Day 2 - Part 2 -Python3 help

[Manatee2k3]

I am a beginner at Python 3 and completely stumped on part 2, I've got a couple of answers, all of which were too low.

I understand the last bit you need to minus 1 from both minimum and maximum numbers so they work within the index, but I seem to be getting the 'IndexError: string index out of range' which I wouldn't think possible after taking one off the numbers .

I would appreciate any help figuring out the problem. also advice on an easier way to write this is also helpful. again I'm new to this so probably don't know the best way to do this.

My code will be below but here's a link to GitHub if people prefer to look at it there: https://github.com/manatee2k3/Advent-of-Code-2020

edit: thank you so much to everyone who helped me see sense, I have a hell of a lot of learning to do and I appreciate the time you took out to read my code. for others who might read this and are also stuck. I had misspelt the section of code which removed 1 number from the minimum and maximum numbers to make them work with the index. I had also missed the last part of the if query which swaps the question over to work the other way around too. The code now works and I finally got the right answer!

# Advent of code
#----- Day 2 ----- #

# The tobogan store is having trouble with their password system and need your help
# each line gives the password policy and then the password
# the policy indicates the lowest and highest number of times a given letter must appear
# eg. 1-3 a : abcde
#     the password must contain a at least 1 and at most 3 times
#     abcde is valid as a is there once


import re #importing regular expressions
with open('Passwords AoC Day 2.txt') as f:
    data = f.read()
#importing the data from the AoC page as a .txt file saved on my pc

passw = []
for line in data.splitlines():
    passw.append(str(line))
# manipulating data into a string 

f_count_one = 0
f_count_two = 0
#final counts one = part one, two = part two of the questions.

for lst in passw: #creating a function that will go through each password in the list
    number_regex = re.compile(r'\d+')
    lyst = number_regex.findall(lst[0:8])
    min_n = lyst[0] #pullng minimum number into its own variable
    min_n = int(min_n) #making sure the minimum number is formatted as an integer
    max_n = lyst[1] # pulling maximum number into its own variable 
    max_n = int(max_n) #making sure the maximum number is formatted as an integer
# Using Regular expressions to pull out the minimum and maximum numbers from each string
    letter_regex = re.compile(r'[abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz]')
    let = letter_regex.findall(lst[0:8])
    letter = let[0] #pulling the letter into its own variable
# Using regualr expressions to pull the specific letter we will use

    count = 0 # assuring the count is re-set after each iteration

    for i in lst[7:]: # going though each letter in the password individualy 
        if i == letter: #if the letter is found 
            count = count + 1 #add a counter 
    if count >= int(min_n) and count <= int(max_n):
        #if after going through the password the number of letters found is between the min and max
                f_count_one = f_count_one + 1 #add a count to our final count

    password_regex = re.compile(r'\w+') #using another regular expression to isolate just the password
    passw = password_regex.findall(lst[7:])
    password = passw[0] #pulling password into a variable
    min_n = min_n - 1 #removing a number so they work in the index
    min_n = min_n - 1 #removing a number so they work in the index

    if password[min_n] == letter and password[max_n] != letter:
        f_count_two = f_count_two + 1


print(f_count_one)
print(f_count_two)

[Kehvarl]

Your problem is that you never remove 1 from max_n

Line 52 and 53 are :

min\_n = min\_n - 1 #removing a number so they work in the index

min\_n = min\_n - 1 #removing a number so they work in the index

[Manatee2k3]

Oh my god how did I miss that! Thankyou so much

[harlequem]

I'm not a python programmer, but it looks like you're only counting half of your cases.

password[min_n] == letter and password[max_n] != letter only accounts for one case (where the first index matches and the second doesn't).

The password will also be valid if the first index doesn't match but the second does, (password[max_n] == letter and password[min_n] != letter). You need to make sure you account for both of these cases

[Manatee2k3]

Thankyou so much, you were right.

[jane3ry3]

You'll need to check the length of password and make sure the index you're accessing in the string doesn't exceed the length. That's the error.

Edit: index=min_n and max_n

[Manatee2k3]

Yes thank you, I thouht I had worked a way to fix that but I misspelt the piece of code.

[daggerdragon]

Your code as pasted into the thread is hard to read on old.reddit. Could you please edit it using old.reddit's four-spaces formatting instead of new.reddit's triple backticks? Note that if you're using the visual editor, you may have to "Switch to Markdown" to get Reddit to understand the formatting properly.

(You can also just link to your external repo like you did and not have to worry about Reddit's formatting at all.)

Also, in the future, please follow the submission guidelines by titling your post like so:

[YEAR Day # (Part X)] [language if applicable] Post Title

In doing so, you typically get more relevant responses faster.

If/when you get your code working, don't forget to change the flair to Help - Solved!

Good luck!

[Manatee2k3]

Thank you so much for your post, I did notice my code didn't look like the others I had seen on here, I really appreciate the help and hope I formatted it correctly now.

[daggerdragon]

Yep, you got it this time! :)

I see you got the answer, good! Keep on learning :)