#!/usr/bin/env python3 import re from collections import Counter from itertools import groupby from operator import itemgetter lines = (x.strip() for x in open("input.txt")) first = next(lines) next(lines) repl = (re.match(r"([A-Z]{2}) -> ([A-Z])", line).groups() for line in lines) repl = (v for (a, b), insert in repl for v in [(a + insert, a + b), (insert + b, a + b)]) repl = {k: list(map(itemgetter(1), v)) for k, v in groupby(sorted(repl), itemgetter(0))} combinations = Counter(first[a:a+2] for a in range(len(first)-1)) for _ in range(40): combinations = {k: sum_val for k, v in repl.items() if (sum_val := sum(combinations.get(x, 0) for x in v)) > 0} letters = ((l, cnt) for key, cnt in combinations.items() for l in key) letters = {k: sum(map(itemgetter(1), v)) for k, v in groupby(sorted(letters), itemgetter(0))} letters[first[0]] += 1 letters[first[-1]] += 1 print((max(letters.values()) - min(letters.values())) // 2)