我已经编写了一个类来处理处理二项式系数的常见函数，这是您的问题属于的问题类型。它执行以下任务:

Outputs all the K-indexes in a nice format for any N choose K to a file. The K-indexes can be substituted with more descriptive strings or letters. This method makes solving this type of problem quite trivial. Converts the K-indexes to the proper index of an entry in the sorted binomial coefficient table. This technique is much faster than older published techniques that rely on iteration. It does this by using a mathematical property inherent in Pascal's Triangle. My paper talks about this. I believe I am the first to discover and publish this technique, but I could be wrong. Converts the index in a sorted binomial coefficient table to the corresponding K-indexes. Uses Mark Dominus method to calculate the binomial coefficient, which is much less likely to overflow and works with larger numbers. The class is written in .NET C# and provides a way to manage the objects related to the problem (if any) by using a generic list. The constructor of this class takes a bool value called InitTable that when true will create a generic list to hold the objects to be managed. If this value is false, then it will not create the table. The table does not need to be created in order to perform the 4 above methods. Accessor methods are provided to access the table. There is an associated test class which shows how to use the class and its methods. It has been extensively tested with 2 cases and there are no known bugs.

要了解这个类并下载代码，请参见将二项式系数表化。

将这个类转换为c++应该不难。

如果你可以使用SQL语法——比如，如果你使用LINQ访问一个结构或数组的字段，或者直接访问一个数据库，其中有一个名为“Alphabet”的表，只有一个字符字段“Letter”，你可以适应以下代码:

SELECT A.Letter, B.Letter, C.Letter
FROM Alphabet AS A, Alphabet AS B, Alphabet AS C
WHERE A.Letter<>B.Letter AND A.Letter<>C.Letter AND B.Letter<>C.Letter
AND A.Letter<B.Letter AND B.Letter<C.Letter

这将返回所有3个字母的组合，不管你在表格“字母表”中有多少个字母(它可以是3,8,10,27等)。

如果你想要的是所有的排列，而不是组合(也就是说，你想要“ACB”和“ABC”被视为不同的，而不是只出现一次)，只需删除最后一行(and一行)，就完成了。

Post-Edit:重新阅读问题后，我意识到需要的是通用算法，而不仅仅是选择3个项目的特定算法。Adam Hughes的答案是完整的，不幸的是我还不能投票。这个答案很简单，但只适用于你想要三样东西的时候。

基于java解决方案的短php算法返回k元素从n(二项式系数)的所有组合:

$array = array(1,2,3,4,5);

$array_result = NULL;

$array_general = NULL;

function combinations($array, $len, $start_position, $result_array, $result_len, &$general_array)
{
    if($len == 0)
    {
        $general_array[] = $result_array;
        return;
    }

    for ($i = $start_position; $i <= count($array) - $len; $i++)
    {
        $result_array[$result_len - $len] = $array[$i];
        combinations($array, $len-1, $i+1, $result_array, $result_len, $general_array);
    }
} 

combinations($array, 3, 0, $array_result, 3, $array_general);

echo "<pre>";
print_r($array_general);
echo "</pre>";

相同的解决方案，但在javascript:

var newArray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
var arrayResult = [];
var arrayGeneral = [];

function combinations(newArray, len, startPosition, resultArray, resultLen, arrayGeneral) {
    if(len === 0) {
        var tempArray = [];
        resultArray.forEach(value => tempArray.push(value));
        arrayGeneral.push(tempArray);
        return;
    }
    for (var i = startPosition; i <= newArray.length - len; i++) {
        resultArray[resultLen - len] = newArray[i];
        combinations(newArray, len-1, i+1, resultArray, resultLen, arrayGeneral);
    }
} 

combinations(newArray, 3, 0, arrayResult, 3, arrayGeneral);

console.log(arrayGeneral);

这是我用c++写的命题

我尽可能少地限制迭代器类型，所以这个解决方案假设只有前向迭代器，它可以是const_iterator。这应该适用于任何标准容器。在参数没有意义的情况下，它抛出std:: invalid_argument

#include <vector>
#include <stdexcept>

template <typename Fci> // Fci - forward const iterator
std::vector<std::vector<Fci> >
enumerate_combinations(Fci begin, Fci end, unsigned int combination_size)
{
    if(begin == end && combination_size > 0u)
        throw std::invalid_argument("empty set and positive combination size!");
    std::vector<std::vector<Fci> > result; // empty set of combinations
    if(combination_size == 0u) return result; // there is exactly one combination of
                                              // size 0 - emty set
    std::vector<Fci> current_combination;
    current_combination.reserve(combination_size + 1u); // I reserve one aditional slot
                                                        // in my vector to store
                                                        // the end sentinel there.
                                                        // The code is cleaner thanks to that
    for(unsigned int i = 0u; i < combination_size && begin != end; ++i, ++begin)
    {
        current_combination.push_back(begin); // Construction of the first combination
    }
    // Since I assume the itarators support only incrementing, I have to iterate over
    // the set to get its size, which is expensive. Here I had to itrate anyway to  
    // produce the first cobination, so I use the loop to also check the size.
    if(current_combination.size() < combination_size)
        throw std::invalid_argument("combination size > set size!");
    result.push_back(current_combination); // Store the first combination in the results set
    current_combination.push_back(end); // Here I add mentioned earlier sentinel to
                                        // simplyfy rest of the code. If I did it 
                                        // earlier, previous statement would get ugly.
    while(true)
    {
        unsigned int i = combination_size;
        Fci tmp;                            // Thanks to the sentinel I can find first
        do                                  // iterator to change, simply by scaning
        {                                   // from right to left and looking for the
            tmp = current_combination[--i]; // first "bubble". The fact, that it's 
            ++tmp;                          // a forward iterator makes it ugly but I
        }                                   // can't help it.
        while(i > 0u && tmp == current_combination[i + 1u]);

        // Here is probably my most obfuscated expression.
        // Loop above looks for a "bubble". If there is no "bubble", that means, that
        // current_combination is the last combination, Expression in the if statement
        // below evaluates to true and the function exits returning result.
        // If the "bubble" is found however, the ststement below has a sideeffect of 
        // incrementing the first iterator to the left of the "bubble".
        if(++current_combination[i] == current_combination[i + 1u])
            return result;
        // Rest of the code sets posiotons of the rest of the iterstors
        // (if there are any), that are to the right of the incremented one,
        // to form next combination

        while(++i < combination_size)
        {
            current_combination[i] = current_combination[i - 1u];
            ++current_combination[i];
        }
        // Below is the ugly side of using the sentinel. Well it had to haave some 
        // disadvantage. Try without it.
        result.push_back(std::vector<Fci>(current_combination.begin(),
                                          current_combination.end() - 1));
    }
}

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);
    }
}

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 :: _}
    }
}