Advent of Code 2020

So far, I think Day 12 has been my favorite puzzle. Not too hard, not too easy, it feels like an actually useful problem to solve instead of some arbitrary manipulation of a bunch of numbers.

This puzzle involved moving a boat based on a set of instructions. The only part that felt off was that sometimes the boat moves forward, and sometimes it just sort of, slides in one cardinal direction.

def rotator(degrees, current):
  change = degrees+current
  if change < 0:
    change = change+360
  if change >=360:
    change = change-360
  #print change
  return change  
 

with open('day12data.txt') as f:
    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in f]

xpos=0
ypos=0
#0 is East
orientation=0
cardinals = ["E","S","W","N"]

for i in lines:
  #print i
  next_orient=i[0]
  amount=int(i[1:])

  print "Ship Moves: "+next_orient+" direction "+str(amount)+" times"

  if next_orient == "L":
    orientation = rotator(-amount,orientation)
  if next_orient == "R":
    orientation = rotator(amount,orientation)
  if next_orient == "F":
    next_orient = cardinals[(orientation/90)]
  #print amount
  #print next_orient
  #print cardinals[(orientation/90)]
  if next_orient == "N":
    xpos=xpos+amount
  if next_orient == "S":
    xpos=xpos-amount
  if next_orient == "E":
    ypos=ypos+amount
  if next_orient == "W":
    ypos=ypos-amount


  print xpos
  print ypos
print abs(xpos)+abs(ypos)

This whole thing was a pretty straight forward string of conditionals, and a few functions to rotate the orientation. I am actually particularly proud of how I handled the orientation here, using an array. Your orientation is expressed in degrees, which when divided by 90 gives you a number 0, 1, 2, or 3, which become indexes in an array of cardinal directions.

Part two changed things a bit, and solved the “how does a boat facing east move north” question. Instead of moving the boat, you move a navigational buoy. The boat old moves when you get a forward command, and it moves towards the buoy.

def rotator(degrees, current):
  global xpos
  global ypos
  change = degrees+current
  if change < 0:
    change = change+360
  if change >=360:
    change = change-360
  #print change
  #return change
  if change == 90 or change == 270:
   temp=xpos
   xpos=-ypos
   ypos=temp
  if change == 180 or change == 270:
   xpos=-xpos
   ypos=-ypos
 

with open('day12data.txt') as f:
    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in f]

xpos=1
ypos=10
shipx=0
shipy=0
#0 is East
orientation=0
cardinals = ["E","S","W","N"]

for i in lines:
  #print i
  next_orient=i[0]
  amount=int(i[1:])

  if next_orient == "L":
    rotator(-amount,orientation)
  if next_orient == "R":
    rotator(amount,orientation)
  if next_orient == "N":
    xpos=xpos+amount
  if next_orient == "S":
    xpos=xpos-amount
  if next_orient == "E":
    ypos=ypos+amount
  if next_orient == "W":
    ypos=ypos-amount
  if next_orient == "F":
    shipx=shipx+(xpos)*amount
    shipy=shipy+(ypos)*amount

  print "Ship Moves: "+next_orient+" direction "+str(amount)+" times"

  print "Beacon: "+str(xpos)+"E/W "+str(ypos)+"N/S"
  print "Ship: "+str(shipx)+"E/W "+str(shipy)+"N/S"
print abs(shipx)+abs(shipy)
print shipx
print shipy

The sad part is, RIP clever Orientation gimmick, though the array is still in there for posterity. When the buoy rotates, it doesn’t face a different direction, it rotates around the ship, so the functions just became swapped coordinates instead of degrees corresponding to an orientation.

The puzzle for Day 9 ended up being fairly easy. It’s basically striding across some arrays for values. The task was to decrypt a fake code set by exploiting a known bug. Sounds fancy, but that’s just the story for the day, there isn’t any real complex hacking going on here or anything.

What you get is a string of numbers output from the device, to find the “exploit” you have to find the first number that doesn’t fit the pattern. The pattern being that each number (after a preamble set of numbers) is the sum of two of the previous numbers, within a range.

with open('day9data.txt') as f:
    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in f]

position = 25

while(True):
  valid_nums=lines[position-25:position]
  valid = 0
  current = int(lines[position])
  print current
  for i in valid_nums:
    check = current - int(i)
    #print str(current) +"-"+ i +"="+str(check)
    if str(check) in valid_nums:
      #print check
      valid=1
  print valid
  if valid == 1:
    print position
    position+=1
  else: 
    print current
    break

So for Part 1, read in the code, set the starting position of 25 (for the 25 number preamble), then take the 26th number, then run some loops across the previous 25 numbers, adding each number to each other number, until you find the 26th number. If it works, move on tot he next number, until it doesn’t.

