Find all combinations in a 3x3 matrix following some rules - algorithm

Question

Given a 3x3 matrix:
|1 2 3|
|4 5 6|
|7 8 9|
I'd like to calculate all the combinations by connecting the numbers in this matrix following these rules:
the combinations width are between 3 and 9
use one number only once
you can only connect adjacent numbers
Some examples: 123, 258, 2589, 123654, etc.
For example 1238 is not a good combination because 3 and 8 are not adjacent. The 123 and the 321 combination is not the same.
I hope my description is clear.
If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Actually I don't know how to start :D. Thanks

Answer 1

This is a search problem. You can just use straightforward depth-first-search with recursive programming to quickly solve the problem. Something like the following:
func search(matrix[N][M], x, y, digitsUsed[10], combination[L]) {
if length(combination) between 3 and 9 {
add this combination into your solution
}
// four adjacent directions to be attempted
dx = {1,0,0,-1}
dy = {0,1,-1,0}
for i = 0; i < 4; i++ {
next_x = x + dx[i]
next_y = y + dy[i]
if in_matrix(next_x, next_y) and not digitsUsed[matrix[next_x][next_y]] {
digitsUsed[matrix[next_x][next_y]] = true
combination += matrix[next_x][next_y]
search(matrix, next_x, next_y, digitsUsed, combination)
// At this time, sub-search starts with (next_x, next_y) has been completed.
digitsUsed[matrix[next_x][next_y]] = false
}
}
}
So you could run search function for every single grid in the matrix, and every combinations in your solution are different from each other because they start from different grids.
In addition, we don't need to record the status which indicates one grid in the matrix has or has not been traversed because every digit can be used only once, so grids which have been traversed will never be traversed again since their digits have been already contained in the combination.

Answer 2

Here is a possible implementation in Python 3 as a a recursive depth-first exploration:
def find_combinations(data, min_length, max_length):
# Matrix of booleans indicating what values have been used
visited = [[False for _ in row] for row in data]
# Current combination
comb = []
# Start recursive algorithm at every possible position
for i in range(len(data)):
for j in range(len(data[i])):
# Add initial combination element and mark as visited
comb.append(data[i][j])
visited[i][j] = True
# Start recursive algorithm
yield from find_combinations_rec(data, min_length, max_length, visited, comb, i, j)
# After all combinations with current element have been produced remove it
visited[i][j] = False
comb.pop()
def find_combinations_rec(data, min_length, max_length, visited, comb, i, j):
# Yield the current combination if it has the right size
if min_length <= len(comb) <= max_length:
yield comb.copy()
# Stop the recursion after reaching maximum length
if len(comb) >= max_length:
return
# For each neighbor of the last added element
for i2, j2 in ((i - 1, j), (i, j - 1), (i, j + 1), (i + 1, j)):
# Check the neighbor is valid and not visited
if i2 < 0 or i2 >= len(data) or j2 < 0 or j2 >= len(data[i2]) or visited[i2][j2]:
continue
# Add neighbor and mark as visited
comb.append(data[i2][j2])
visited[i2][j2] = True
# Produce combinations for current starting sequence
yield from find_combinations_rec(data, min_length, max_length, visited, comb, i2, j2)
# Remove last added combination element
visited[i2][j2] = False
comb.pop()
# Try it
data = [[1, 2, 3],
[4, 5, 6],
[7, 8, 9]]
min_length = 3
max_length = 9
for comb in find_combinations(data, min_length, max_length):
print(c)
Output:
[1, 2, 3]
[1, 2, 3, 6]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 4]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 4, 7]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 8]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 8, 7]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 8, 7, 4]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 8, 9]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 9]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 8]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 8, 5]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 8, 5, 4]
[1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 8, 5, 4, 7]
...

Answer 3

Look at all the combinations and take the connected ones:
import itertools
def coords(n):
"""Coordinates of number n in the matrix."""
return (n - 1) // 3, (n - 1) % 3
def adjacent(a, b):
"""Check if a and b are adjacent in the matrix."""
ai, aj = coords(a)
bi, bj = coords(b)
return abs(ai - bi) + abs(aj - bj) == 1
def connected(comb):
"""Check if combination is connected."""
return all(adjacent(a, b) for a, b in zip(comb, comb[1:]))
for width in range(3, 10):
for comb in itertools.permutations(range(1, 10), width):
if connected(comb):
print(comb)