Challenge #458: Masking Alternating Characters

Weekly Challenge LMS Banner.png

Hello Community members,

A solution to last week’s challenge can be found here.

This week’s challenge, submitted by Alex Abi-Najm ( @alexnajm ), is a fun puzzle for you to practice your parsing and formula skills. Who is up for the challenge?

The dataset contains three rows of data. Your task is to mask every other letter in a word with an asterisk. So, for example, if the rows contain the following data:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

BE JOYFUL

The result should look like this:

*A*P* *O*I*A*S

*E *O*F*L

Make sure you don't mask any spaces!

Need a refresher? Review the following lessons in Academy to gear up:

Good luck!

The Academy Team

Challenge458_start_file.yxmd

Challenge458_solution_file.yxmd

Parse

Preparation

Advanced

Intermediate

Transform

Accepted answers

All comments

alexnajm

Thank you @AYXAcademy for posting my challenge! 😊

alexnajm

Spoiler

Challenge458_start_file_Alex Abi-Najm.yxmd

Bobbyt23

Great challenge @alexnajm my solution was almost identical to yours. Though it took me a few goes trial and error to work out what to do with the spaces to make sure I matched the solution.

Spoiler

Weekly Challenge 458 06-01-25.yxzp

AYXAcademy

Thank you, Alex, for your contribution!

balajilolla2

Spoiler

Solution Attached

Screenshot 2025-01-06 072326.jpg

Challenge458_start_file.yxmd

olga_strubbe

This was a fun challenge, thank you, Alex ( @alexnajm )! It was a good practice of Multi-Row tool and Mod function. Especially it helped me with my practical application of Mod function. I chose to use the same approach to solve it as it seemed the most straightforward to me.

Spoiler

Challenge 458_Masking alternate characters.yxmd

olga_strubbe

Sorry, I forgot to attach a screenshot of my workflow. Here it is:

Challenge 458_Masking alternate characters.yxmd

mmontgomery

C458

Spoiler

c458.yxzp

Kenda

Spoiler

Challenge458_start_file.yxmd

RolandSchubert

Spoiler

challenge458_solution_rsc.yxmd

Tofel

Spoiler

I wonder, if there is a way to do it in regex using only one tool.

Challenge 458.jpg

Challenge_458_Dom.yxmd

griffinwelsh

My solution

Challenge_458.yxmd

KLTerrell

I'm working through this and am almost there, I love this challenge! But before I keep going I wanted to see if I could get clarification on the output. The 2nd row of the output (masking Alteryx Designer) starts masking at the 2nd character instead of the first, whereas the first and third rows start masking at the 1st character like the instructions indicate. Should the 1st character always be masked? Or is there a pattern I'm missing?

Thanks!

Katie

alexnajm

@KLTerrell I see - yes the first character should be always masked but clearly the answer output then would be wrong! So if you want to match the output exactly, you can consider the strings as continuous

Pilsner

My solution:

Spoiler

Took me a little while to realise the letter ID should not be reset every new line (record) and instead should only be rest at a space. Great challenge!

458 (Converting Alternating Charactors).yxmd

BransonJamesFarley

Fun Challenge!

Spoiler

458.yxzp

Hub119

Sample solution doesn't appear to follow the naming convention rules for the second record... solution attached making the first character of each word start with an asterisk.

Spoiler

Challenge458_CH Solved.yxmd

KLTerrell

Alright! This was fun. I decided to stick with the convention of re-starting the masking pattern with each string. (It's not beautiful, but it's done!)

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Challenge458_start_file - KT Solution.yxmd

philipmannering

Solution attached.

Spoiler

Challenge 458 - Masking Alternating Characters.yxmd

nSpire

Spoiler

Challenge458_nSpire.yxzp

oscar_leeper_wf

I couldn't quite replicate the output, but here's some version of it using an iterative macro for practice and less code than I'd usually use for fun.

Screenshot 2025-01-06 140110.png

Spoiler

Challenge458_macro_input.yxmc

Challenge458_start_file.yxmd

3I_ATLAS

I think there's a minor error in the provided solution as it does not mask the first character of the 2nd record and it should be masked according to the instructions and provided example. Since the mask/not mask resets with a new record and every 1st character should be masked. I used a long formula to account for that.

Spoiler

if [Data]=' ' then
0
elseif [Row-1:RecordID] != [RecordID] then
1
elseif [Row-1:MaskFlag]=1 and [Row-1:RecordID] = [RecordID] then
0
elseif [Row-1:MaskFlag]= 0 then
1
ELSE
99
ENDIF

Challenge_458_solution.yxmd

ggruccio

It took me a while to get the logic (longer than the programming). Great puzzle!

Spoiler

Challenge458_gg_finish.yxmd

Yoshiro_Fujimori

My solution.

Spoiler

Workflow

Multi-Row Formula
[Data] =
IF [Row-1:RecordID] = 0
THEN "*"
ELSEIF [Row-1:Data] != "*"
AND [Data] != " "
THEN "*"
ELSE [Data]
ENDIF

Challenge458_YFujimori.yxmd

Qiu

In my interpretion, it states that "Your task is to mask every other letter in a word with an asterisk. " but the answer is consistent with "Space" wise.