Advent of Code 2023 - Day 02
Published: 2023-12-02 18:14:51

---
title: Advent of Code 2023 - Day 02
published: true
date: 2023-12-02 00:00:00 UTC
tags: 
canonical_url: https://ericburden.work/blog/2023/12/02/advent-of-code-2023-day-02/
---

It’s that time of year again! Just like last year, I’ll be posting my solutions to the [Advent of Code](https://adventofcode.com/) puzzles. This year, I’ll be solving the puzzles in [Kotlin](https://kotlinlang.org/). I’ll post my solutions and code to [GitHub](https://github.com/ericwburden/advent_of_code_2023) as well. If you haven’t given AoC a try, I encourage you to do so along with me!

# Day 2 - Cube Conundrum

Find the problem description [HERE](https://adventofcode.com/2023/day/2).

## The Input - Cubist Collection

It seems we’ve rounded the corner from yesterday’s “parsing is the puzzle” and now we’re back on more familiar footing. The puzzle description states that we need to keep track of games and handfuls of cubes, so that’s what we’re going to do!

```kotlin
/**
 * This is a data class that represents a set of colored cubes
 *
 * @property red The number of red cubes
 * @property green The number of green cubes
 * @property blue The number of blue cubes
 * @constructor Create a new [CubeSet] with the given number of [red], [blue], 
 * and [green] cubes.
 */
data class CubeSet(val red: Int, val green: Int, val blue: Int) {
  companion object {
    /**
     * Parse a [CubeSet] from a String
     *
     * @param input The string to be parsed
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException When the input string is not formatted 
     * properly
     * @return A [CubeSet]
     */
    fun fromString(input: String): CubeSet {
      var red = 0
      var green = 0
      var blue = 0

      // Split a string like "1 red, 2 green, 3 blue" on commas and trim each.
      // For each number/color combination, split a string like "1 red" into
      // [1, "red"] and check to be sure we got the parts we were expecting. If
      // so, increase the number of cubes indicated by the color. Once all color
      // cubes are counted, return a [CubeSet] with those counts.
      val colorCounts = input.split(",").map { it.trim() }
      for (colorCount in colorCounts) {
        val parts = colorCount.split(" ")
        require(parts.size == 2) { "$colorCount does not match expected format!" }

        val count =
            parts[0].toIntOrNull()
                ?: throw IllegalArgumentException(
                  "$colorCount does not contain a valid count!"
                )
        val color = parts[1].lowercase()

        when (color) {
          "red" -> red += count
          "green" -> green += count
          "blue" -> blue += count
          else -> throw IllegalArgumentException(
            "$colorCount does not contain a valid color!"
          )
        }
      }

      return CubeSet(red, green, blue)
    }
  }
}

/**
 * This class represents one round of the [Game]
 *
 * Each round, the elf reveals a handful of cubes. This class holds the [id] of 
 * the game and maintains a list of the [handfuls] of cubes revealed by the elf.
 *
 * @property id The unique game identifier.
 * @property handfules The [CubSet]s revealed by the elf.
 * @constructor Creates a new [CubSet] with the given [id] and [handfuls] of 
 * revealed cubes.
 */
data class Game(val id: Int, val handfuls: List<CubeSet>) {
  companion object {
    /**
     * Parse a [Game] from a line of the input file
     *
     * @param input A line from the input file.
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException When the input is malformed.
     * @return A [Game] parsed from the input line.
     */
    fun fromString(input: String): Game {
      // Input in the format of "Game 1: 3 blue, 4 red; 1 red, 2 green, 6 blue; 
      // 2 green". Split on the colon to get ["Game 1", "3 blue, 4 red; 1 red, 
      // 2 green, 6 blue; 2 green"].
      val mainParts = input.split(":").map { it.trim() }
      require(mainParts.size == 2) { "$input is not a valid Game format!" }
      val (gamePart, cubePart) = mainParts

      // Get the Game ID from a string like "Game 1". If this part of the input 
      // line is not formed correctly, throw an exception.
      val gameParts = gamePart.split(" ").map { it.trim() }
      require(gameParts[0] == "Game") {
        throw IllegalArgumentException("$gamePart is not a valid Game format!")
      }
      val id =
          gameParts[1].toIntOrNull() ?: throw IllegalArgumentException(
            "$gamePart does not contain a valid id!"
          )

      // Get the handfuls of cubes revealed. For each string like 
      // "1 red, 2 green, 6 blue", parse that string into a [CubeSet] and 
      // set `handfuls` to that list of cubesets.
      val handfuls = cubePart.split(";").map(CubeSet::fromString)

      return Game(id, handfuls)
    }
  }
}

class Day02(input: List<String>) {

  // Parse the input by constructing a Game from each non-empty line.
  private val parsed = input.filter { !it.isEmpty() }.map(Game::fromString)

 // ...
 
}

```

So, here we go. We’ve got `CubSet`s and we’ve got `Game`s and we can parse each of them from a line of the input. Nice.

