Advent of Code 2024 🎄

This is a Rust workspace for solving Advent of Code 2024 problems.

Project Structure

advent-of-code24/
├── Cargo.toml          # Workspace configuration
├── shared/             # Shared utilities library
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   └── src/
│       └── lib.rs      # Helper functions (like read_input)
├── day01/              # Day 1 solution
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   ├── README.md       # Problem link and instructions
│   ├── src/
│   │   └── main.rs
│   └── input.txt       # Input file for day 1
├── day02/              # Day 2 solution (create as needed)
│   ├── Cargo.toml
│   ├── README.md       # Problem link and instructions
│   ├── src/
│   │   └── main.rs
│   └── input.txt       # Input file for day 2
└── ...

Shared Helper Functions

The shared crate provides utility functions that can be used across all day solutions:

• read_input(file_path: &str) - Reads a file and returns its content as a String
• read_input_lines(file_path: &str) - Reads a file and returns its content as a Vec of lines

Usage

Running a specific day

# Run day 1
cargo run --bin day01

# Run with release optimizations
cargo run --release --bin day01

Running tests

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run tests for a specific day
cargo test --bin day01

# Run tests for the shared library
cargo test --package shared

Adding a new day

Quick method (recommended):

Use the provided script to automatically create a new day:

./new_day.sh 3  # Creates day03 with all necessary files

This script will:

• Create the directory structure (day03/src/)
• Generate Cargo.toml with proper dependencies
• Create main.rs with template code
• Create README.md with the Advent of Code problem link
• Add the new day to the workspace Cargo.toml
• Create an empty input.txt file
• Create and switch to a new branch named day03

Manual method:

1. Add the new day to the workspace members in the root Cargo.toml:

   members = [
       "shared",
       "day01",
       "day02",  # Add this line
   ]

2. Create the new day directory and files:

   mkdir day02

3. Create day02/Cargo.toml:

   [package]
   name = "day02"
   version = "0.1.0"
   edition = "2021"
   
   [dependencies]
   shared = { workspace = true }

4. Create day02/src/main.rs (you can copy from day01 as a template)

5. Create day02/input.txt with your puzzle input

Example Usage of Helper Functions

use shared::{read_input, read_input_lines};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Read entire file as string
    let content = read_input("day01/input.txt")?;

    // Read file as lines
    let lines = read_input_lines("day01/input.txt")?;

    // Your solution logic here...

    Ok(())
}

Tips

• Place your puzzle input in dayXX/input.txt
• Use the shared helper functions to read input consistently
• Write tests for your solutions using sample data from the problem description
• Use cargo run --release for better performance on computationally intensive problems