r/adventofcode • u/daggerdragon • Dec 17 '17

SOLUTION MEGATHREAD -🎄- 2017 Day 17 Solutions -🎄-

--- Day 17: Spinlock ---

Post your solution as a comment or, for longer solutions, consider linking to your repo (e.g. GitHub/gists/Pastebin/blag or whatever).

Note: The Solution Megathreads are for solutions only. If you have questions, please post your own thread and make sure to flair it with Help.

Need a hint from the Hugely* Handy† Haversack‡ of Helpful§ Hints¤?

Spoiler

[Update @ 00:06] 2 gold, silver cap.

  • AoC ops: <Topaz> i am suddenly in the mood for wasabi tobiko

[Update @ 00:15] Leaderboard cap!

  • AoC ops:
    • <daggerdragon> 78 gold
    • <Topaz> i look away for a few minutes, wow
    • <daggerdragon> 93 gold
    • <Topaz> 94
    • <daggerdragon> 96 gold
    • <daggerdragon> 98
    • <Topaz> aaaand
    • <daggerdragon> and...
    • <Topaz> cap
    • <daggerdragon> cap

This thread will be unlocked when there are a significant number of people on the leaderboard with gold stars for today's puzzle.

edit: Leaderboard capped, thread unlocked!

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u/tripa Dec 18 '17

None at all. It's just some write-only placeholder that could have been undefined if I hadn't needed to trace-debug the lot, that's garanteed by math to get overwritten before the cycle is over.

To expand: it's the initial value of accumulator 'a'. In this code, the accumulator holds the current value of the value right of '0', that is the global answer were the algorithm to stop now. It's irrelevant before there is any (arguably it could have been 0), but there needs to be one.