Challenge #144: Secret Santa Assignments (BAH HUMBUG!)

This week we are going to take a little breather before we dive into some SANTALYTICS next week. Just to get a little warm up going we are going to generate some secret Santa pairings (thanks to @Carlithian for the Challenge idea)! For our beginning users, try to generate pairs of people so nobody is picked twice or picks themselves! For a little more spice, we added the field 'scroogieness', which is certainly a word I didn't just make up just now. OK - it's more of a reflection of the character crabby and miserly 'Scrooge' in a Christmas Carol pre-visitation of three-spirits. The higher the 'scroogieness' is on a scale of 1-10 the more curmudgeonly the person. Try to create unique pairings where 'net scroogieness' does not exceed 13.

challenge_144_start_file.yxmd

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Preparation

Data Preparation

Core

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Accepted answers

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estherb47

Quick solution, just because I wanted to be the first solution Will work on this more and make a prettier one later.....

challenge_144_EHB_solution.yxmd

patrick_digan

Spoiler

I think some sorting can handle this sample set. The logic isn't foolproof, but it seems to work here.

challenge_144_start_file.yxmd

Ladarthure

Hi, my solution, not fully satisfied, but it seems to work

challenge_144_start_file.yxmd

estherb47

@patrick_digan, that's the approach I was taking with the advanced challenge too. Still working on if there might be another solution....

CHarrison

Came up with two solutions!

My iterative macro ran 10,000 times without satisfying the 'Scroogieness' condition, but didn't have the heart to delete it.

Challenge 144.yxzp

John_K

Five tools is all it takes for one simple solution.

challenge_144_answer.yxmd

vsoni

Not entirely satisfied by this solution, but here it is! Will try and get something a bit more elegant created.

Spoiler

challenge_144_completed.yxmd

JoBen

Cheers!

Spoiler

It's not pretty, but I made it work with an iterative macro.

My Iterative Macro

My Final Workflow

challenge_144_Joben_Solution.yxzp

kat

I feel I went a little complicated! But then iterative macros are always good practice

Spoiler

Challenge #144.yxzp

cgoodman

Here's my solution with iterative macros to solve both the easy and the net scrooginess =< 13

Spoiler

Workflow

Iterative macro for any pair

Iterative macro to cap net Scroogieness to 13

challenge_144_solution.yxzp

cgoodman

[Duplicate post]

CamodCPA

Took a simple route. Not sure if I got the right answer, But, am confident that I took logical and straightforward steps!

*// EDIT: I completed this challenge for all possible combinations!!!!

Spoiler

challenge_144_CO.yxmd

cdohrmann

Here my first 'weekly challenge' solution contribution, not short as in 5 tools (I have 3 extras for sorting and to calculate the net), but hey, this is my first contribution and it is exactly sorted the way it was sorted in the output request and works for any given number of names/records (not only 50). Wish all a happy 'advents' time.

challenge_144_CD_solution.yxmd

sprodger

My Solution:

Spoiler

challenge_144_solution_SP.yxmd

olivia_paquot

Fun one :-)

challenge_144_start_file_OPT.yxzp

JoeS

I went down a route that I wasn't 100% sure would work due to the logic being very simple.....

Spoiler

Basically matched the highest with the lowest, and hoped the middle would sort itself out, thankfully it did.

challenge_144_solution_JS.yxmd

clant

Here is my solution. Nice and simple and works for scroogieness as well.

Spoiler

challenge_144_fin_file.yxmd

pasccout

Here is my solution... same results!

challenge_144_my_solution.yxmd

danilang

I had to throw this one in since nowhere did @JoeM say that the basic pairings had to be random! 3 tools!

Spoiler

A more robust solution is on the way

Dan

challenge_144_Fixed_solution_DL.yxmd

ZenonH

Spoiler

Less than a random solution, but as per Christmas tradition everybody will be happy weather they like it or not

challenge_144_ZH_Sol.yxmd

danilang

Ho Ho ho. Good christmas pun @ZenonH

everybody will be happy "weather" they like it or not. XMAS = Cold and Snowy...around here anyway.

