#####Motivation

Very few people use JavaScript for Google Code Jam (yes, Java/C++ are faster, but my guess is that this probably won't make a difference for most of the coding challenges).

#####About

So, I decided to build some boilerplate code so JS users (or, more likely, just me) don't have to worry about the annoying input/output parts of JavaScript, and can run their code as easily as the Java/C++ crew.

This code, when required in any code, will automatically read the first two arguments passed to a node program, and will assume the first is the input file, and the second is the output file. It then allows easy input/output through included helper functions.

#####To Install

• Make sure node and npm are installed on your computer

• npm install google-code-jam-io

#####To Use / Docs (sort of)

example_of_all_usages.js

var gcj = require('./code-jam-boilerplate.js');

// Read the input file line by line and run a callback
// on each line
gcj.readFileAsyncByLine(function(line) {
  //Do something with each line
});

// Get the entire file contents as a string
var entire_file_as_string = gcj.readFileSync();

// Write a string to the output file
gcj.writeToFile('This will go in the output file!');

// Delete the output file if it exists (useful if you want to clear
// the file before appending)
gcj.deleteOutputFile();

// Append a string to the output file
gcj.appendToFile('This will be appended to the output file!');

Once you have your file created, be sure to pass in the input and output file when you run it!

For example, you could run this in the command line:

node example_of_all_usages.js example_input.txt example_output.txt

#####Good News!

I wasn't sure if anyone would be allowed to use this file. But it IS allowed! WOOP WOOP! So I'd encourage everyone who's interested to use this in Google Code Jam.