Advent of Code 2019 Day 24
Try the simulator of Part 1 using your puzzle input!
Task: Solve for X where...
Part 1
X = the biodiversity rating for the first layout that appears twice
Part 2
X = the number of bugs present after 200 minutes
Example input
....#
#..#.
#..##
..#..
#....
It represents:
- A scan of the area of Eris
-
#are bugs -
.are empty spaces
Part 1
- Another one of these puzzles, eh?
- Generating the array of increasing powers of two
- Checking adjacent cells and queuing the cells to switch
- Tracking each step's state
- Setup, main loop and output
- Troubleshooting because I misread the instructions
- Building the bugs' life simulator
Another one of these puzzles, eh?
You know the type:
- Area of tiles
- Each with two or more possible states
- Each one queued up to change based on adjacent tiles
- Then change the queued tiles
- Identify the first state that repeats
What's novel about this one:
- The method of scoring takes into account an equation based on the location of certain tiles
- That should only require a look-up after the first duplicate state is identified
Generating the array of increasing powers of two
Create an array of length 25 (5x5)
Fill it with values equal to the two to the power of the current index: 2^0, 2^1, 2^2, ...
Checking adjacent cells and queuing the cells to switch
I'll use a list of relative coordinates, as in other puzzles:
* = originating cell
A: (-1, 0)
B: ( 0, 1)
C: ( 1, 0)
D: ( 0,-1)
Visual:
.A.
D*B
.C.
A written description of the algorithm:
Using the current cell's coordinates:
For each relative coordinate
As long as the coordinate relative to the current cell is a valid location in the grid (not outside its bounds)
Return true if the value in that cell is a bug
Return false if the value in that cell is empty
Calculate the sum of true values
Queue the cell up as one to switch if:
The current cell contains a bug, and the sum is 1
The current cell is empty, and the sum is 1 or 2
Tracking each step's state
- By now, I've learned that comparing arrays - even with all equal values - will always return 'false', at least in JavaScript
- In lieu of that, I will store a binary number derived from a concatenation of
0s and1s coerced from#s and.s from the most recent state of the switched area
For example:
Initial state:
....#
#..#.
#..##
..#..
#....
As a string:
....##..#.#..##..#..#....
As 0s and 1s:
0000110010100110010010000
As binary:
1658000
Setup, main loop and output
Setup:
Replace #s with 1s and .s with 0s in the input
Split the input at each newline character into an array of strings
Split each string into an array of characters
Coerce each character into a number: 0 or 1
Create ratings, an array of 25 powers of 2, starting at 1
Create the array of 4 relative coordinates
Create an array, states, and add to it the binary number representing the initial state of my puzzle input
Main loop:
Repeat until manually escaped via a condition:
Create an empty queue
For each row in the parsed grid of tiles
For each column in the row
Set bugs to the result of the following operations:
For each of the four relative coordinates
If there is no cell there, return false
Else, if there is a cell there
Return true if the cell has a bug
Return false if the cell is empty
Filter the updated list of four booleans to only include true values
Return the number of true values
Add the current cell's coordinates to the queue if it matches the criteria for switching a cell's value as described earlier
For each queued coordinate
Update the value of the appropriate cell to its opposite state: bug or empty
Generate a binary number from the new state of the grid as described earlier
If the tracked list of states includes this binary number
Add the new binary number as the last item in states
Escape the main loop
Else, if this binary number is not in the tracked list of states
Add the new binary number as the last item in states
Output:
Using the last binary number in states
Convert it to a stringified decimal
Pad the beginning with 0s until the string has 25 characters
Split the string into an array of characters
For each character
Accumulate a sum - starting at 0 - according to the following operations
If the current character is 1
Increment the sum by the number in ratings at the same location as the current character's location in its array
Return the sum
Troubleshooting because I misread the instructions
Earlier, I referenced this criteria:
Queue the cell up as one to switch if:
The current cell contains a bug, and the sum is 1
The current cell is empty, and the sum is 1 or 2
The first if is wrong. It should be:
The current cell contains a bug, and the sum is NOT 1
That took a bit longer to find and fix than I liked.
But I found it. And I fixed it.
And I generated the correct answer!
Building the bugs' life simulator
- I felt like it had been ages since I built a simulator, but it had only been a few days
- I sensed this would be a simple one to build
- I wanted to render the bugs, the applicable ratings, and the sum of applicable ratings for each minute
Try the simulator of Part 1 using your puzzle input!
Part 2
Great: a drastically more difficult puzzle
- That is usually the case when - for me, at least - Part 1 seems relatively easy
- Enter: Callback to Part 2 of Day 20
- Enter: Recursion
- Enter: Infinity
- In other words: intimidation += 10000
- In other words: no thanks
Celebrating my accomplishments
- I solved Part 1!
- I built a simulator for Part 1!
- I practiced converting strings to binary and back again
- I was reminded of how important it is to carefully read instructions
Bummer:
- I gave up immediately on Part 2 out of intimidation of the presumed algorithmic complexity
Intcode finale, here I come!
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