given an array of elements (all elements are unique ) , given a sum
s find all the subsets having sum s.
for ex array {5,9,1,3,4,2,6,7,11,10}
sum is 10
possible subsets are {10}, {6,4}, {7,3}, {5,3,2}, {6,3,1} etc.
there can be many more.
also find the total number of these subsets.
please help me to solve this problem..
It is a famous backtracking problem which can be solved by recursion. Basically its a brute force approach in which every possible combination is tried but 3 boundary conditions given at least prune the search.
Here is algorithm:
s variable for the sum of elements selected till now.
r variable for the overall sum of the remaining array.
M is the sum required.
k is index starting with 0
w is array of given integers
Sum(k,s,r)
{
x[k]:=1; //select the current element
if(s<=M & r>=M-s & w[k]<=M-s)
then
{
if(s+w[k]==M)
then output all i [1..k] that x[i]=1
else
sum(k+1,s+w[k],r-w[k])
}
x[k]:=0 //don't select the current element
if(s<=M) & (r>=M-s) & (w[k]<=M-s)
then
{
if (M==s)
then output all i [1..k] that x[i]=1
else
sum(k+1,s,r-w[k])
}
}
I am using an array "x" to mark the candidate numbers selected for solution. At each step 3 boundary conditions are checked:
1. Sum of selected elements in "x" from "w" shouldn't exceed M. s<M.
2. Remaining numbers in array should be able to complete M. r>=M-s.
3. Single remaining value in w shouldn't overflow M. w[k]<=M-s.
If any of the condition is failed, that branch is terminated.
Here's some python code doing what you want. It makes extensive use of itertools so to understand it you might want to have a look at the itertools docs.
>>> import itertools
>>> vals = (5,9,1,3,4,2,6,7,11,10)
>>> combos = itertools.chain(*((x for x in itertools.combinations(vals, i) if sum(x) == 10) for i in xrange(len(vals)+1)))
>>> for c in combos: print c
...
(10,)
(9, 1)
(3, 7)
(4, 6)
(5, 1, 4)
(5, 3, 2)
(1, 3, 6)
(1, 2, 7)
(1, 3, 4, 2)
What it does is basically this:
For all possible subset sizes - for i in xrange(len(vals)+1), do:
Iterate over all subsets with this size - for x in itertools.combinations(vals, i)
Test if the sum of the subset's values is 10 - if sum(x) == 10
In this case yield the subset
For each subset size another generator is yielded, so I'm using itertools.chain to chain them together so there's a single generator yielding all solutions.
Since you have only a generator and not a list, you need to count the elements while iterating over it - or you could use list(combos) to put all values from the generator into a list (this consumes the generator, so don't try iterating over it before/after that).
Since you don't say if it's homework or not, I give only some hints:
let nums be the array of numbers that you can use (in your example nums = {5,9,1,3,4,2,6,7,11,10})
let targetSum be the sum value you're given (in your example targetSum = 10)
sort nums: you don't want to search for solutions using elements of nums that are bigger of your targetSum
let S_s be a set of integers taken from nums whose sum is equal to s
let R_s be the set of all S_s
you want to find R_s (in your example R_10)
now, assume that you have a function find(i, s) which returns R_s using the the sub-array of nums starting from position i
if nums[i] > s you can stop (remember that you have previously sorted nums)
if nums[i] == s you have found R_s = { { nums[i] } }, so return it
for every j in [1 .. nums.length - 1] you want to compute R_s' = find(i + j, targetSum - nums[i]), then add nums[i] to every set in R_s', and add them to your result R_s
solve your problem by implementing find, and calling find(0, 10)
I hope this helps
Related
sorry for the horrible title, I am really struggling to find the right words for what I am looking for.
I think what I want to do is actually quite simple, but I still can't really wrap my head around creating algorithms. I bet I could have easily found a solution on the web if I wasn't lacking basic knowledge of algorithm terminology.
Let's assume I want to iterate over all combinations of an array of five integers, where each integer is a number between zero and nine. Naturally, I could just increment from 0 to 99999. [0, 0, 0, 0, 1], [0, 0, 0, 0, 2], ... [9, 9, 9, 9, 9].
