现在又出现了祖辈COBOL，一种饱受诟病的语言。

让我们假设一个包含34个元素的数组，每个元素8个字节(完全是任意选择)。其思想是枚举所有可能的4元素组合，并将它们加载到一个数组中。

我们使用4个指标，每个指标代表4个组中的每个位置

数组是这样处理的:

    idx1 = 1
    idx2 = 2
    idx3 = 3
    idx4 = 4

我们把idx4从4变到最后。对于每个idx4，我们得到一个唯一的组合 四人一组。当idx4到达数组的末尾时，我们将idx3增加1，并将idx4设置为idx3+1。然后再次运行idx4到最后。我们以这种方式继续，分别增加idx3、idx2和idx1，直到idx1的位置距离数组末端小于4。算法就完成了。

1          --- pos.1
2          --- pos 2
3          --- pos 3
4          --- pos 4
5
6
7
etc.

第一次迭代:

1234
1235
1236
1237
1245
1246
1247
1256
1257
1267
etc.

一个COBOL的例子:

01  DATA_ARAY.
    05  FILLER     PIC X(8)    VALUE  "VALUE_01".
    05  FILLER     PIC X(8)    VALUE  "VALUE_02".
  etc.
01  ARAY_DATA    OCCURS 34.
    05  ARAY_ITEM       PIC X(8).

01  OUTPUT_ARAY   OCCURS  50000   PIC X(32).

01   MAX_NUM   PIC 99 COMP VALUE 34.

01  INDEXXES  COMP.
    05  IDX1            PIC 99.
    05  IDX2            PIC 99.
    05  IDX3            PIC 99.
    05  IDX4            PIC 99.
    05  OUT_IDX   PIC 9(9).

01  WHERE_TO_STOP_SEARCH          PIC 99  COMP.

* Stop the search when IDX1 is on the third last array element:

COMPUTE WHERE_TO_STOP_SEARCH = MAX_VALUE - 3     

MOVE 1 TO IDX1

PERFORM UNTIL IDX1 > WHERE_TO_STOP_SEARCH
   COMPUTE IDX2 = IDX1 + 1
   PERFORM UNTIL IDX2 > MAX_NUM
      COMPUTE IDX3 = IDX2 + 1
      PERFORM UNTIL IDX3 > MAX_NUM
         COMPUTE IDX4 = IDX3 + 1
         PERFORM UNTIL IDX4 > MAX_NUM
            ADD 1 TO OUT_IDX
            STRING  ARAY_ITEM(IDX1)
                    ARAY_ITEM(IDX2)
                    ARAY_ITEM(IDX3)
                    ARAY_ITEM(IDX4)
                    INTO OUTPUT_ARAY(OUT_IDX)
            ADD 1 TO IDX4
         END-PERFORM
         ADD 1 TO IDX3
      END-PERFORM
      ADD 1 TO IDX2
   END_PERFORM
   ADD 1 TO IDX1
END-PERFORM.

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;
}

这是一个优雅的Scala通用实现，如99个Scala问题所述。

object P26 {
  def flatMapSublists[A,B](ls: List[A])(f: (List[A]) => List[B]): List[B] = 
    ls match {
      case Nil => Nil
      case sublist@(_ :: tail) => f(sublist) ::: flatMapSublists(tail)(f)
    }

  def combinations[A](n: Int, ls: List[A]): List[List[A]] =
    if (n == 0) List(Nil)
    else flatMapSublists(ls) { sl =>
      combinations(n - 1, sl.tail) map {sl.head :: _}
    }
}

这个答案怎么样……这将打印所有长度为3的组合…它可以推广到任何长度… 工作代码…

#include<iostream>
#include<string>
using namespace std;

void combination(string a,string dest){
int l = dest.length();
if(a.empty() && l  == 3 ){
 cout<<dest<<endl;}
else{
  if(!a.empty() && dest.length() < 3 ){
     combination(a.substr(1,a.length()),dest+a[0]);}
  if(!a.empty() && dest.length() <= 3 ){
      combination(a.substr(1,a.length()),dest);}
 }

 }

 int main(){
 string demo("abcd");
 combination(demo,"");
 return 0;
 }

这是我对javascript的贡献(没有递归)

set = ["q0", "q1", "q2", "q3"]
collector = []


function comb(num) {
  results = []
  one_comb = []
  for (i = set.length - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
    tmp = Math.pow(2, i)
    quotient = parseInt(num / tmp)
    results.push(quotient)
    num = num % tmp
  }
  k = 0
  for (i = 0; i < results.length; ++i)
    if (results[i]) {
      ++k
      one_comb.push(set[i])
    }
  if (collector[k] == undefined)
    collector[k] = []
  collector[k].push(one_comb)
}


sum = 0
for (i = 0; i < set.length; ++i)
  sum += Math.pow(2, i)
 for (ii = sum; ii > 0; --ii)
  comb(ii)
 cnt = 0
for (i = 1; i < collector.length; ++i) {
  n = 0
  for (j = 0; j < collector[i].length; ++j)
    document.write(++cnt, " - " + (++n) + " - ", collector[i][j], "<br>")
  document.write("<hr>")
}   

下面是一个方法，它从一个随机长度的字符串中给出指定大小的所有组合。类似于昆玛斯的解，但适用于不同的输入和k。

代码可以更改为换行，即'dab'从输入'abcd' w k=3。

public void run(String data, int howMany){
    choose(data, howMany, new StringBuffer(), 0);
}


//n choose k
private void choose(String data, int k, StringBuffer result, int startIndex){
    if (result.length()==k){
        System.out.println(result.toString());
        return;
    }

    for (int i=startIndex; i<data.length(); i++){
        result.append(data.charAt(i));
        choose(data,k,result, i+1);
        result.setLength(result.length()-1);
    }
}

"abcde"的输出:

ABC abd ace ade BCD bce bde cde