This is my tried-and-true Python helper package for the phenomenal Advent of Code puzzles. It contains helpful utilities, plus my daily solution write-ups.
To use this base class for your own solutions:
- Fork & clone this repo
- Delete my solution files (
rm -rf solutions/20*) - Start a new solution
./start 1(defaults to the current year once December starts) - Edit the newly created file at
solutions/YEAR/day_N/solution.py - Get your answers using
./advent 1 - Repeat!
This repo has two main commands: start and advent.
./start [-h] [--year YEAR] [day]
Start a new Advent of Code solution
positional arguments:
day(optional): Which puzzle day to start, between[1,25]. Defaults to the next day without a folder (matchingday_N) in the specified year.
optional arguments:
-h, --help(optional): show this help message and exit--year YEAR(optional): Puzzle year. Defaults to current year if December has begun, otherwise previous year.
./start./start 1./start 3 --year 2019
./advent [-h] [--year year] [--slow] [--debug] [--profile] [day]
Run a day of Advent of Code
positional arguments:
day(optional): Which puzzle day to start, between [1,25]. Defaults to the latest day with a folder (matchingday_N) in the specified year.
optional arguments:
-h, --help(optional): show this help message and exit--year YEAR(optional): Puzzle year. Defaults to current year if December has begun, otherwise previous year--slow(optional): specify that long-running solutions (or those requiring manual input) should be run. They're skipped otherwise--debug(optional): prints normally-hidden debugging statements--profile(optional): run solution through a performance profiler
./advent./advent 2./advent 5 --year 2019./advent 3 --slow
solutions/
├── ...
└── 2020/
├── day_1/
│ ├── solution.py
│ ├── input.txt
│ └── README.md
├── day_2/
│ ├── solution.py
│ ├── ...
└── ...
- each year has a folder (
YYYY) - each day in that year (will eventually) have a folder (
day_N)
Each day_N folder has the following files:
solution.py, which has aclass Solution../adventexpects both that filename and that class name exactly, so you shouldn't change them. See Writing Solutions for how the file is structuredinput.txtyour input from the AoC site. You can put the example inputs in there as well while you're workingREADME.mdis a convenient place to take notes or explain your solution
A helpful base class on which to build your AoC solutions. It's got 2 required properties (which should be pre-filled if you use ./start): _year and _day, corresponding to the puzzle you're solving.
Your puzzle input (the parsed contents of the local input.txt, see File Structure) will be available at self.input. It's also got an optional input_type property that gives you control over how the input is parsed (see Reading Input).
It's also got some convenience methods for print-based debugging: self.pp (pretty-print) and self.newline, which each only print anything if self.debug is true. You can set that manually, or via the --debug flag on the ./advent command.
AoC input takes a number of forms, so there are a number of simple modes in which input can be read & parsed. Your generated Solution class should inherit from one of the below classes, which will parse (and add types to) self.input for you
| Inherited Class | description | input for this mode |
|---|---|---|
TextSolution |
one solid block of text; the default | abcde |
IntSolution |
one number | 12345 |
StrSplitSolution |
str[], split by a specified separator (default newline) |
a b c d e |
IntSplitSolution |
int[], split by a specified separator (default newline) |
1 2 3 4 5 |
TSVSolution |
tab-separated values | 1 2 34 5 6 |
Specify Solution.separator to control how the SPLIT methods separate their input.
Each AoC puzzle has two parts, so there are two functions you need to write: part_1 and part_2. Each should return an int, since that's typically the answer that AoC expects.
Sometimes, it's easier to calculate both parts in a single function (such as if the answer is asking about two parts of a single computation). In that case, there's also a solve() method, which should return a two-tuple with your answers (like (5, 7)). solve takes precedence if present. Feel free to delete any unused functions when you're done.
Once you've solved the puzzle, you can decorate your function (solve or part_N) with the @answer decorator. It asserts that the value returned from the function is whatever you pass to the decorator:
@answer(3)
def only_three(i):
return i
only_three(1) # error!
only_three(3) # okThis is helpful for ensuring your answer doesn't change when editing your code after you've solved the puzzle. It's included as a comment in the template.