Omid - Challenge 324

data-challenges
advanced-exercises
🔰 The Level column in the table is derived by grouping rows with the same ID.
Published

March 24, 2026

Illustration for Omid - Challenge 324

Challenge Description

🔰 The Level column in the table is derived by grouping rows with the same ID.

Solutions

library(tidyverse)
library(readxl)

path = "300-399/324/CH-324 Text Cleaning.xlsx"
input = read_excel(path, range = "B2:B9")
test  = read_excel(path, range = "D2:D9")

input$Level = str_remove(str_replace_all(input$Level, "(Under Ground|Upper Ground|Ground)", "\\1,"), ",$")

all.equal(input$Level, test$Level)

  • Logic:

    • Reads the workbook ranges needed for the challenge

    • Parses the text patterns directly instead of relying on manual cleanup

  • Strengths:

    • The R solution stays close to the workbook rule and keeps the transformation compact.

  • Areas for Improvement:

    • The code assumes the sheet structure and source ranges remain stable.

  • Gem:

    • The strongest part of the solution is choosing the right intermediate representation before shaping the final output.
import pandas as pd
import re

path = "300-399/324/CH-324 Text Cleaning.xlsx"
input_df = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="B", skiprows=1, nrows=7)
test_df = pd.read_excel(path, usecols="D", skiprows=1, nrows=7).rename(columns=lambda col: col.replace('.1', ''))

input_df["Level"] = input_df["Level"]\
    .apply(lambda v: re.sub(r",$", "", re.sub(r"(Under Ground|Upper Ground|Ground)", r"\1,", str(v))) if pd.notna(v) else v)
print(input_df["Level"].equals(test_df["Level"])) # True

  • Logic:

    • Reads the workbook ranges needed for the challenge

    • Parses the text patterns directly instead of relying on manual cleanup

  • Strengths:

    • The Python version follows the same rule in a direct dataframe-oriented implementation.

  • Areas for Improvement:

    • The code assumes the workbook layout remains stable, so any sheet redesign would require small adjustments.

  • Gem:

    • The implementation stays close to the original workbook rule instead of adding unnecessary abstraction.

Difficulty Level

This task is moderate:

  • The core logic is clear, but the correct transformation pattern is not obvious from the raw input.

  • The challenge combines multiple reshaping, grouping, or parsing steps.