cfml

Did day 2 over lunch; just made a tree of outcomes and matched on it as I looped over the results.  <https://github.com/jsf1515/AdventOfCode2022/blob/main/day2/day2.cfc>

there is no doubt sometimes you have to create some supporting input.

I finally submitted my first answer, but its wrong

I swear my solution is pretty good, but my answer is too high and I have no idea why. dang this one is hard.

My brain refuses to cooperate this morning :slightly_smiling_face:.

It got it to work though. 
Not the cleanest code. But hey, still got it.

I made a tree out of the commands.  Looks like this:
```{
    "name":"/",
    "type":"directory",
    "contents":[
        {
            "directory":null,
            "size":"14848514",
            "name":"b.txt",
            "type":"file"
        },
        {
            "directory":null,
            "size":"8504156",
            "name":"c.dat",
            "type":"file"
        },
        {
            "name":"a",
            "type":"directory",
            "contents":[
                {
                    "directory":null,
                    "size":"29116",
                    "name":"f",
                    "type":"file"
                },
                {
                    "directory":null,
                    "size":"2557",
                    "name":"g",
                    "type":"file"
                },
                {
                    "directory":null,
                    "size":"62596",
                    "name":"h.lst",
                    "type":"file"
                },
                {
                    "name":"e",
                    "type":"directory",
                    "contents":[
                        {
                            "directory":null,
                            "size":"584",
                            "name":"i",
                            "type":"file"
                        }
                    ],
                    "parent":null
                }
            ],
            "parent":null
        },
        {
            "name":"d",
            "type":"directory",
            "contents":[
                {
                    "directory":null,
                    "size":"4060174",
                    "name":"j",
                    "type":"file"
                },
                {
                    "directory":null,
                    "size":"8033020",
                    "name":"d.log",
                    "type":"file"
                },
                {
                    "directory":null,
                    "size":"5626152",
                    "name":"d.ext",
                    "type":"file"
                },
                {
                    "directory":null,
                    "size":"7214296",
                    "name":"k",
                    "type":"file"
                }
            ],
            "parent":null
        }
    ],
    "parent":null
}```

Weird.  The `parent` key actually links back to the level above.  So a doubly-linked list.

I was able to get the answers from there.

Also made that <@U09PE9C93>.
Used preorder traversal to get the results and some other recursion magic.

It seems the trick for me to most of the puzzles this year is to identify which data structure makes answering the questions the easiest and then transform the text to that data structure.

Pffft, my answer for today keeps sayin' it's too high...

I’m just getting started. and I am not sure how to take this on. 

I don't get it, my code always turns up correct for any example input i feed it (5*5 forest). But still it says my answer is too high.

There goes my chance for a place on the leaderboard :disappointed:

<@U02SHGSESQL> I see you solved part one, what's your puzzle input?

And I thought today's puzzle looked a bit easier than yesterday's... guess I'll find out, but first some real work to do.

Damnit. Got it. Wrong initial value. Never assume anything! -_-"

Finally nailed part 2. Damn you, responsibilities!

I'm going to give it a 3rd shot during lunch right now.

so far I'm happy I have a 2d grid and do `tree(x,y)`

Part 2 has me confused though. Somewhere my brain is thinking this does not compute.

now that I think about it. my 2d grid functions should be a reuseable component and posted on <http://forgebox.io|forgebox.io>

I tried refactoring my code a bit, slimming it down but that broke my solution :(

I had to do this to visualize the grid problem

<@UBUCAQEU8> that happened to me yesterday

Just some print.line() statements visualising the forest.

Did not cope well with the 99x99 input array though :')

oh uh print.table() doesn't work well for this

it really helped to realize what the true size the grid was that you are looping over... and always start with the sample  input solving for the simple sample ... i rarely have to change any logic for the larger ones...just make sure that you have no infinite loops are you might have to kill java  a few times..

Today that theory really bit me in the ass, following the example.

Apparently i assumed my theory for part one that count should be initialized with size^2 (only applicable for the example 5x5 array so it seemed...). Silly me.

lol... just wish the puzzle didn't drop at midnight eastern... it kinda eliminates my being able to hop on and just hope that i can get at least close to a valued rank...

no west coast but prime time to hang out with wife prior to bed...

It unlocks at 6AM local time for me. Around the time I start my commute to work.

Found part 1 by luck. Still can't find the logic of the output array though :disappointed: To repeat <@U09PE9C93>, I hate grid problems.

Part 2, i'll have to give up for :confused:.

Looked just now at today's puzzle. Don't even want to start working on that... :grimacing:

Still stuck on  part 2
Just got my code to print out exactly as in the example

<@U09PE9C93> / <@U02SHGSESQL> how did you guys solve part 2?

Solved part one, but part 2 is giving me a headache.

Spend ages trying to reproduce the actual example output.

So part 2 is just an extension of part 1  so i put those positions into an array   of knots

and as i am looping over the data making the moves I am looping down the list of knots making each subsequent move

so the solution you get for part 2 should be able to be run on part 1

I used linked items.  So the `head` has `x`, `y`, and `next` which is another knot.

