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.

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。

《计算机编程艺术，卷4A:组合算法，第1部分》第7.2.1.3节中算法L(字典组合)的C代码:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void visit(int* c, int t) 
{
  // for (int j = 1; j <= t; j++)
  for (int j = t; j > 0; j--)
    printf("%d ", c[j]);
  printf("\n");
}

int* initialize(int n, int t) 
{
  // c[0] not used
  int *c = (int*) malloc((t + 3) * sizeof(int));

  for (int j = 1; j <= t; j++)
    c[j] = j - 1;
  c[t+1] = n;
  c[t+2] = 0;
  return c;
}

void comb(int n, int t) 
{
  int *c = initialize(n, t);
  int j;

  for (;;) {
    visit(c, t);
    j = 1;
    while (c[j]+1 == c[j+1]) {
      c[j] = j - 1;
      ++j;
    }
    if (j > t) 
      return;
    ++c[j];
  }
  free(c);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  comb(5, 3);
  return 0;
}

还有另一个递归解决方案(你应该能够使用字母而不是数字)使用堆栈，虽然比大多数更短:

stack = [] 
def choose(n,x):
   r(0,0,n+1,x)

def r(p, c, n,x):
   if x-c == 0:
      print stack
      return

   for i in range(p, n-(x-1)+c):
      stack.append(i)
      r(i+1,c+1,n,x)
      stack.pop()

4选3或者我想要从0到4的所有3种数字组合

choose(4,3) 

[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]

我有一个用于project euler的排列算法，用python编写:

def missing(miss,src):
    "Returns the list of items in src not present in miss"
    return [i for i in src if i not in miss]


def permutation_gen(n,l):
    "Generates all the permutations of n items of the l list"
    for i in l:
        if n<=1: yield [i]
        r = [i]
        for j in permutation_gen(n-1,missing([i],l)):  yield r+j

If

n<len(l) 

你应该有所有你需要的组合，没有重复，你需要吗?

它是一个生成器，所以你可以这样使用它:

for comb in permutation_gen(3,list("ABCDEFGH")):
    print comb 

下面是我最近用Java写的一段代码，它计算并返回从“outOf”元素中“num”元素的所有组合。

// author: Sourabh Bhat (heySourabh@gmail.com)

public class Testing
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

// Test case num = 5, outOf = 8.

        int num = 5;
        int outOf = 8;
        int[][] combinations = getCombinations(num, outOf);
        for (int i = 0; i < combinations.length; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < combinations[i].length; j++)
            {
                System.out.print(combinations[i][j] + " ");
            }
            System.out.println();
        }
    }

    private static int[][] getCombinations(int num, int outOf)
    {
        int possibilities = get_nCr(outOf, num);
        int[][] combinations = new int[possibilities][num];
        int arrayPointer = 0;

        int[] counter = new int[num];

        for (int i = 0; i < num; i++)
        {
            counter[i] = i;
        }
        breakLoop: while (true)
        {
            // Initializing part
            for (int i = 1; i < num; i++)
            {
                if (counter[i] >= outOf - (num - 1 - i))
                    counter[i] = counter[i - 1] + 1;
            }

            // Testing part
            for (int i = 0; i < num; i++)
            {
                if (counter[i] < outOf)
                {
                    continue;
                } else
                {
                    break breakLoop;
                }
            }

            // Innermost part
            combinations[arrayPointer] = counter.clone();
            arrayPointer++;

            // Incrementing part
            counter[num - 1]++;
            for (int i = num - 1; i >= 1; i--)
            {
                if (counter[i] >= outOf - (num - 1 - i))
                    counter[i - 1]++;
            }
        }

        return combinations;
    }

    private static int get_nCr(int n, int r)
    {
        if(r > n)
        {
            throw new ArithmeticException("r is greater then n");
        }
        long numerator = 1;
        long denominator = 1;
        for (int i = n; i >= r + 1; i--)
        {
            numerator *= i;
        }
        for (int i = 2; i <= n - r; i++)
        {
            denominator *= i;
        }

        return (int) (numerator / denominator);
    }
}