Advent of Code 2024 - Day 4

In this readme I detail the puzzle instructions from adventofcode.com/2024/day/4 along with the answers to the puzzle, and any explanation on how I solved it. I typically try to comment the code in such a way that further explanation is not needed, but if things are particularly peculiar then I'll write a little something here.

Instruction Summary: "Ceres Search"

The Elf's word search puzzle involves finding occurrences of specific patterns in a grid of letters.

• Part One: Count all occurrences of the word "XMAS," which can appear horizontally, vertically, diagonally, backwards, and overlapping other words (e.g., 18 times in the example).
• Part Two: Instead of "XMAS," find patterns where two "MAS" sequences form an X shape, with each MAS written forwards or backwards (e.g., 9 times in the example).