下面是itertools.combination的两个实现

返回一个列表的函数

def combinations(lst, depth, start=0, items=[]):
    if depth <= 0:
        return [items]
    out = []
    for i in range(start, len(lst)):
        out += combinations(lst, depth - 1, i + 1, items + [lst[i]])
    return out

一个返回一个生成器

def combinations(lst, depth, start=0, prepend=[]):
    if depth <= 0:
        yield prepend
    else:
        for i in range(start, len(lst)):
            for c in combinations(lst, depth - 1, i + 1, prepend + [lst[i]]):
                yield c

请注意，建议为它们提供一个helper函数，因为prepend参数是静态的，不会随着每次调用而改变

print([c for c in combinations([1, 2, 3, 4], 3)])
# [[1, 2, 3], [1, 2, 4], [1, 3, 4], [2, 3, 4]]

# get a hold of prepend
prepend = [c for c in combinations([], -1)][0]
prepend.append(None)

print([c for c in combinations([1, 2, 3, 4], 3)])
# [[None, 1, 2, 3], [None, 1, 2, 4], [None, 1, 3, 4], [None, 2, 3, 4]]

这是一个很肤浅的例子，但小心为妙

我喜欢这个问题，因为有很多方法来实现它。我决定为未来创造一个参考答案。

在生产中使用什么?

intertools的文档有一个独立的例子，为什么不在你的代码中使用它呢?一些人建议使用more_itertools。Powerset，但它具有完全相同的实现!如果我是你，我不会为一个小东西安装整个软件包。也许这是最好的方法:

import itertools

def powerset(iterable):
    "powerset([1,2,3]) --> () (1,) (2,) (3,) (1,2) (1,3) (2,3) (1,2,3)"
    s = list(iterable)
    return itertools.chain.from_iterable(combinations(s, r) for r in range(len(s)+1))

其他可能的方法

方法0:使用组合

import itertools

def subsets(nums):
    result = []
    for i in range(len(nums) + 1):
        result += itertools.combinations(nums, i)
    return result

方法1:简单的递归

def subsets(nums):
    result = []

    def powerset(alist, index, curr):
        if index == len(alist):
            result.append(curr)
            return

        powerset(alist, index + 1, curr + [alist[index]])
        powerset(alist, index + 1, curr)

    powerset(nums, 0, [])
    return result

方法2:回溯

def subsets(nums):
    result = []

    def backtrack(index, curr, k):
        if len(curr) == k:
            result.append(list(curr))
            return
        for i in range(index, len(nums)):
            curr.append(nums[i])
            backtrack(i + 1, curr, k)
            curr.pop()

    for k in range(len(nums) + 1):
        backtrack(0, [], k)
    return result

or

def subsets(nums):
    result = []

    def dfs(nums, index, path, result):
        result.append(path)
        for i in range(index, len(nums)):
            dfs(nums, i + 1, path + [nums[i]], result)

    dfs(nums, 0, [], result)
    return result

方法3:位掩码

def subsets(nums):
    res = []
    n = len(nums)
    for i in range(1 << n):
        aset = []
        for j in range(n):
            value = (1 << j) & i  # value = (i >> j) & 1
            if value:
                aset.append(nums[j])
        res.append(aset)
    return res

或者(不是位掩码，直觉上是2^n个子集)

def subsets(nums):
    subsets = []
    expected_subsets = 2 ** len(nums)

    def generate_subset(subset, nums):
        if len(subsets) >= expected_subsets:
            return
        if len(subsets) < expected_subsets:
            subsets.append(subset)
        for i in range(len(nums)):
            generate_subset(subset + [nums[i]], nums[i + 1:])

    generate_subset([], nums)
    return subsets

方法4:级联

def subsets(nums):
    result = [[]]
    for i in range(len(nums)):
        for j in range(len(result)):
            subset = list(result[j])
            subset.append(nums[i])
            result.append(subset)
    return result

下面是一个使用递归的例子:

>>> import copy
>>> def combinations(target,data):
...     for i in range(len(data)):
...         new_target = copy.copy(target)
...         new_data = copy.copy(data)
...         new_target.append(data[i])
...         new_data = data[i+1:]
...         print new_target
...         combinations(new_target,
...                      new_data)
...                      
... 
>>> target = []
>>> data = ['a','b','c','d']
>>> 
>>> combinations(target,data)
['a']
['a', 'b']
['a', 'b', 'c']
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']
['a', 'b', 'd']
['a', 'c']
['a', 'c', 'd']
['a', 'd']
['b']
['b', 'c']
['b', 'c', 'd']
['b', 'd']
['c']
['c', 'd']
['d']

下面是一个“标准递归答案”，类似于其他类似的答案https://stackoverflow.com/a/23743696/711085。(实际上，我们不必担心耗尽堆栈空间，因为我们没有办法处理所有N!排列)。

它依次访问每个元素，要么取它，要么离开它(从这个算法中我们可以直接看到2^N的基数)。

def combs(xs, i=0):
    if i==len(xs):
        yield ()
        return
    for c in combs(xs,i+1):
        yield c
        yield c+(xs[i],)

演示:

>>> list( combs(range(5)) )
[(), (0,), (1,), (1, 0), (2,), (2, 0), (2, 1), (2, 1, 0), (3,), (3, 0), (3, 1), (3, 1, 0), (3, 2), (3, 2, 0), (3, 2, 1), (3, 2, 1, 0), (4,), (4, 0), (4, 1), (4, 1, 0), (4, 2), (4, 2, 0), (4, 2, 1), (4, 2, 1, 0), (4, 3), (4, 3, 0), (4, 3, 1), (4, 3, 1, 0), (4, 3, 2), (4, 3, 2, 0), (4, 3, 2, 1), (4, 3, 2, 1, 0)]

>>> list(sorted( combs(range(5)), key=len))
[(), 
 (0,), (1,), (2,), (3,), (4,), 
 (1, 0), (2, 0), (2, 1), (3, 0), (3, 1), (3, 2), (4, 0), (4, 1), (4, 2), (4, 3), 
 (2, 1, 0), (3, 1, 0), (3, 2, 0), (3, 2, 1), (4, 1, 0), (4, 2, 0), (4, 2, 1), (4, 3, 0), (4, 3, 1), (4, 3, 2), 
 (3, 2, 1, 0), (4, 2, 1, 0), (4, 3, 1, 0), (4, 3, 2, 0), (4, 3, 2, 1), 
 (4, 3, 2, 1, 0)]

>>> len(set(combs(range(5))))
32

这种方法可以很容易地移植到所有支持递归的编程语言中(没有itertools，没有yield，没有列表理解):

def combs(a):
    if len(a) == 0:
        return [[]]
    cs = []
    for c in combs(a[1:]):
        cs += [c, c+[a[0]]]
    return cs

>>> combs([1,2,3,4,5])
[[], [1], [2], [2, 1], [3], [3, 1], [3, 2], ..., [5, 4, 3, 2, 1]]

还可以使用more_itertools包中的powerset函数。

from more_itertools import powerset

l = [1,2,3]
list(powerset(l))

# [(), (1,), (2,), (3,), (1, 2), (1, 3), (2, 3), (1, 2, 3)]

我们也可以验证，它满足OP的要求

from more_itertools import ilen

assert ilen(powerset(range(15))) == 32_768