下面是c++中的迭代算法，它不使用STL，也不使用递归，也不使用条件嵌套循环。这样更快，它不执行任何元素交换，也不会给堆栈带来递归负担，还可以通过分别用mallloc()、free()和printf()替换new、delete和std::cout轻松地移植到ANSI C。

如果你想用不同或更长的字母显示元素，那么改变*字母参数以指向不同于"abcdefg"的字符串。

void OutputArrayChar(unsigned int* ka, size_t n, const char *alphabet) {
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
        std::cout << alphabet[ka[i]] << ",";
    std::cout << endl;
}
    

void GenCombinations(const unsigned int N, const unsigned int K, const char *alphabet) {
    unsigned int *ka = new unsigned int [K];  //dynamically allocate an array of UINTs
    unsigned int ki = K-1;                    //Point ki to the last elemet of the array
    ka[ki] = N-1;                             //Prime the last elemet of the array.
    
    while (true) {
        unsigned int tmp = ka[ki];  //Optimization to prevent reading ka[ki] repeatedly

        while (ki)                  //Fill to the left with consecutive descending values (blue squares)
            ka[--ki] = --tmp;
        OutputArrayChar(ka, K, alphabet);
    
        while (--ka[ki] == ki) {    //Decrement and check if the resulting value equals the index (bright green squares)
            OutputArrayChar(ka, K, alphabet);
            if (++ki == K) {      //Exit condition (all of the values in the array are flush to the left)
                delete[] ka;
                return;
            }                   
        }
    }
}
    

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    GenCombinations(7, 4, "abcdefg");
    return 0;
}

重要提示:字母参数*必须指向至少N个字符的字符串。你也可以传递一个在其他地方定义的字符串地址。

组合:从“7选4”中选择。

简短的python代码，产生索引位置

def yield_combos(n,k):
    # n is set size, k is combo size

    i = 0
    a = [0]*k

    while i > -1:
        for j in range(i+1, k):
            a[j] = a[j-1]+1
        i=j
        yield a
        while a[i] == i + n - k:
            i -= 1
        a[i] += 1

我想提出我的解决方案。在next中没有递归调用，也没有嵌套循环。 代码的核心是next()方法。

public class Combinations {
    final int pos[];
    final List<Object> set;

    public Combinations(List<?> l, int k) {
        pos = new int[k];
        set=new ArrayList<Object>(l);
        reset();
    }
    public void reset() {
        for (int i=0; i < pos.length; ++i) pos[i]=i;
    }
    public boolean next() {
        int i = pos.length-1;
        for (int maxpos = set.size()-1; pos[i] >= maxpos; --maxpos) {
            if (i==0) return false;
            --i;
        }
        ++pos[i];
        while (++i < pos.length)
            pos[i]=pos[i-1]+1;
        return true;
    }

    public void getSelection(List<?> l) {
        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        List<Object> ll = (List<Object>)l;
        if (ll.size()!=pos.length) {
            ll.clear();
            for (int i=0; i < pos.length; ++i)
                ll.add(set.get(pos[i]));
        }
        else {
            for (int i=0; i < pos.length; ++i)
                ll.set(i, set.get(pos[i]));
        }
    }
}

用法示例:

static void main(String[] args) {
    List<Character> l = new ArrayList<Character>();
    for (int i=0; i < 32; ++i) l.add((char)('a'+i));
    Combinations comb = new Combinations(l,5);
    int n=0;
    do {
        ++n;
        comb.getSelection(l);
        //Log.debug("%d: %s", n, l.toString());
    } while (comb.next());
    Log.debug("num = %d", n);
}

Clojure版本:

(defn comb [k l]
  (if (= 1 k) (map vector l)
      (apply concat
             (map-indexed
              #(map (fn [x] (conj x %2))
                    (comb (dec k) (drop (inc %1) l)))
              l))))

Python中的简短示例:

def comb(sofar, rest, n):
    if n == 0:
        print sofar
    else:
        for i in range(len(rest)):
            comb(sofar + rest[i], rest[i+1:], n-1)

>>> comb("", "abcde", 3)
abc
abd
abe
acd
ace
ade
bcd
bce
bde
cde

为了解释，递归方法用下面的例子描述:

示例:A B C D E 3的所有组合是:

A与其余2的所有组合(B C D E) B与其余2的所有组合(C D E) C与其余2的所有组合(D E)

另一种python递归解决方案。

def combination_indicies(n, k, j = 0, stack = []):   
    if len(stack) == k:            
        yield list(stack)
        return
        
    for i in range(j, n):
        stack.append(i)
        for x in combination_indicies(n, k, i + 1, stack):            
            yield x
        stack.pop()  
        
list(combination_indicies(5, 3))

输出:

[[0, 1, 2],
 [0, 1, 3],
 [0, 1, 4],
 [0, 2, 3],
 [0, 2, 4],
 [0, 3, 4],
 [1, 2, 3],
 [1, 2, 4],
 [1, 3, 4],
 [2, 3, 4]]