Part two, is to execute the “exploit” by finding a continuous set of numbers, that add up to the result of the first set of numbers. For the sake of keeping the code universally useful, Part 1 gets run again to find the key value.

After wards, it’s more loops adding up numbers. Start at the first value, start adding until the sum is greater than the key value, then reset, and start again at the next number. Until the sum equal the exploit value. Then return the result, which in this case was the sum of the first and last number int he continuous run of numbers.

with open('day9data.txt') as f:
    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in f]

position = 25

while(True):
  valid_nums=lines[position-25:position]
  valid = 0
  current = int(lines[position])
  #print current
  for i in valid_nums:
    check = current - int(i)
    #print str(current) +"-"+ i +"="+str(check)
    if str(check) in valid_nums:
      #print check
      valid=1
  #print valid
  if valid == 1:
    #print position
    position+=1
  else: 
    break
      
print current

start=0
position=start
total=0
sum_array=[]

while(total != current):
  if total < current:
    total+=int(lines[position])
    position+=1
    #print total
  else:
    start+=1
    position=start
    total=0

for i in lines[start:position]:
  sum_array.append(int(i))

sum_array = sorted(sum_array)

print sum_array
print int(sum_array[0])+int(sum_array[-1])

There may be a quicker way to find these value but just straight brute forcing it on both fronts works pretty well.

Day 8 may be the first real trouble I have had so far. Part 1 wasn’t too bad, but Part 2 has had me stuck for a bit.

The job is to troubleshoot bad code for a handheld device. It gets stuck in an infinite loop. The input is a string of commands that either increment an accumulator, or jump forward or back in the code. Sometimes there is no action.

Part 1 was to execute the code without ever repeating a command.

with open('day8data.txt') as f:
    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in f]


accumulator=0
location=0
commands_executed=[]

while(location<=len(lines)):
  command = lines[location][:3]
  amount = int(lines[location][4:])

  #print command
  #print amount
  
  if command == 'acc':
    accumulator+=amount
    location+=1
  if command == 'jmp':
    location+=amount
  if command == 'nop':
    location+=1
  
  if location not in commands_executed:
    commands_executed.append(location)
  else:
    break
  #print commands_executed



print accumulator

Basically, run each command, tracking which have been executed, then, when you reach a repeat, which will cause a loop, you exit.

Part 2 had me for a bit, but mostly because I missed what it was looking for. The object is to change one of the jump or no operation commands, to cause the loop to break and the code to complete. My original approach and thought was, that at some point in the loop, the code would swoop down to the bottom of the commands, and then loop away. So I was checking for if the code was close to the end, then changing the jump or no-operation there.

What I needed to be doing was changing each one, and then testing it through the solve loop to see if it would complete or not (no loops).

Basically, run the code, anytime there is a jump or no-op, flip it and check for a loop. If not, keep going on the original path.

def solver(accumulator, location, commands_executed, switcher):

  while(True):
    if lines[location] == "":
      print accumulator
      return False

    command = lines[location][:3]
    amount = int(lines[location][4:])

    #print command
    #print amount
  
    if switcher==1 and command == 'jmp':
      switcher = 0
      command = 'nop'
    if switcher==1 and command == 'nop':
      switcher = 0
      command = 'jmp'


    if command == 'acc':
      accumulator+=amount
      location+=1
    if command == 'jmp':
      location+=amount
    if command == 'nop':
      location+=1

    if location not in commands_executed:
      commands_executed.append(location)
    else:
      break
    #print commands_executed

  return True


with open('day8data.txt') as f:
    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in f]


accumulator=0
location=0
breaker = True
commands_executed=[]

while(breaker):
  while(True):
    command = lines[location][:3]
    amount = int(lines[location][4:])

    #print command
    #print amount
    if command == "":
      print accumulator

    if command == 'acc':
      accumulator+=amount
      location+=1
    if command == 'jmp':
      breaker = solver(accumulator,location, commands_executed, 1)
      location+=amount
    if command == 'nop':
      breaker = solver(accumulator,location, commands_executed, 1)
      location+=1

    if location not in commands_executed:
      commands_executed.append(location)
    else:
      break
    #print commands_executed

I tried to get some recursion going here but I couldn’t work it out so I just did it with repeated code blocks. Because this is why I dislike recursion. If I need to pass around and check for changing conditionals, I may as well put them in a regular loop.