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);
    }
}

简单但缓慢的c++回溯算法。

#include <iostream>

void backtrack(int* numbers, int n, int k, int i, int s)
{
    if (i == k)
    {
        for (int j = 0; j < k; ++j)
        {
            std::cout << numbers[j];
        }
        std::cout << std::endl;

        return;
    }

    if (s > n)
    {
        return;
    }

    numbers[i] = s;
    backtrack(numbers, n, k, i + 1, s + 1);
    backtrack(numbers, n, k, i, s + 1);
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    int n = 5;
    int k = 3;

    int* numbers = new int[k];

    backtrack(numbers, n, k, 0, 1);

    delete[] numbers;

    return 0;
}

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)

这是一个简单的JS解决方案:

function getAllCombinations(n, k, f1) { indexes = Array(k); for (let i =0; i< k; i++) { indexes[i] = i; } var total = 1; f1(indexes); while (indexes[0] !== n-k) { total++; getNext(n, indexes); f1(indexes); } return {total}; } function getNext(n, vec) { const k = vec.length; vec[k-1]++; for (var i=0; i<k; i++) { var currentIndex = k-i-1; if (vec[currentIndex] === n - i) { var nextIndex = k-i-2; vec[nextIndex]++; vec[currentIndex] = vec[nextIndex] + 1; } } for (var i=1; i<k; i++) { if (vec[i] === n - (k-i - 1)) { vec[i] = vec[i-1] + 1; } } return vec; } let start = new Date(); let result = getAllCombinations(10, 3, indexes => console.log(indexes)); let runTime = new Date() - start; console.log({ result, runTime });

PowerShell解决方案:

function Get-NChooseK
{
    <#
    .SYNOPSIS
    Returns all the possible combinations by choosing K items at a time from N possible items.

    .DESCRIPTION
    Returns all the possible combinations by choosing K items at a time from N possible items.
    The combinations returned do not consider the order of items as important i.e. 123 is considered to be the same combination as 231, etc.

    .PARAMETER ArrayN
    The array of items to choose from.

    .PARAMETER ChooseK
    The number of items to choose.

    .PARAMETER AllK
    Includes combinations for all lesser values of K above zero i.e. 1 to K.

    .PARAMETER Prefix
    String that will prefix each line of the output.

    .EXAMPLE
    PS C:\> Get-NChooseK -ArrayN '1','2','3' -ChooseK 3
    123

    .EXAMPLE
    PS C:\> Get-NChooseK -ArrayN '1','2','3' -ChooseK 3 -AllK
    1
    2
    3
    12
    13
    23
    123

    .EXAMPLE
    PS C:\> Get-NChooseK -ArrayN '1','2','3' -ChooseK 2 -Prefix 'Combo: '
    Combo: 12
    Combo: 13
    Combo: 23

    .NOTES
    Author : nmbell
    #>

    # Use cmdlet binding
    [CmdletBinding()]

    # Declare parameters
    Param
    (

        [String[]]
        $ArrayN

    ,   [Int]
        $ChooseK

    ,   [Switch]
        $AllK

    ,   [String]
        $Prefix = ''

    )

    BEGIN
    {
    }

    PROCESS
    {
        # Validate the inputs
        $ArrayN = $ArrayN | Sort-Object -Unique

        If ($ChooseK -gt $ArrayN.Length)
        {
            Write-Error "Can't choose $ChooseK items when only $($ArrayN.Length) are available." -ErrorAction Stop
        }

        # Control the output
        $firstK = If ($AllK) { 1 } Else { $ChooseK }

        # Get combinations
        $firstK..$ChooseK | ForEach-Object {

            $thisK = $_

            $ArrayN[0..($ArrayN.Length-($thisK--))] | ForEach-Object {
                If ($thisK -eq 0)
                {
                    Write-Output ($Prefix+$_)
                }
                Else
                {
                    Get-NChooseK -Array ($ArrayN[($ArrayN.IndexOf($_)+1)..($ArrayN.Length-1)]) -Choose $thisK -AllK:$false -Prefix ($Prefix+$_)
                }
            }

        }
    }

    END
    {
    }

}

例如:

PS C:\>Get-NChooseK -ArrayN 'A','B','C','D','E' -ChooseK 3
ABC
ABD
ABE
ACD
ACE
ADE
BCD
BCE
BDE
CDE

最近在IronScripter网站上发布了一个类似于这个问题的挑战，在那里你可以找到我的链接和其他一些解决方案。

遵循Haskell代码同时计算组合数和组合，由于Haskell的惰性，您可以得到其中的一部分而无需计算另一部分。

import Data.Semigroup
import Data.Monoid

data Comb = MkComb {count :: Int, combinations :: [[Int]]} deriving (Show, Eq, Ord)

instance Semigroup Comb where
    (MkComb c1 cs1) <> (MkComb c2 cs2) = MkComb (c1 + c2) (cs1 ++ cs2)

instance Monoid Comb where
    mempty = MkComb 0 []

addElem :: Comb -> Int -> Comb
addElem (MkComb c cs) x = MkComb c (map (x :) cs)

comb :: Int -> Int -> Comb
comb n k | n < 0 || k < 0 = error "error in `comb n k`, n and k should be natural number"
comb n k | k == 0 || k == n = MkComb 1 [(take k [k-1,k-2..0])]
comb n k | n < k = mempty
comb n k = comb (n-1) k <> (comb (n-1) (k-1) `addElem` (n-1))

它是这样工作的:

*Main> comb 0 1
MkComb {count = 0, combinations = []}

*Main> comb 0 0
MkComb {count = 1, combinations = [[]]}

*Main> comb 1 1
MkComb {count = 1, combinations = [[0]]}

*Main> comb 4 2
MkComb {count = 6, combinations = [[1,0],[2,0],[2,1],[3,0],[3,1],[3,2]]}

*Main> count (comb 10 5)
252