-3:data],[Engine.IterationNumber]+3,1)&#8203;

2024_Day4_Alteryx_KelseyKincaid.yxzp

NicoleJ

It's challenges like these that make me wish I had an index listing all the things I've built in the previous Advent of Code years to solve the same exact thing... "Alexa, tell me how I solved this 'find the coordinates' problem the last 20 times it's come up in Advent of Code..."

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Today's "new Designer features in action" shout-outs: Dark Mode (because I didn't get enough sleep last night getting stuck on Day 3 Part 2, so my eyes already hurt), and Group By in the Record ID tool! ❤️

Day4.yxmd

rbgruwel

Nice way to solve a crossword

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Day 4.yxmd

Hub119

Okay, time for bed. *NOTE: made some tweaks today and reposted so my solution is more clearly labeled and easier to follow (that seems to go out the window at 1 in the morning...)

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AoC 2024 Day 4.yxzp

AkimasaKajitani

My solution! This is messy.

Today it took a long time because I was away for 20-30 minutes in the middle of Part 2. I don't like diagonal...

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Wow, my solution is way over-engineered compared to the simpler ones. Looking forward to reviewing the elegant ones another day!

2024_AoC_clmc9601_Day_04.yxmd

DaisukeTsuchiya

I wanted to make it simpler, but it became complicated. 😣

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DT2024_4_R1.yxmd

LHolmes

Way overthought part 2; going down the rabbit hole of matrix manipulation...when I finally realized a few formulas would work nicely.

Could be more elegant, but I'm happy with my stars. 🌟🌟🎅

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2024 Day 4 Part 1

2024 Day 4 Part 2

2024 Advent of Code Day 4 _ Solution LMH.yxzp

danboll_life

Question 2 was toooooooo difficult

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AoC_2024_04_DL.yxzp

niklas_greilinger

Restarted like 5 times with different approaches cause I could not figure out how to build the matrix but found a neat way in the community!

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Day4.yxmd

Qiu

Brutal Force again but it costs me only 0.6 seconds to run for P1 and P2.

AOC2024-Day04.yxzp

Gawa

At first I made messy and ugly WF but now I refined it with 'Spatial Analysis' version as fun analysis.

When it comes to X-Y coordinates, I cannot stop using spatial analysis.

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First, create Iterative Macro to trace the path for the given search words that is 'XMAS' for part1 and 'MAS' for part2. I used Text Box interface to accept variable search word.
Within this macro, it searches words X=>M=>A=>S in turn for each iteration. Logic to find next word is;
(1) Find the nearest points that has next target character by combo of Trade Area + Spatial Match tools.
(2) Find the direction of next character, and only when it matches the existing direction, it passes to next iteration
Pass
East=>East=>East...
NW=>NW=>NW....
*these are linear lines
Not pass
East=>East=>West
NW=>SW
*these are zigzag(non-linear)

By doing so, the number of records at last iteration will be the answer of part1.
Result looks like this

As for part2, by using the same Macro, find all spatial object of tracing "MAS" at first. Then, filter the records with direction of "NW", "NE", "SW", or "SE" to find the diagonal lines.
In order to judge which objects are crossing as "X", convert line objects to rectangular , and Spatial Match as "Where target Contains universe". Result will include duplicated result (matching result of "target object=1 and universe object=2", "target object=2 and universe object=1" are identical), so remove duplication by Filter tool, and count the number of record in true anchor.

Result looks like this

2024D4_spatial_analysis_version_gawa.yxzp

Spainey

That was tough! Horizontal and Vertical were pretty nice, but I had to really think about how to transform the data for those diagonals.

I learnt a new function today too: Regex_CountMatches(), which counts the occurrence of a pattern inside a string. By transforming the data for each of the directions and concatenating new strings, I could use the function to get accurate counts

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2024_AoC_mark-spain_Day_04.yxmd

JasperMB

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AoC.yxmd

cgoodman

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A familiar type of challenge as other years splitting out the grid into a flat structure of column (x), row (y), value.