However, I need to "evenly" (don't really know how to call it) increment the individual elements. Ideally, the sequence of arrays that is produced by the algorithm should look something like this:
[0,0,0,0,0] [1,0,0,0,0] [0,1,0,0,0] [0,0,1,0,0]
[0,0,0,1,0] [0,0,0,0,1] [1,1,0,0,0] [1,0,1,0,0]
[1,0,0,1,0] [1,0,0,0,1] [1,1,0,1,0] [1,1,0,0,1]
[1,1,1,0,0] [1,1,1,1,0] [1,1,1,0,1] [1,1,1,1,1]
[2,0,0,0,0] [2,1,0,0,0] [2,0,1,0,0] [2,0,0,1,0]
[2,0,0,0,1] [2,1,1,0,0] [2,1,0,1,0] .....
I probably made a few mistake in the sequence above, but maybe you can guess what I am trying to approach. Don't introduce a number higher than 1 unless every possible combination of 0s and 1s has been determined, don't introduce a number higher than 2 unless every possible combination of 0s, 1s and 2s has been determined, and so on..
I would really appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction! Thanks a lot
You've already said that you can get the combinations you are looking for by enumerating all nk possible sequences, except that you don't get them in the desired order.
You could generate the sequences in the right order if you used an odometer-style enumerator. At first, all digits must be 0 or 1. When the odometer would wrap (after 1111...), you increment the set of the digits to [0, 1, 2]. Reset the sequence to 2000... and keep iterating, but only emit sequences that have at least one 2 in them, because you've already generated all sequences of 0's and 1's. Repeat until after wrapping you go beyond the maximum threshold.
Filtering out the duplicates that don't have the current top digit in them can be done by keeping track of the count of top numbers.
Here's an implementation in C with hard-enumed limits:
enum {
SIZE = 3,
TOP = 4
};
typedef struct Generator Generator;
struct Generator {
unsigned top; // current threshold
unsigned val[SIZE]; // sequence array
unsigned tops; // count of "top" values
};
/*
* "raw" generator backend which produces all sequences
* and keeps track of how many top numbers there are
*/
int gen_next_raw(Generator *gen)
{
int i = 0;
do {
if (gen->val[i] == gen->top) gen->tops--;
gen->val[i]++;
if (gen->val[i] == gen->top) gen->tops++;
if (gen->val[i] <= gen->top) return 1;
gen->val[i++] = 0;
} while (i < SIZE);
return 0;
}
/*
* actual generator, which filters out duplicates
* and increases the threshold if needed
*/
int gen_next(Generator *gen)
{
while (gen_next_raw(gen)) {
if (gen->tops) return 1;
}
gen->top++;
if (gen->top > TOP) return 0;
memset(gen->val, 0, sizeof(gen->val));
gen->val[0] = gen->top;
gen->tops = 1;
return 1;
}
The gen_next_raw function is the base implementation of the odometer with the addition of keeping a count of current top digits. The gen_next function uses it as backend. It filters out the duplicates and increases the threshold as needed. (All that can probably be done more efficiently.)
Generate the sequence with:
Generator gen = {0};
while (gen_next(&gen)) {
if (is_good(gen.val)) {
puts("Bingo!");
break;
}
}
You could break this down into two subproblems:
get all combinations with replacement of 0, 1, 2, ... for the given number of digits
get all (unique) permutations of those combinations
Your desired ordering is still different than the order those are typically generated in (e.g. (0,1,1) before (0,0,2), and (0,0,1) before (1,0,0)), but you can just collect all the combinations and all the permutations individually and sort them, at least requiring much less memory than for generating, collecting and sorting all those combinations.
Example in Python, using implementations of those functions from the itertools library; key=lambda c: c[::-1] sorts the lists in-order, but reversing the order of the individual elements to get your desired order:
from itertools import combinations_with_replacement, permutations
places = 3
max_digit = 3
all_combs = list(combinations_with_replacement(range(0, max_digit+1), r=places))
for comb in sorted(all_combs, key=lambda c: c[::-1]):
all_perms = set(permutations(comb))
for perm in sorted(all_perms, key=lambda c: c[::-1]):
print(perm)
And some selected output (64 elements in total)
(0, 0, 0)
(1, 0, 0)
(0, 1, 0)
...
