假设你的字母数组是这样的:"ABCDEFGH"。你有三个下标(i, j, k)来表示你要用哪个字母来表示当前单词。

A B C D E F G H
^ ^ ^
i j k

首先你改变k，所以下一步看起来像这样:

A B C D E F G H
^ ^   ^
i j   k

如果你到达终点，你继续改变j和k。

A B C D E F G H
^   ^ ^
i   j k

A B C D E F G H
^   ^   ^
i   j   k

一旦j达到G, i也开始变化。

A B C D E F G H
  ^ ^ ^
  i j k

A B C D E F G H
  ^ ^   ^
  i j   k
...

function initializePointers($cnt) {
    $pointers = [];

    for($i=0; $i<$cnt; $i++) {
        $pointers[] = $i;
    }

    return $pointers;     
}

function incrementPointers(&$pointers, &$arrLength) {
    for($i=0; $i<count($pointers); $i++) {
        $currentPointerIndex = count($pointers) - $i - 1;
        $currentPointer = $pointers[$currentPointerIndex];

        if($currentPointer < $arrLength - $i - 1) {
           ++$pointers[$currentPointerIndex];

           for($j=1; ($currentPointerIndex+$j)<count($pointers); $j++) {
                $pointers[$currentPointerIndex+$j] = $pointers[$currentPointerIndex]+$j;
           }

           return true;
        }
    }

    return false;
}

function getDataByPointers(&$arr, &$pointers) {
    $data = [];

    for($i=0; $i<count($pointers); $i++) {
        $data[] = $arr[$pointers[$i]];
    }

    return $data;
}

function getCombinations($arr, $cnt)
{
    $len = count($arr);
    $result = [];
    $pointers = initializePointers($cnt);

    do {
        $result[] = getDataByPointers($arr, $pointers);
    } while(incrementPointers($pointers, count($arr)));

    return $result;
}

$result = getCombinations([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 3);
print_r($result);

基于https://stackoverflow.com/a/127898/2628125，但更抽象，适用于任何大小的指针。

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)

#include <stdio.h>

unsigned int next_combination(unsigned int *ar, size_t n, unsigned int k)
{
    unsigned int finished = 0;
    unsigned int changed = 0;
    unsigned int i;

    if (k > 0) {
        for (i = k - 1; !finished && !changed; i--) {
            if (ar[i] < (n - 1) - (k - 1) + i) {
                /* Increment this element */
                ar[i]++;
                if (i < k - 1) {
                    /* Turn the elements after it into a linear sequence */
                    unsigned int j;
                    for (j = i + 1; j < k; j++) {
                        ar[j] = ar[j - 1] + 1;
                    }
                }
                changed = 1;
            }
            finished = i == 0;
        }
        if (!changed) {
            /* Reset to first combination */
            for (i = 0; i < k; i++) {
                ar[i] = i;
            }
        }
    }
    return changed;
}

typedef void(*printfn)(const void *, FILE *);

void print_set(const unsigned int *ar, size_t len, const void **elements,
    const char *brackets, printfn print, FILE *fptr)
{
    unsigned int i;
    fputc(brackets[0], fptr);
    for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        print(elements[ar[i]], fptr);
        if (i < len - 1) {
            fputs(", ", fptr);
        }
    }
    fputc(brackets[1], fptr);
}

int main(void)
{
    unsigned int numbers[] = { 0, 1, 2 };
    char *elements[] = { "a", "b", "c", "d", "e" };
    const unsigned int k = sizeof(numbers) / sizeof(unsigned int);
    const unsigned int n = sizeof(elements) / sizeof(const char*);

    do {
        print_set(numbers, k, (void*)elements, "[]", (printfn)fputs, stdout);
        putchar('\n');
    } while (next_combination(numbers, n, k));
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

我可以给出这个问题的递归Python解决方案吗?

def choose_iter(elements, length):
    for i in xrange(len(elements)):
        if length == 1:
            yield (elements[i],)
        else:
            for next in choose_iter(elements[i+1:], length-1):
                yield (elements[i],) + next
def choose(l, k):
    return list(choose_iter(l, k))

使用示例:

>>> len(list(choose_iter("abcdefgh",3)))
56

我喜欢它的简洁。

简短快速的c#实现

public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> Combinations<T>(IEnumerable<T> elements, int k)
{
    return Combinations(elements.Count(), k).Select(p => p.Select(q => elements.ElementAt(q)));                
}      

public static List<int[]> Combinations(int setLenght, int subSetLenght) //5, 3
{
    var result = new List<int[]>();

    var lastIndex = subSetLenght - 1;
    var dif = setLenght - subSetLenght;
    var prevSubSet = new int[subSetLenght];
    var lastSubSet = new int[subSetLenght];
    for (int i = 0; i < subSetLenght; i++)
    {
        prevSubSet[i] = i;
        lastSubSet[i] = i + dif;
    }

    while(true)
    {
        //add subSet ad result set
        var n = new int[subSetLenght];
        for (int i = 0; i < subSetLenght; i++)
            n[i] = prevSubSet[i];

        result.Add(n);

        if (prevSubSet[0] >= lastSubSet[0])
            break;

        //start at index 1 because index 0 is checked and breaking in the current loop
        int j = 1;
        for (; j < subSetLenght; j++)
        {
            if (prevSubSet[j] >= lastSubSet[j])
            {
                prevSubSet[j - 1]++;

                for (int p = j; p < subSetLenght; p++)
                    prevSubSet[p] = prevSubSet[p - 1] + 1;

                break;
            }
        }

        if (j > lastIndex)
            prevSubSet[lastIndex]++;
    }

    return result;
}

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);
}