Welcome to the Gold Star to the Winner Challenge - Halloween 2025 Edition! ⭐️
From time to time I send out to my team at SnapLogic fun pipeline building challenges that Expression Enthusiasts may enjoy solving. We have decided to open it up to the broader Snaplogic Community.
The Gold Star to the Winner Challenge Halloween 2025 Edition is the spookiest challenge of the year. Your job will be to cast a powerful spell in the form of an expression to tame some monstrously messy data.
As usual, this challenge is from a real world use case. It centers on schemalessly transforming ‘somewhat’ structured data into a perfectly structured, “OCD-approved” format.
The Details:
In the following dataset, there are two keys: “Name” and “Path”. The Trick is to craft an expression that can magically break apart the Path string into separate keys, numbering them sequentially (pathelement_1, pathelement_2, etc.).For example: a path with 3 elements in it would transform to 3 json keys:Input JSON:{“Path”:“my drive/matt/customers”}Output JSON:{“pathelement_1: “my drive”, “pathelement_2": “matt”, “pathelement_3": “customers”}
Here’s the raw input to be put in a JSON Generator:
[{"Name":"Fred","Path":"spooky/graveyard/tombstones/fog/cackles/witches/brewing/potions/spells/hauntedhouse.jpg"},{"Name":"Wilma","Path":"kids/yard ornaments/ghosts/goblins/monsters/jack o lantern/leaves/cocoa/chill/candysacks/excitement/pumpkins/tricks/treats.png"},{"Name":"Pebbles","Path":"shadows/bats/moonlight/screams/night/costumes/party.mp4"},{"Name":"Dino","Path":"creepy/cornfields/scarecrows/spiders/webs.gif"}]
And the expected output:
[{"pathelement_1":"spooky","pathelement_2":"graveyard","pathelement_3":"tombstones","pathelement_4":"fog","pathelement_5":"cackles","pathelement_6":"witches","pathelement_7":"brewing","pathelement_8":"potions","pathelement_9":"spells","pathelement_10":"hauntedhouse.jpg","Name":"Fred"},{"pathelement_1":"kids","pathelement_2":"yard ornaments","pathelement_3":"ghosts","pathelement_4":"goblins","pathelement_5":"monsters","pathelement_6":"jack o lantern","pathelement_7":"leaves","pathelement_8":"cocoa","pathelement_9":"chill","pathelement_10":"candysacks","pathelement_11":"excitement","pathelement_12":"pumpkins","pathelement_13":"tricks","pathelement_14":"treats.png","Name":"Wilma"},{"pathelement_1":"shadows","pathelement_2":"bats","pathelement_3":"moonlight","pathelement_4":"screams","pathelement_5":"night","pathelement_6":"costumes","pathelement_7":"party.mp4","Name":"Pebbles"},{"pathelement_1":"creepy","pathelement_2":"cornfields","pathelement_3":"scarecrows","pathelement_4":"spiders","pathelement_5":"webs.gif","Name":"Dino"}]
Solution approaches:
There are many ways to skin this cat; highlighting the flexibility of the SnapLogic platform. My solution contains a single expression in a mapper. Others (the purists) have solved this by configuring and connecting many transform Snaps. All solutions are good as long as the solutions matches the above expected output and is done in a completely schemaless way.
The Prize:
The winner will receive recognition in the form of SnapLogic Swag (👕🥤🍾 🎁...).
The rules:
- To keep the playing field level, send solutions directly to me via email (msager@snaplogic.com) and attach your pipeline .slp file. (i.e. we don't want to give solutions out on this post for others to see)
- Contest ends on 10/31/2025
Good Luck to All! I look forward to seeing your solutions.
