Practice Your Skills with the Advent of Code

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Practice Your Skills with the Advent of Code

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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December 8, 2020 at 12:00 am

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Practice Your Skills with the Advent of Code

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Doctor Who 2 SSCrazy Eights Points: 8177 More actions · Answer 1

thank you again, Steve, for reminding me of Advent of Code. Like you, I've started the challenge, but never finished it. Still, it's fun for as long as I have the time for it.

Rod

Mr. Brian Gale SSC-Insane Points: 24675 More actions · Answer 2

I forgot about the advent of code as well. They are fun (and challenging) puzzles for sure. Would be nice if they listed some global "rules" like that the solution should be found by using TSQL. I know the first part of the first puzzle is trivial to do using Excel and only mildly difficult for the second part. Would also be nice if we are supposed to use TSQL, if the input was formatted for TSQL.

But any way you solve them is fun. it is interesting to challenge yourself and pick a tool you wouldn't normally use to solve these sorts of problems and see if you can do it. Since the link was posted on SSC, my first thought was to handle these in SQL Server, but decided I'd try a different approach and go with excel. Going to tackle more of them on the weekend though and see if I can get all 50 gold stars by the time the thing ends!

The above is all just my opinion on what you should do.
As with all advice you find on a random internet forum - you shouldn't blindly follow it. Always test on a test server to see if there is negative side effects before making changes to live!
I recommend you NEVER run "random code" you found online on any system you care about UNLESS you understand and can verify the code OR you don't care if the code trashes your system.

larry.blake SSC Enthusiast Points: 186 More actions · Answer 3

Thanks Steve for pointing out this fun website! I did several of the problems in C#, which is not a language I use in my day job. I probably enjoy it more for that reason. People who regularly do a lot of string and text file processing may find it less of a change.