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Challenge #213: Optimized Flower Arrangements

jamielaird
14 - Magnetar

Here's my solution:

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KevinHarrison
8 - Asteroid

Happy to learn a new tool!

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KevinHarrison
8 - Asteroid

Thanks for the video, that was very helpful for me to understand the tool. I think I will be able to use this in the future now. 

Gualigee
8 - Asteroid

Very first weekly challenge!

 

Just took the training below:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/ADAPT-Discussions/Summer-Camp-Session-Prescriptive-Optimization-Fol...

 

Spent 30 min on this challenge:(, but I got the right answer! Yay!

 

 

JP_SDAK
8 - Asteroid

I enjoyed working with a new tool - first time with Optimization tool.  Took some finagling but finally got it.

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robert-headington
8 - Asteroid

I haven't used the optimization tool for a while. Added some documentation (for my own future use) on how to use it for linear programming as I figured it out.

BeginnerMindset
8 - Asteroid
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Fun challenge for learning the Optimization tool! 

  

I eventually got to the right answer, although I did come across a couple of hitches/pitfalls, so I've kept those workflows in for illustrative purposes.  I think there might be a couple of problems with the tool itself unless I've done something very silly. I was able to replicate the provided solution but only once I'd been down a couple of rabbit holes. 

 

The first issue I had was using the display field mapping for the input anchor 'O'.  It didn't seem to work at all, so I ended up using a Select tool to name the columns exactly as on the Help page.  Please tell me if anyone spots my mistake.

 

The second issue I had was that I had to sort on the flower name, otherwise I got a nonsense result - worryingly it looked valid at first glance.  I know at least one other person got this result and was equally baffled, so hopefully this will help them too.  It seems the rows for input 'O' have to be in the same order that the columns are for input 'A'.  (Not currently mentioned in the help page, unless I missed it?)

 

Even with the right inputs, after getting to the right answer and testing a few things out, I realised the tool didn't work quite how I would expect/hope. It looked for answers as close to $950 as possible, so it will take the more expensive option (for the same total flowers) rather than giving you some change from your $950 budget.  Not a problem necessarily but just something to be aware of. I look forward to other LP challenges that really use the power of Alteryx as this one would be pretty quick on paper (ie get the minimum of each flower, then fill your boots with the cheapest flower, until you hit the max or the budget limit).

joshuaburkhow
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus

Not getting the same objective value...

Joshua Burkhow - Alteryx Ace | Global Alteryx Architect @PwC | Blogger @ AlterTricks
apathetichell
18 - Pollux

Got a workable product pretty fast on it and then went down a rabbit hole trying to fix some easy mistakes... finally got the  the same numbers but with two of the flowers swapped out (and saving a few pennies...). Not sure if technically Greens counted as flowers (they do in the answer and I'm no expert) - so here are two uploads one with greens as flowers and one without...

DaisukeTsuchiya
13 - Pulsar
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