Got caught out with direction as moving up is actually -1 on row count! And for part two originally finding '+' as well as 'x' patterns, only for it to say my result was too high. Which initially resulted in rebuilding my part 2 logic only to then get the same answer before removing the '+' matches.

Screenshot 2024-12-04 113650.png

2024_AoC_ChrisGoodman_Day_04.yxmd

Yoshiro_Fujimori

My solution.

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Workflow
I personally like my workflow in that it processed the order of "XMAS" 😀.

Formula Tools
[RowNo] =
IF [Direction] IN (1,2,3) THEN [RowNo] - 1
ELSEIF [Direction] IN (4,5) THEN [RowNo]
ELSE [RowNo] + 1
ENDIF
[ColNo] =
IF [Direction] IN (1,4,6) THEN [ColNo] - 1
ELSEIF [Direction] IN (2,7) THEN [ColNo]
ELSE [ColNo] + 1
ENDIF

workflow.yxmd

Sebastian_Chaieb2

That was great

I had to use two batch macros to solve it. I am really curious how other experts solved it. I believe it will be very inspiring :P

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Star 1

Star 2

Day4_SC.yxzp

OllieClarke

Picking up a bit

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initially I made an iterative macro with appends and then filters:

but then I realised for 4 letters it wasn't needed, so I swapped to generate rows and joins, and my run time went from ~28 seconds down to 0.9

Here's my horrible filter:

(([0_col]=[1_col] AND [1_col]=[2_col] AND [2_col]=[col])
AND (ABS([0_Row]-[1_Row])=1 AND ABS([1_Row]-[2_Row])=1 AND ABS([2_Row]-[Row])=1))
OR
(([0_Row]=[1_Row] AND [1_Row]=[2_Row] AND [2_Row]=[Row])
AND (ABS([0_col]-[1_col])=1 AND ABS([1_col]-[2_col])=1 AND ABS([2_col]-[col])=1))
OR
(([col]-[2_col]=1 AND [2_col]-[1_col]=1 AND [1_col]-[0_col]=1)
AND (([Row]-[2_Row]=1 AND [2_Row]-[1_Row]=1 AND [1_Row]-[0_Row]=1) OR  ([Row]-[2_Row]=-1 AND [2_Row]-[1_Row]=-1 AND [1_Row]-[0_Row]=-1)))
OR
(([col]-[2_col]=-1 AND [2_col]-[1_col]=-1 AND [1_col]-[0_col]=-1)
AND (([Row]-[2_Row]=1 AND [2_Row]-[1_Row]=1 AND [1_Row]-[0_Row]=1) OR  ([Row]-[2_Row]=-1 AND [2_Row]-[1_Row]=-1 AND [1_Row]-[0_Row]=-1)))



&#8203;

Day 4.yxmd

DataNath

If you value your mental well-being then please don't open this spoiler. However, as a wise man once said... "2 stars is 2 stars my son".

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Samantha_Jayne

Phew. Finally got this one. I should have flexed my AoC muscles earlier, this one brought back all the memories. Hope you all managed to find me!!!

SAM was everywhere in that wordsearch! Was a massive distraction!

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Samantha_Clifton_Day4.yxzp

mmontgomery

D4. More in spoiler

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My approach was to take a given point and draw four (or three points) in each coordinate: North, South, West, East, North West, North East, South West and South East. The workflow design was meant to create those directions to more easily organize the solution, even though the workflow looks like a bunch of frayed wires.

For P2, I just did all the combo joins of diagonals where they matched on a point and the letter 'A'

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Spoiler

Definitely helped referencing other users in this thread. Was definitely a challenge for me!

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Day 4.yxzp

Linas

A good challenge!

day4.yxmd

aiahwieder

I usually LOATHE the grid-based challenges, but this one tickled my inner word nerd! Decided against a macro for Part 1, and was glad to have taken the slower approach when I got to Part 2.

Ceres Search.yxzp

SeanAdams

:-) it's great to see the progression of thinking as you refined this @CoG

SeanAdams

Agree with you @NicoleJ - the record ID with grouping really is a great addition - I expect the tile tool to get very very lonely now.

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