Dan

unknown

We did this as a work challenge for our department before Emma (@Carlithian) proposed the idea to Alteryx! I've uploaded my solution I made before the Scroogieness was added

CE_challenge_144_start_file.yxzp

RogerA

My solution attached

challenge_144_RA.yxmd

jssandom

My solution!

challenge_144_solution_JSS.yxmd

WilliamR

Simple solution (I hope)

challenge_144_williamR.yxmd

ebarrus

My solution

challenge_144_start_file_complete.yxmd

KevinW

didn't use a Macro to solve, but added an output in case the number of people was odd (wasn't in our data sample, but could be...) - one person would be left out.

Spoiler

challenge_144_solution.yxmd

Justin_0

Done! Think mine is very very similar to some others on here. Lookin' forward to some santalytics.

144.yxmd

bsanson

First time posting. Definitely reviewed a few solutions before coming to this answer. This may be a little bit excessive but my solution keeps the net scroogieness below 13 and produces a random result each time the workflow is run.

Spoiler

challenge_144_SOLUTION_bsanson.yxmd

sann0638

Looking forward to some Santalytics! I might need to do something in Santableau too...

challenge_144_start_file.yxmd

CharlieS

Challenge_0144-CharlieS_Solution.yxmd

EmilyCR

First time posting - Happy Christmas!

challenge_144_solution_EC.yxmd

KyleCollins

Got the answer as shown in the output, but this was assuming that everyone was giving to and receiving from the same person. Wouldn't a true secret santa have 50 random pairings?

challenge_144_KyleCollins.yxmd

ultrarunner

A beginner's solution using Multi-Field Binning.

challenge_144_ultrarunner.yxmd

Hoang7

My Solution:

Spoiler

challenge_144_santa.yxmd

NickC

Non dynamic first attempt, with a more dynamic solution included too

challenge_144_completed_file.yxmd

bsanson

@KyleCollins wrote:
Got the answer as shown in the output, but this was assuming that everyone was giving to and receiving from the same person. Wouldn't a true secret santa have 50 random pairings?

Great Point! If your match is also your Secret Santa, it's not much of a secret, is it? I might need to recreate my workflow

UPDATE: Here's my updated workflow. This will provide 50 unique results, randomized with every run, and the "scroogieness" will never be greater than 13.

Spoiler

Challenge 144 - Updated Solution Snip.PNG

challenge_144_UPDATED SOLUTION_bsanson.yxmd

kshashank03

This is very similar to my solution. You can also take out the "Record ID" tool as the email addresses can act as unique identifiers if you need them to.

mpersson

Or just 4 :-)

Spoiler

SeanAdams

OK – I spent way too long on this one.
I must admit – did this 5 different ways before looking at other people’s solutions and was super embarrassed by just how elegant @patrick_digan ; @vsoni ; @jdunkerley79 etc solutions were.

I threw everything at this - location optimizer; batch; iterative - they all worked for a subset, but not for the 50... Guess that's the pain of NP Complete type algorithms.

Welcome to the weekly challenges @LeahNeuenkirchen !

Spoiler

(did an iterative solution like @CHarrison ; @JoBen ; @kat ; @cgoodman3 – and similarly to @CHarrison didn’t get a result after 10 000 iterations - but if I strip these down to a smaller number of people they all work)

The genius of the simple mentiod other people provided is that you just d

Solutions used:
1: Simple chain - match each person to the next in the list in a ring, ignoring scrooginess

2: then location optimizer to find matches within the scrooginess threshold
- This one is a random process by definition and with 50 items this is a huge solution space to find a solution randomly.

3: Then did a random-try batch macro
4: then an iterative macro
5: then an iterative macro with a reduced match set to eliminate known bad matches

6: finally - did the 50% list split like the wise folk mentioned above

Even though these didn't work on the full data set - still a great practice for different kinds of macros!