Debugging Solutions

Some puzzles are tricky, you are so close to the right solution but there's a pesky bug hiding in plain sight.

To hunt for it, it's better to make use of the debugger than to spam your code with .also(::println)!

However, there's a problem. If you run the whole AdventSpec in debug mode, you might not trigger the breakpoint when you expect, because the solution is run against multiple inputs and examples.

AocKt does not address this issue directly, but you can easily work around it!

Main Function

You can define a main function near your solution and call it manually. IntelliJ will offer a gutter icon, right click it and run it with the debugger:

fun main() {
    Y9999D01.partOne("<handcrafted input or edge case>")  
} 

object Y9999D01 : Solution { /* ... */ }

Test Function

The same can be achieved from the test source-set if you like.

Since an AdventSpec is just a specialization of a FunSpec, you can register other tests too! If you use the Kotest IntelliJ Plugin, you can run individual tests from the gutter icons. Therefore, you can simply define a separate test within your spec, and use the gutter icon to run that with the debugger.

The AdventSpec exposes your implementation in the solution property, so you can call it manually with the input you wish to test.

@AdventDay(9999, 1, "Magic Numbers")
class Y9999D01 : AdventSpec<Y9999D01>({
    
    test("debug") {
        solution.partOne("<handcrafted input or edge case>")
    }
    
    // ...
})

Last modified: 17 November 2024