```function walkInstructions( required array instructions, numeric ropeSize = 10 ) {
        var head = { "x": 0, "y": 0, "tail": {} };
        var current = head;
        for ( var s = 1; s &lt; ropeSize; s++ ) {
            var newTail = { "x": 0, "y": 0, "tail": {} };
            current.tail = newTail;
            current = newTail;
        }
        current = head;
        var visited = {};

        for ( var i = 1; i &lt;= arguments.instructions.len(); i++ ) {
            var instruction = arguments.instructions[ i ];
            head.x = head.x + instruction.x;
            head.y = head.y + instruction.y;
            current = head;
            while( !current.tail.isEmpty() ) {
                follow( current, current.tail );
                current = current.tail;
            }
            visited[ "(#current.x#,#current.y#)" ] = true;
        }

        return visited;
    }```

Nice approach. Just used arrays here. But i wrecked myself trying to print the array

I finally solved day 8, onto this day 9 challenge. I've read it severals times and thats all i've done lol

Relieved that elves seem to get easier tasks on weekends... :simple_smile:

Life caught up to me. AoC is put on hold for now :disappointed:.

<@UBUCAQEU8> Join me. Im going to start skipping some days. Like I’ll log on to read the puzzle. But I don’t want to miss all days because one puzzle is in my way. 

Last three days took a lot of effort. I mean it’s Saturday 3pm and all I want to do right now is sleep. :laughing: 

how do you guys listToArray() by empty lines?

on day 1 I use the fileOpen(), fielIsEOF(), fileReadLine() and fileClose()  and isEmpty(line )methods to separate by the empty line. is there a one liner that can accomplish the same?

My first reaction here is did you check the `listToArray` docs for anything that might help you?

the multicharacterdelimiter is key here I believe. but I don't know what should be the set of delimiters.

what i typically have done iwth these puzzles is if i need to separate by two carriage returns as well as singles ... i would replace in my input alldouble CRs with something special i like to use CHR(29) FS... i know it won't ever be in my input data then i split by that... to get my individual records

if that is what your CR looks like i typically because of OS differences will with CF have a variable
```CR = "
";```
and then the OS handles what the line separators are...

it makes for ugly code who wants that in your code but for projects when i have to do it i put it in a file of constants/fake enums and just reference that...

ok. I'm trying it right now in listToArray() - without replace() like you said. will try that next.

one CR works to separate by line, but two CRs doesn't separate by empty lines.

I believe CF list functions .. list separators are single characters

listToArray() has an optional param called multicharacterdelimiter. setting that to true should work

Yep that does look like it should work...
<https://trycf.com/gist/9667a37e95823ec7e60b6d215fb517f0/lucee5?theme=monokai>

I am going to try it on my solution to see if anything changed

<@U0PNJPC31> you should be familiar with this lot: <https://www.asciitable.com/>

CR is chr(13). chr(10) is LF.

Depending on the source of the file, the line-endings will be LF, CRLF or poss CR.

```
        var data = FileRead(filename);              
        var monkeysData = ListToArray(data, CR &amp; CR, false, true);```
Yep that does work

And... obvs... they way to know is to... inspect the string and *find out*.

