Engine Works
Under the hood of Alteryx: tips, tricks and how-tos.
The Advent of Code is a global programming challenge to solve 25 puzzles each year in December. Alteryx Community members solve these puzzles in Designer and share solutions to earn badges. This article is part of a blog series that shares advanced Alteryx problem-solving techniques for these challenges and more!
Introduction
If you're solving Advent of Code with Alteryx, don't you want to try a solution that feels like “this could only be done in Alteryx”? One such approach is spatial analytics.
Alteryx is often associated with SQL-based data processing, but spatial analysis using 2D spatial objects is another essential feature—it's actually one of Alteryx's original core capabilities and even part of the product’s name: “Alter X-Y” (this is off-topic, though).
A quick note of caution: the spatial objects in Alteryx are defined using spherical coordinates (on the Earth's surface), not flat 2D (Euclidean) coordinates. As a result, distances between two points aren’t perfectly straight-line distances as you’d get in a flat plane—they may differ slightly. However, the relative relationships between spatial objects (like touching, overlapping, containing, etc.) remain the same. (Imagine drawing geometric shapes on a deflated balloon—when you inflate it, the shapes may stretch, but their relationships remain.)
Advent of Code 2024 - Day 25 Example
Day 25 of AoC 2024 was a puzzle where spatial analysis worked beautifully. The task was to determine whether “Key” and “Pin” shapes overlapped, like in the diagram below.
Normally in programming languages, you’d handle this with numeric comparisons like [Z_key_min] > [Z_pin_max]. But here, let’s solve it using spatial analytics.
Step 1: Create Spatial Objects for Key and Pin
Using the Create Points tool with X as the horizontal axis and Y as the vertical axis, we can build spatial objects. However, these points alone don’t yet look like “Keys” or “Pins”. So we convert them into polygons.
Step 2: Convert Points into Polygons
For each point object, create a square by plotting a diagonally opposite point and using the ST_BoundingRectangle function to form a square polygon.
By combining these individual polygons for each Key and Pin, we can construct spatial objects that properly represent the “Key” and “Pin” shapes.
Step 3: Check for Overlaps
The goal is to identify which Key and Pin combinations do not overlap.
First, generate all possible Key–Pin combinations using the Append Fields tool. Then, to check for overlaps, here are two methods:
Method 1: Use the ST_Intersects Function
ST_Intersects(object1, object2) returns a Boolean indicating whether the two objects intersect. Since we’re looking for non-overlapping pairs, we negate the result with a !—so !ST_Intersects(...) will be True if the objects do not intersect.
⚠️ Note: Even if objects don’t overlap, their corners might touch. That’s why ST_Touches isn't appropriate in this context.
Method 2: Use the Spatial Process Tool
If you want to stick with Spatial tools, the Spatial Process tool is a great option. By selecting the “Create Intersection Object” option, you’ll get an output field [SpatialObj_Process] with the intersected geometry. If this field is NULL, it means there was no overlap between the Key and Pin. So just filter for records where [SpatialObj_Process] is NULL to get your answer.
Closing Thoughts
This was a spatial solution to Day 25 of AoC2024. Spatial analysis provides an intuitive, visual, and often fun way to solve puzzles. So why not join the challenge in Advent of Code 2025, and try a spatially special solution together?
