Excel BI - Excel Challenge 690

excel-challenges
excel-formulas
🔰 Find the sum of values against all alphabets.
Published

March 24, 2026

Illustration for Excel BI - Excel Challenge 690

Challenge Description

🔰 Find the sum of values against all alphabets.

Solutions

library(tidyverse)
library(readxl)

path = "Excel/690 Alphabets Grid Sum.xlsx"
input = read_excel(path, range = "A2:J12", col_names = FALSE) %>% as.matrix()
test  = read_excel(path, range = "L1:M23")

M = input %>%
  t() %>%
  matrix(ncol = 2, byrow = TRUE) %>%
  as.data.frame() %>%
  mutate(V2 = as.numeric(V2)) %>%
  summarise(V2 =  sum(V2), .by = V1) %>%
  arrange(V1) %>%
  select(Alphabets = V1, Sum = V2) 

all.equal(M, 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
import numpy as np

path = "690 Alphabets Grid Sum.xlsx"
input = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="A:J", nrows = 11, skiprows = 1, header=None).to_numpy()
test = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="L:M", nrows = 23)

result = pd.DataFrame(input.reshape((-1, 2)), columns=["Alphabets", "Sum"])
result["Sum"] = pd.to_numeric(result["Sum"], errors="coerce")
summary = result.groupby("Alphabets", as_index=False)["Sum"].sum()
summary = summary.sort_values("Alphabets")

print(summary.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.