<@U02SHGSESQL> indentation was preventing it from working properly.  so yeah I agree its really ugly and not a good practice.

<@U01UMF483V4> I read this article by pete <https://www.petefreitag.com/item/863.cfm> - so in trusting that line endings are going to be LF only `listToArray( chr(10) &amp; chr(10), false true)` does the job. YES!!!!

but if you know the platform you are on and the line feeds it is easier to say
var CR = chr(10) &amp; chr(13);
or
var CR = chr(10)
or
var CR = chr(13) &amp; chr(10)

knowing the platform won't help. EG I'm on Windows but only use LF.

Only way to know is to check. Unless there's a documented API involved and the exposing service says "it'll use CRLF / LF / CR", then you should assume that to be the case.

looks like you might be able to get something from java System.lineSeparator()
<https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/system-lineseparator-method-in-java-with-examples/#:~:text=The%20lineSeparator()%20is%20a,separator.&amp;text=Parameters%3A%20This%20method%20does%20not%20take%20any%20parameters>.

Yeah that's the line separator *of the local file system*. It does not speak to the EOL used in a specific file.

For the purposes of the AoC exercise, do they give you a file? I could see from the question they talk about the contents, but I didn't read beyond that

they give you a text stream you put it where you put it

`fileRead('./input.txt').listToArray( chr(10) &amp; chr(10), false, true);` is the one liner I was looking for.

Here is what I was doing wrong: I always assumed I had to use `chr(13) &amp; chr(10)` for line endings, which works to grab every line, so I tried `listToArray( chr(13) &amp; chr(10) &amp; chr(13) &amp; chr(10), false, true)` for multi delimiter and it didn't work.

I drop down to Java to split mine, using the `split` method. Then I convert it back to an array using `arraySlice` like so:

```arraySlice( input.split( "\n\n" ), 1 )```

Is it really dropping down to Java if it’s a first class method? 

They're not hidden and what does "first class" mean? It's a method of java.lang.String. a CFML string is a ~

Just be mindful that it returns a String[], not a CFML Array.

And "here's one I made earlier":
<https://blog.adamcameron.me/2022/10/cfml-addressing-confusion-around-arrays.html>

first class member method?  lol

I mean you dont have to `createObject("java", "java.lang.Integer")` . and I mean hidden because its not found in <http://cfdocs.org|cfdocs.org>

I see. Odd way of looking at it, but I see what you mean. Whatever works.

adobe docs suck and I tried searching for "hidden methods in cfml" and got nada. lol. how the hell you do you know whats available?

i love cfml but soemthing like is frustrating. ok maybe not that frustrating.

`myObj.getClass().getName()`, and then looking at the java documentation for that class.

or `myObj.getClass().getMethods()` and loop over that calling (whatevs)

<https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html>

You need to get into the mindset that CFML is (kind of) a JVM language. So *everything* is Java. That's the starting point.

<https://trycf.com/gist/6632d052e9e686a288628cead5227a92/lucee5?theme=monokai>. Not hugely useful like that, but you get the idea

dude. that's the best docs page I've seen in a while.

so `"".split(delimiter)` returns String[] which is a java array of strings, not a CFML array.
so the methods I can use with String[] are the ones listed here `arrayEach([].getClass().getMethods(), (method) =&gt; writeOutput(method.getName() &amp; "&lt;br&gt;"))` and not the ones listed here <https://cfdocs.org/array-functions>

yes unless you convert it to CF array afterwards

to convert it
```cfmlArrayOfChars = arrayNew(1).append(javaArrayOfChars, true);```
another lesson learned - thank you fellas!

[6:24 AM]
I drop down to Java to split mine, using the `split` method. Then I convert it back to an array using `arraySlice` like so:

```arraySlice( input.split( "\n\n" ), 1 )```


So there are three ways to split by new lines
1. `chr(10)` ie:  `"".listToArray(chr(10))`
2.  `\n` ie: `arraySlice("".split"\n"), 1)`
3. 
```var CR = "
";```
ie:
`"".listToArray( CR )`

and you can't use the slice member function to `"".split("\n").slice(1)` because slice is not a member function of the java array.

