AdventOfCodeSupport 2.5.1

AdventOfCodeSupport

This package provides support to simplify the process of storing each day's puzzle within a single solution. Each day is automatically registered to a central location, with built-in support for BenchmarkDotNet, downloading input files, and submitting answers.

Quick Start

• Begin by adding this NuGet package to your project AdventOfCodeSupport.
• Add a folder to your project for the current year i.e. 2024.
• Add a subfolder to the year called Inputs.
• Place each day's input into that folder named by day with 2 digits 01.txt.
• Optionally place the sample inputs into a similarly named Sample01.txt.
• Create a class in the 2024 folder called Day01.cs

Project/
├── Program.cs
└── 2024/
    ├── Day01.cs
    ├── Day02.cs
    └── Inputs/
        ├── 01.txt
        ├── 02.txt
        ├── Sample01.txt
        ├── Sample02.txt
        └── Sample02P2.txt

using AdventOfCodeSupport;

namespace Foo._2024;

public class Day01 : AdventBase
{
    protected override void InternalOnLoad()
    {
        // Optional override, runs before Part1/2.
        // Benchmarked separately.
    }
    
    protected override object InternalPart1()
    {
        // Part 1 solution here.
        Console.WriteLine($"Characters: {Input.Text.Length}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Lines: {Input.Lines.Length}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Blocks: {Input.Blocks.Length}");
        var bytes = Input.Bytes;
        var span = Input.Span;
        var span2d = Input.Span2D;
        var partOneAnswer = 42;
        return partOneAnswer;
    }

    protected override object InternalPart2()
    {
        // Part 2 solution here.
        Bag["Foo"] = "Bar"; // Pass information to unit tests.
        var partTwoAnswer = "ArDKz";
        return partTwoAnswer;
    }
}

• The property Input loads the day's input file automatically, containing Text for the raw text, Lines split on new lines removing leading and trailing empty new lines, and Blocks which are split on double new lines.
• Returned answers can be used by SubmitPart1/2Async() *see below.
• Create a new AdventSolutions() at your entry point.
• Select your day from the AdventSolutions, for example:

using AdventOfCodeSupport;

var solutions = new AdventSolutions();
var today = solutions.GetMostRecentDay();
// var day3 = solutions.GetDay(2024, 3);
// var day4 = solutions.First(x => x.Year == 2024 && x.Day == 4);
// today.Part1Sample("Answer to everything").Part2Sample(42);
today.Part1().Part2();
// today.Benchmark();

• Run your solution parts with today.Part1().Part2().
• Or benchmark them with today.Benchmark(), benchmarking requires running in Release.

Alternate Naming Patterns

If instead of the structure provided in the quick start, you wished to have for example the structure show below.

Project/
├── Program.cs
├── Year2024Day01.cs
├── Year2024Day02.cs
└── Inputs/
    ├── 202401.txt
    ├── 202402.txt
    ├── 2024Sample01.txt
    ├── 2024Sample02.txt
    └── 2024Sample02P2.txt

You would instantiate your AdventSolutions as follows:

using AdventOfCodeSupport;

var solutions = new AdventSolutions("Inputs/yyyydd.txt", "YearyyyyDaydd.cs");
var today = solutions.GetMostRecentDay();
// var day3 = solutions.GetDay(2024, 3);
// var day4 = solutions.First(x => x.Year == 2024 && x.Day == 4);
today.Part1().Part2();
// today.Benchmark();

Benchmarking

There's 2 different ways you can benchmark your solutions with this package, namely, on the derived AdventBase day object itself with .Benchmark(); or, on the entire collection of days under AdventSolutions with .BenchmarkAll(). Both options accept IConfig for BenchmarkDotNet configuration, refer to their documentation for more information. BenchmarkAll() also optionally accepts a year parameter to limit the run to a specific year.

Download Input Files

To begin you'll need to login to www.adventofcode.com, open the browser dev tools, then head to Application Tab → Storage → Cookies, click the cookie for the site, then copy the value (long chain of numbers and letters) of the session cookie.

• Open the folder containing your .csproj file in terminal.
• Run the command dotnet user-secrets init
• Then dotnet user-secrets set "session" "cookie" but replace the word cookie with the actual cookie copied from the site.
• After pulling your day from AdventSolutions call .DownloadInputAsync()

var solutions = new AdventSolutions();
var day = solutions.GetMostRecentDay();
await day.DownloadInputAsync();

This only downloads input files that aren't on disk, so if you need to replace one for whatever reason, you'll need to delete the old file first.

Run Samples

Most puzzle days include a sample input and expected result in addition to the day's actual input file. Placing these in your inputs folder in a separate file with a similar naming pattern, so Day01 has 01.txt but could also have 2 additional files, Sample01.txt and optionally Sample01P2.txt (refer to file tree in Quick Start), if the sample input is the same for Part 2 of the day's puzzle, you can exclude the separate P2 file, and it will use the first part's file.

var solutions = new AdventSolutions();
var day = solutions.GetMostRecentDay();
day.Part1Sample("Answer to everything");
day.Part2Sample(42);

Checking the samples will throw if the comparison fails allowing you to chain everything together safely.

See example:

await day.Part1Sample(42).SubmitPart1Async();

If Part 1 using the sample input file does not return 42, this will throw and prevent SubmitPart1Async from ever being reached.

Avoid caching, reinitialize your fields/properties in Part1/2 or OnLoad.

Submit Answers

If you'd like to submit your answers from code, follow the steps for the user-secrets in the Download Input Files section above.

Calling the submit methods first checks if a correct answer has already been submitted, if yes, then returns null, if no, runs part code if it hasn't already ran, then asks the user if they'd like to submit their answer. True/false will be returned accordingly, as well as print the feedback to console from the attempted submission.

var solutions = new AdventSolutions();
var day = solutions.GetMostRecentDay();
await day.SubmitPart1Async();
await day.SubmitPart2Async();

Check Answers

If you'd like to check your answers from code, follow the steps for the user-secrets in the Download Input Files section above.

These methods can be useful if you've already submitted a correct answer in the past, but would like to rework your solution to the day's puzzle. It will run the part if not already ran, and then compare your new answer to the correct answer you've previously submitted.

var solutions = new AdventSolutions();
var day = solutions.GetMostRecentDay();
await day.CheckPart1Async();
await day.CheckPart2Async();

Unit Testing

Some extension methods such as SetTestInput which means InputText and InputLines will use that test input instead of the actual input file, along with GetBag() can help assist you with creating unit tests. Part1Answer and Part2Answer both run Part1() and Part2() respectively and call ToString().

protected override void InternalPart1()
{
    // Do some work then...
    Bag["Test"] = InputText; // Pass to unit test.
    return 42; // Can be obtained with Part1Answer.
}

using AdventOfCodeSupport;
using AdventOfCodeSupport.Testing;

public class SampleTests
{
    private readonly AdventSolutions _solutions;

    public SampleTests()
    {
        Assembly.Load("MyProject"); // Use actual project name containing your solutions
        _solutions = new AdventSolutions();
    }
    
    [Fact]
    public void InputTest_CustomInput_TextLoaded()
    {
        var day = _solutions.GetDay(2024, 4);
        day.SetTestInput("123");
        Assert.Equal("42", day.Part1Answer);
        Assert.StartsWith("123", day.GetBag()["Test"]);
    }
}