## Part One - Bag of Holding

We’ve (barely) arrived safely on an island in the sky that I kind of wish we’d known about _before_ being launched like a pumpkin (look it up, it’s a thing). Ah well, at least we have a tour guide. And, he wants to play a guessing game with us. Our guide will be pulling cubes out of his bag and we’re supposed to figure out whether or not his bag contains more or less than some predefined number of red, green, and blue cubes. Not the worst way to spend a leisurely stroll across a sky island.

```kotlin
data class CubeSet(val red: Int, val green: Int, val blue: Int) {
  
  // ...

  /**
   * Determines whether this [CubeSet] is valid
   *
   * A [CubSet] is valid if the number of cubes in it can be contained in the 
   * [max] cubeset it is being compared to.
   *
   * @param max A [CubeSet] to compare against
   * @return A boolean indicating whether this [CubeSet] is valid
   */
  fun isValid(max: CubeSet): Boolean {
    return red <= max.red && green <= max.green && blue <= max.blue
  }
}

data class Game(val id: Int, val handfuls: List<CubeSet>) {

  // ...

  /**
   * Indicate whether this [Game] is valid
   *
   * A valid game is one where every revealed handful of cubes can be contained 
   * within the [max] cubeset.
   *
   * @param max A [CubeSet] to compare against
   * @return A Boolean indicating whether the [Game] is valid.
   */
  fun isValid(max: CubeSet): Boolean {
    return handfuls.all { it.isValid(max) }
  }
}

class Day02(input: List<String>) {

  private val maxCubeSet = CubeSet(12, 13, 14)

  // Parse the input by constructing a Game from each non-empty line.
  private val parsed = input.filter { !it.isEmpty() }.map(Game::fromString)

  // In part 1, we compare our games to a static maximum cubeset, determine
  // which games are valid, and return the sum of their game ids.
  fun solvePart1(): Int = parsed.filter { it.isValid(maxCubeSet) }.sumOf { it.id }

  // ...
  
}

```

There we go, a shiny new member function for each of our classes to determine whether a particular `CubeSet` is valid and therefor whether the entire `Game`is valid. Sum the ID’s of the valid games, and we’ve got our answer.

## Part Two - In the Eye of the Beholder

Who knew a bag of cubes could be so entertaining? Well, I suppose you get very creative stranded on an island in the sky. Our tour guide clearly needed some company in a bad way. And _we’re_ company, so now’s the chance to up the level of the game. In part 2, we need to decide on the minimum possible contents of the bag (per game) based on what we’ve seen, then provide an answer based on these contents. Sounds do-able.

```kotlin
data class CubeSet(val red: Int, val green: Int, val blue: Int) {
 
  // ...

  /**
   * Calculate the power of this [CubeSet]
   *
   * Power is the product of the number of red, green, and blue cubes
   *
   * @return The calculated power
   */
  fun power(): Int {
    return red * green * blue
  }
}

data class Game(val id: Int, val handfuls: List<CubeSet>) {
  
  // ...
  
  /**
   * Identify the smallest [CubSet] that can contain all [handfuls]
   *
   * Calculate the smallest number of red, green, and blue cubes that could be 
   * represented by the handfuls of cubes revealed by the elf.
   *
   * @return The smallest possible [CubeSet]
   */
  fun localMinimum(): CubeSet {
    var red = 0
    var green = 0
    var blue = 0

    // The smallest possible cubeset must contain at least as many red,
    // green, and blue cubes as revealed in any given handful of cubes.
    for (handful in handfuls) {
      red = maxOf(red, handful.red)
      green = maxOf(green, handful.green)
      blue = maxOf(blue, handful.blue)
    }

    return CubeSet(red, green, blue)
  }
}

class Day02(input: List<String>) {

  // ...

  // In part 2, we identify the smallest valid set of cubes for each game, 
  // calculate the 'power' of that minimum set, then return the sum of all
  // the power from all the games.
  fun solvePart2(): Int = parsed.sumOf { it.localMinimum().power() }
}

```

There we go! Again, just a couple more member functions on our two classes and we’re good to go.

## Wrap Up

Now this is more in line with the difficulty level of a Day 2 Advent of Code puzzle. There’s probably a ton of minor ways this solution could be tweaked, but it boils down to parsing strings and keeping track of your data structures. I was a bit concerned after Day 1’s relative difficulty (and knowing today was a weekend), but it appears to be all for naught. As for Kotlin, I find the whole “companion object” structure for class methods to be a bit odd and I kind of miss the `FromStr` trait in Rust, but so far it’s felt like mostly familiar territory.