To expand upon it... <https://trycf.com/gist/eb5dbaf890cc21bb4c5d274ac98fa381/lucee5?theme=monokai>

.split("\R") will handle all manners of EOL character combinations..

Was thinking about converting it to a graph using an adjacency list and using Dijkstra's algorithm to find the shortest path. But I give up. I have *actual* work to do as well and it seems to suffer b/c of these challenges :stuck_out_tongue:.

<https://cfml.slack.com/archives/C04CMV7B23G/p1670524906732799?thread_ts=1670480899.882189&amp;channel=C04CMV7B23G&amp;message_ts=1670524906.732799|https://cfml.slack.com/archives/C04CMV7B23G/p1670524906732799?thread_ts=1670480899.882189&amp;channel=C04CMV7B23G&amp;message_ts=1670524906.732799>

I’ve never done anything like what this puzzle requires. Dijkstras seems to be simple enough to understand but I don’t how to apply it to this puzzle. 

Moved over to A-start (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A*_search_algorithm>) but I keep getting a wrong (better) result for the example and a wrong result (too large) for the actual input.

sounds to me like A-start should be faster

i'm reading the wikifor Dijkstra. The psuedocode example is not easy to comprehend

so glad I found this video right away.

Explains Dijkstra's algorithm in an easy way you can translate to code.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVfj6mxhdMw>

Yeah my coworker also solved it with Dijkstra  
I am too stubborn though. I will get it to work with A* (b/c A* is just a subimplementation of Dijkstra with h()-function = 0 for every node).

Got it to work. I can't believe my answer for part one was off by *one*.

Nice dude. I haven’t finished. Last night my baby girl would not go sleep without me. I wanted to wait until she fell asleep but I think I fell asleep first. 

day 12 part 2 will have to wait
day 13 both parts finished
And my kids (2,5y/o &amp; 5y/o) keep me up sometimes as well :slightly_smiling_face: I'd say it gets better, but I'm still waiting for that moment :smile:. Anyway, good luck man!

`java.util.HashSet` . It has similar member methods to cfml's array. does not store duplicate items, allows nulls, and is  unordered.

Not sure why CFML doesn't have an api for this. :exploding_head:

CF's struct can be treated a lot like a hash set...

so is a cfml struct a hashmap or hashset underneat?

I believe technically it is a Map... but it quacks like a duck

You'd think that by day 13 the handheld device would have been fixed.  wtf!

I actually managed to solve this one pretty fast. And part two was peanuts. But indeed the elves should take better care of their devices -_-"

So once again. My output matches the example perfectly. To. The. Letter. Run the input. Wrong answer. *sigh*

I've run into that problem like 4 times now and it's the worst. so hard to debug

Nerve wrecking. Whatever I do, I keep getting the wrong result. ffs

```  96 ...............................#.......................
  97 ...............................#.......................
  98 ...............................#.......................
  99 ...............................#.......................
 100 ...............................#..o#...................
 101 ...............................#.#o#...................
 102 ...............................#.#o#o..................
 103 ...............................#.#o#o#.................
 104 ...............................#######.................```
I'm just wondering if this is a correct situation...

goddamnit, my logic was flawless (with sand dropping). It was my input parsing that failed. Missed *ONE* #!

Part 2 will have to wait. Sleep goes first :D. Good luck to others!

Day 15. Grid problems. Again.
Well, at least I got my output correct this time (tripledoublechecked it).

I’m feeling pretty good about Dijkstras. Haven’t looked at Day 15 yet but I like the grid challenges. 

I have no idea how to tackle this. I'm not sure I even understand what I'm supposed to do

I am going to have to look this weekend ... it is so hard of a month to fit work, advent of code, and family time in all together..

Perhaps AdventOfCode should do a Christmas in July...

Much more energy in the summer :slightly_smiling_face:

Did ya'll complete more challenges this year than previous years?

And once again I managed to reproduce the actual example results. But running part 1 consumes a HUGE amount of memory (and has been running for 2 hours now xD). I think i need to optimize my algorithm

one year when i was much younger i got a lot further along...  but i aint' giving up

I was off to a good start, and then this week have found no time. But have a sick kiddo today, so I'm home with her.

Myka, hope your kiddo feels better  soon.

Thanks! Woke up with a fever and was content to stay in bed for a while, but is happily watching Teen Titans Go at the moment.

let me say, from now until christmas eve keep an eye on the challenges and choose to work on the ones you get excited for or atleast look interesting to you. I know I don't have the time, but Day 15 looks like one I would like to try.

<@UBUCAQEU8> I'm going to try Day 15 but later today. Might need your help.

I'll try to help any way i can, <@U0PNJPC31>

Well, brute forcing it is obviously not the way to go.

Even after several attempts of optimizing, keep getting
```GC overhead limit exceeded
  caused by: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError
  GC overhead limit exceeded```
*sigh*

