Excel BI - Excel Challenge 881

excel-challenges

excel-formulas

🔰 Inout Word Target Word Answer Expected docu documentation doto tent dcmd butl beautiful

Published

March 24, 2026

Illustration for Excel BI - Excel Challenge 881

Challenge Description

🔰 Inout Word Target Word Answer Expected docu documentation doto tent dcmd butl beautiful

Solutions

library(tidyverse)
library(readxl)

path <- "Excel/800-899/881/881 Completion of Words.xlsx"
input <- read_excel(path, range = "A1:B38")
test <- read_excel(path, range = "C1:C38")

is_subsequence <- function(s, l) {
  purrr::map2_lgl(s, l, function(s1, l1) {
    pat <- str_c(str_split(s1, "", simplify = TRUE), collapse = ".*")
    str_detect(l1, pat)
  })
}

result = input %>%
  mutate(`Answer Expected` = is_subsequence(`Inout Word`, `Target Word`))

all.equal(result$`Answer Expected`, test$`Answer Expected`)
# [1] TRUE

Logic: Read the workbook ranges needed for the challenge; Derive the required intermediate columns; Parse the packed text or string structure.
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
import re

path = "Excel\\800-899\\881\\881 Completion of Words.xlsx"
input = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="A:B", nrows = 37)
test = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="C", nrows = 37)

def is_subsequence(short, long):
    return bool(re.search(".*".join(map(re.escape, short)), long))

result = input.apply(
    lambda row: is_subsequence(row['Inout Word'], row['Target Word']),
    axis=1
)

print(result.equals(test['Answer Expected']))  # True

The Python version expresses the core extraction rule directly and keeps the pattern matching easy to review.

Difficulty Level

Easy / Medium

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