Excel BI - Excel Challenge 845

excel-challenges
excel-formulas
🔰 Answer Expected Dept ID Name Emp Ind A C A, C B E B, D
Published

March 24, 2026

Illustration for Excel BI - Excel Challenge 845

Challenge Description

🔰 Answer Expected Dept ID Name Emp Ind A C A, C B E B, D

Solutions

library(tidyverse)
library(readxl)

path = "Excel/800-899/845/845 Employee Groups.xlsx"
input = read_excel(path, range = "A2:C14")
test  = read_excel(path, range = "E2:G7") %>%
  mutate(Name = str_replace_all(Name, " , ", ", "))

result = input %>%
  summarise(Name = paste(Name, collapse = ", "),
            .by = c(`Dept ID`,`Emp Ind`)) %>%
  relocate(Name, .after = `Dept ID`) %>%
  arrange(`Dept ID`, `Emp Ind`) 
  

all.equal(result, test, check.attributes = FALSE)
# [1] TRUE
  • Logic: Read the workbook ranges needed for the challenge; Derive the required intermediate columns; Aggregate or rank the data at the required grouping level.
  • Strengths: The code maps the workbook rule into a compact, reproducible pipeline.
  • Areas for Improvement: The solution assumes the workbook layout and selected ranges remain stable, so any structural change in the sheet would require small adjustments.
  • Gem: The elegant part is how little code is needed once the correct intermediate representation is chosen.
import pandas as pd

path = "Excel/800-899/845/845 Employee Groups.xlsx"
input = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="A:C", skiprows=1, nrows=13)
test = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="E:G", skiprows=1, nrows=5).rename(columns=lambda c: c.replace(".1", ""))\
    .assign(Name=lambda df: df["Name"].str.replace(r" , ", ", ", regex=True))

result = (
    input.groupby(["Dept ID", "Emp Ind"], as_index=False)["Name"]
    .agg(", ".join)
    .sort_values(["Dept ID", "Emp Ind"])
)[["Dept ID", "Name", "Emp Ind"]]

print(result.equals(test))  # True

The Python version follows the same grouped logic and keeps the transformation explicit in a dataframe pipeline.

Difficulty Level

Easy / Medium

The business rule is clear, though the workbook still needs a few transformation steps to reach the expected output.