But hey, at least I got this far:
```CommandBox:15&gt; task run task example
                 5    1    1    2    2   
       5    0    5    0    5    0    5
-10 ..........#..........................
 -9 .........###.........................
 -8 ........#####........................
 -7 .......#######.......................
 -6 ......#########.............#........
 -5 .....###########...........###.......
 -4 ....#############.........#####......
 -3 ...###############.......#######.....
 -2 ..#################.....#########....
 -1 .###################.#.###########...
  0 ##########S########################..
  1 .###########################S#######.
  2 ..###################S#############..
  3 ...###################SB##########...
  4 ....#############################....
  5 .....###########################.....
  6 ......#########################......
  7 .......#########S#######S#####.......
  8 ........#######################......
  9 .......#########################.....
 10 ......####B######################....
 11 .....###S#############.###########...
 12 ......#############################..
 13 .......#############################.
 14 .......#############S#######S########
 15 ......B#############################.
 16 .....############SB################..
 17 ....##################S##########B...
 18 ...#######S######################....
 19 ....############################.....
 20 .....#############S######S######.....
 21 ......#########################......
 22 .......#######..#############B.......
 23 ........#####....###..#######........
 24 .........###......#....#####.........
 25 ..........#.............###..........
 26 .........................#...........

Part one: in the row where y=10 there are 26 positions where a beacon cannot be present```

Day 16. At first glance I believe it to be - yet another - (directed weighted) graph problem with maximum path detection. Won't be able to do this one today though. Good luck to those who will try.

I gave up. I feel like Galadriel when she tried to take the one ring from Frodo. I will also fade and go west. Probably to go cry in a corner or something xD.

Yup! <@U073H30CD> has a private leaderboard set up, too; I'll let him share it.

I’ve completed 5/8 parts so far.  Usually pick at them here and there as work/home/kids allow.

We have a channel over on the Working Code Discord. Feel free to hit up over there, too. Leaderboard is at 554634-5c563027. <https://adventofcode.com/2023/leaderboard/private>

I keep getting contradictory results. How are you guys / girls handling this particular problem?

What do you mean by contradictory?  Not sure how to spoiler on this platform, but I can talk you through what we ended up doing.

Contradictory meaning, either I must be doing something wrong (obviously :')) or my code interferes with itself b/c arrays pass by value / reference etc...

OR maybe I'm just bad at interpreting the instructions.

For instance, to my comprehension when they say, "after 1000000000 cycles", i have the iteration run for &lt;numofcycles&gt; * 4 (b/c of the 4 directions / movements). Don't worry, I have an appropriate "breakout" loop condition.

For the example input, the number of cycles (without repetition), i get 9 cycles (or "states"), with a cache size of 38 (i only keep track of the 4-th movement result, `east`).

But this yields a load on the north beams of `69`, which is ofc off by 5, according to the solution.

And i don't know where my code goes wrong. Maybe i'm just a bad programmer :cry:.

Yes, the 1000000000 cycles means that many times all the way around (all 4 directions), and yes, you only keep track after a full cycle.  ~But you want the load in the direction you last tilted it, not always north, if I'm remembering correctly.~   I did not remember correctly. You're still measuring on the north beams...but if you rotated the data in order to do the shifting always in the same direction, you have to be careful of which direction you're measuring the load on (we did 4 different tilts, rather than rotating the grid and then tilting in the same direction, so we didn't have that issue).  Could that be the issue?