# AOChallenge Module
The module is designed to speed up the solution of certain
coding challenges. The module is inspired by [Advent of
Code](https://adventofcode.com/), I have not used it for anything else,
but it is probably useful for other things.
The use of the module is different from the traditional ones, my goal
was to be able to create a new solution easily. The `Solution` base
class provided by the module contains some frequently used or useful
functions for debugging and only the solutions need to be added.
Each time I start from the code below.
```python
#!/usr/bin/python3 -u
import aochallenge
class Solution(aochallenge.Solution):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
data = self.load(True,',',int)
# def part1(self):
# def part2(self):
# def solve_more(self):
solution = Solution()
solution.main()
```
To be more precise, I also use type annotation, which I have taken from
here.
The `part1` and `part2` methods are called and the returned value is
displayed by the original class. If the two parts of the challenge build
on each other, you can also use `solve_more` (generator), in which the
solutions are returned with the `yield` keyword, so that the computation
can continue without saving previous results. Check out also the
[example](#example) at the end of this document.
In the constructor, it makes sense to load and, if necessary, preprocess
the input data, which is well done by the load function of the Solution
class. Note that this function examines the program's input arguments
and decides which input file to load (test or main) based on them.
## Importing data
For each challenge there are one or more test inputs and there is
your challenge one. The class expects the input files to be named
appropriately to be able to load automatically. For example, if the
file name is "aoc-2201.py", then the input files should be named
"aoc-2201_<id>_.input". E.g.
aoc/2022/01/
|---- aoc-2201.py source code
|---- aoc-2201-t.input test input
\---- aoc-2201.input challenge input
In this case, you can run your code with the test data as follows:
$ ./aoc-2201.py -t
And with the challenge data, simply:
$ ./aoc-2201.py
In some special cases the input is a single line of data or some other
simple constructs. In this case it is unnecessary to create files for
each, you can simply pass a look-up-table to the `load` function. E.g.
```python
INPUT = {
None: 'My challenge input data',
't': 'My test 1 input data',
't2': 'My test 2 input data',
}
...
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
data = self.load(lut=INPUT)
```
### Using `load` method
The `load` method is used to prepare the data for further processing.
The input can come from a file or from a predefined look-up-table. If
the latter is not specified, file handling is automatic (see above).
`load` function does not only import data, but does some preprocessing
on them:
```python
def load(self,
splitlines: bool = False,
splitrecords: str|None = None,
recordtype: list|tuple|type|None = None,
*,
lut: dict[str|None, Any]|None = None,
) -> list[str|int|list]
```
Parameters:
- `splitlines`: boolean value whether the input data lines have to be
splitted into a list.
- `splitrecords`: string value used to separate the records in each
line. For example, if there are comma-separated values, this field is
",". If set to `None`, items within the row are not split.
- `recordtype`: type of records. For example, if the values are numbers,
it can be `int` or even `float`. The `load` function does the
conversion. If the parameter type is `list` or `tuple`, the various
fields may have different types. E.g. `(str, list)` means, that the
first record should be a `str`, but all further ones have to be casted
to `int`.
- `lut` (keyword only parameter): if this parameter is specified, the
input data will be read from it instead of from an input file.
Note, that if `splitlines` is `False` but `splitrecords` is defined,
only the first row will be processed. This means that if you have a
one-row data set, the return element is not a two-dimensional list with
a single nested list, but a simple list of values from the first row.
## Displaying temporary results
The class contains some debugging solutions to display temporary
results.
- `print_condensed`: Prints content of a 2-dimensional container of
characters "condensed". E.g. if data is
[['#', '#', '.'], ['.', '#', '.'], ['.', '#', '#']]`
the following will be printed:
##.
.#.
.##
Note that the 2-dimensional container can be also a list of strings.
- `def print_csv`: Prints content of a 2-dimensional container in a
comma separated way
- `def print_arranged`: Prints content of a 2-dimensional container
arranged into columns
## Example
**PART 1**: Add up all the numbers in each row separated by commas and
print the maximum of these sums.
**PART 2**: Find the 3 largest sums, add them up and determine the final
result.
Using `part1` and `part2`:
```python
#!/usr/bin/python3 -u
import aochallenge
class Solution(aochallenge.Solution):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.data = self.load(True,',',int)
def part1(self):
return max(sum(row) for row in self.data)
def part2(self):
return sum(sorted(sum(row) for row in self.data)[-3:])
solution = Solution()
solution.main()
```
Using `solve_more`:
```python
#!/usr/bin/python3 -u
import aochallenge
class Solution(aochallenge.Solution):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.data = self.load(True,',',int)
def solve_more(self):
sums = sorted(sum(row) for row in self.data)
yield sums[-1]
yield sum(sums[-3:])
solution = Solution()
solution.main()
```