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);
}

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));
    }
}

void combine(char a[], int N, int M, int m, int start, char result[]) {
    if (0 == m) {
        for (int i = M - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            std::cout << result[i];
        std::cout << std::endl;
        return;
    }
    for (int i = start; i < (N - m + 1); i++) {
        result[m - 1] = a[i];
        combine(a, N, M, m-1, i+1, result);
    }
}

void combine(char a[], int N, int M) {
    char *result = new char[M];
    combine(a, N, M, M, 0, result);
    delete[] result;
}

在第一个函数中，m表示还需要选择多少个，start表示必须从数组中的哪个位置开始选择。

算法:

从1数到2^n。 将每个数字转换为二进制表示。 根据位置，将每个“on”位转换为集合中的元素。

在c#中:

void Main()
{
    var set = new [] {"A", "B", "C", "D" }; //, "E", "F", "G", "H", "I", "J" };

    var kElement = 2;

    for(var i = 1; i < Math.Pow(2, set.Length); i++) {
        var result = Convert.ToString(i, 2).PadLeft(set.Length, '0');
        var cnt = Regex.Matches(Regex.Escape(result),  "1").Count; 
        if (cnt == kElement) {
            for(int j = 0; j < set.Length; j++)
                if ( Char.GetNumericValue(result[j]) == 1)
                    Console.Write(set[j]);
            Console.WriteLine();
        }
    }
}

为什么它能起作用?

在n元素集的子集和n位序列之间存在双射。

这意味着我们可以通过数数序列来计算出有多少个子集。

例如，下面的四个元素集可以用{0,1}X {0,1} X {0,1} X{0,1}(或2^4)个不同的序列表示。

我们要做的就是从1数到2^n来找到所有的组合。(我们忽略空集。)接下来，将数字转换为二进制表示。然后将集合中的元素替换为“on”位。

如果只需要k个元素的结果，则只在k位为“on”时打印。

(如果你想要所有的子集，而不是k长度的子集，删除cnt/kElement部分。)

(有关证明，请参阅麻省理工学院免费课件计算机科学数学，雷曼等，第11.2.2节。https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical -工程-和-计算机- science/6 - 042 j -数学- -计算机科学-下降- 2010/readings/)

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

在c#中:

public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> Combinations<T>(this IEnumerable<T> elements, int k)
{
  return k == 0 ? new[] { new T[0] } :
    elements.SelectMany((e, i) =>
      elements.Skip(i + 1).Combinations(k - 1).Select(c => (new[] {e}).Concat(c)));
}

用法:

var result = Combinations(new[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 }, 3);

结果:

123
124
125
134
135
145
234
235
245
345