Advent of Code Solutions

Solutions for Advent of Code challenges written in Go.

Structure

aoc/
├── utils/          # Common utility functions
│   └── utils.go    # File reading, parsing helpers
├── q1/             # Day 1 solution
│   ├── q1.go       # Solution code
│   ├── input.txt   # Actual puzzle input
│   └── test_input.txt  # Sample/test input
├── q2/             # Day 2 solution
│   └── ...
└── go.mod

Usage

Building the Binary

From the project root:

go build -o aoc

Running a Solution

# Run question 1 with actual input
./aoc -q 1

# Run question 1 with test input
./aoc -q 1 -test

# Run question 2 with actual input
./aoc -q 2

# Run question 2 with test input
./aoc -q 2 -test

You can also use go run:

# Run with actual input
go run main.go -q 1

# Run with test input
go run main.go -q 1 -test

Adding a New Solution

1. Create a new directory (e.g., q2/)
2. Create q2/q2.go with the following template:

package q2

// Solve returns the solutions for part 1 and part 2
func Solve(lines []string) (int, int) {
    // Part 1 solution
    part1 := 0

    // Part 2 solution
    part2 := 0

    return part1, part2
}

3. Add your puzzle input to q2/input.txt
4. Add sample input to q2/test_input.txt
5. Update main.go to import and call your new solution:

import (
    // ... existing imports
    "github.com/sidntrivedi012/aoc/q2"
)

// In the switch statement, add:
case 2:
    part1, part2 = q2.Solve(lines)

6. Rebuild: go build -o aoc
7. Run: ./aoc -q 2 -test

Utility Functions

The utils package provides:

• ReadLines(filename) - Read file as slice of strings (one per line)
• ReadFile(filename) - Read entire file as a single string
• ParseInts(lines) - Convert string slice to int slice
• SplitByEmptyLines(lines) - Split input into groups separated by blank lines

Testing Workflow

1. Add sample input from the problem to test_input.txt
2. Run with -test flag to verify logic with sample data
3. Add actual puzzle input to input.txt
4. Run without flags to get the final answer

Quick Start

1. Build the binary:

   go build -o aoc

2. Add your inputs:

   • Put sample input in q1/test_input.txt
   • Put actual puzzle input in q1/input.txt

3. Test with sample input:

   ./aoc -q 1 -test

4. Run with actual input:

   ./aoc -q 1