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']

3个功能:

列出n个元素的所有组合 列出n个元素的所有组合，其中顺序不明确 所有的排列

import sys

def permutations(a):
    return combinations(a, len(a))

def combinations(a, n):
    if n == 1:
        for x in a:
            yield [x]
    else:
        for i in range(len(a)):
            for x in combinations(a[:i] + a[i+1:], n-1):
                yield [a[i]] + x

def combinationsNoOrder(a, n):
    if n == 1:
        for x in a:
            yield [x]
    else:
        for i in range(len(a)):
            for x in combinationsNoOrder(a[:i], n-1):
                yield [a[i]] + x
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
    for s in combinations(list(map(int, sys.argv[2:])), int(sys.argv[1])):
        print(s)

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

在Python 3中没有itertools，你可以这样做:

def combinations(arr, carry):
    for i in range(len(arr)):
        yield carry + arr[i]
        yield from combinations(arr[i + 1:], carry + arr[i])

其中最初的carry = ""。

这里是另一个解决方案(一行程序)，涉及到使用itertools.combination函数，但这里我们使用了双链表理解式(而不是for循环或sum):

def combs(x):
    return [c for i in range(len(x)+1) for c in combinations(x,i)]

演示:

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

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']