(0, 1, 1)
(1, 1, 1)
(2, 0, 0)
(0, 2, 0)
...
(0, 1, 2)
(2, 1, 1)
...
(2, 2, 2)
(3, 0, 0)
(0, 3, 0)
...
(2, 3, 3)
(3, 3, 3)
For 27 places with values up to 27 that would still be too many combinations-with-replacement to generate and sort, so this part should be replaced with a custom algorithm.
keep track of how often each digit appears; start with all zeros
find the smallest digit that has a non-zero count, increment the count of the digit after that, and redistribute the remaining smaller counts back to the smallest digit (i.e. zero)
In Python:
def generate_combinations(places, max_digit):
# initially [places, 0, 0, ..., 0]
counts = [places] + [0] * max_digit
yield [i for i, c in enumerate(counts) for _ in range(c)]
while True:
# find lowest digit with a smaller digit with non-zero count
k = next(i for i, c in enumerate(counts) if c > 0) + 1
if k == max_digit + 1:
break
# add one more to that digit, and reset all below to start
counts[k] += 1
counts[0] = places - sum(counts[k:])
for i in range(1, k):
counts[i] = 0
yield [i for i, c in enumerate(counts) for _ in range(c)]
For the second part, we can still use a standard permutations generator, although for 27! that would be too many to collect in a set, but if you expect the result in the first few hundred combinations, you might just keep track of already seen permutations and skip those, and hope that you find the result before that set grows too large...
from itertools import permutations
for comb in generate_combinations(places=3, max_digit=3):
for p in set(permutations(comb)):
print(p)
print()
I have n pairs of numbers: ( p[1], s[1] ), ( p[2], s[2] ), ... , ( p[n], s[n] )
Where p[i] is integer greater than 1; s[i] is integer : 0 <= s[i] < p[i]
Is there any way to determine minimum positive integer a , such that for each pair :
( s[i] + a ) mod p[i] != 0
Anything better than brute force ?
It is possible to do better than brute force. Brute force would be O(A·n), where A is the minimum valid value for a that we are looking for.
The approach described below uses a min-heap and achieves O(n·log(n) + A·log(n)) time complexity.
First, notice that replacing a with a value of the form (p[i] - s[i]) + k * p[i] leads to a reminder equal to zero in the ith pair, for any positive integer k. Thus, the numbers of that form are invalid a values (the solution that we are looking for is different from all of them).
The proposed algorithm is an efficient way to generate the numbers of that form (for all i and k), i.e. the invalid values for a, in increasing order. As soon as the current value differs from the previous one by more than 1, it means that there was a valid a in-between.
The pseudocode below details this approach.
1. construct a min-heap from all the following pairs (p[i] - s[i], p[i]),
where the heap comparator is based on the first element of the pairs.
2. a0 = -1; maxA = lcm(p[i])
3. Repeat
3a. Retrieve and remove the root of the heap, (a, p[i]).
3b. If a - a0 > 1 then the result is a0 + 1. Exit.
3c. if a is at least maxA, then no solution exists. Exit.
3d. Insert into the heap the value (a + p[i], p[i]).
3e. a0 = a
Remark: it is possible for such an a to not exist. If a valid a is not found below LCM(p[1], p[2], ... p[n]), then it is guaranteed that no valid a exists.
I'll show below an example of how this algorithm works.
Consider the following (p, s) pairs: { (2, 1), (5, 3) }.
The first pair indicates that a should avoid values like 1, 3, 5, 7, ..., whereas the second pair indicates that we should avoid values like 2, 7, 12, 17, ... .
The min-heap initially contains the first element of each sequence (step 1 of the pseudocode) -- shown in bold below:
1, 3, 5, 7, ...
2, 7, 12, 17, ...
We retrieve and remove the head of the heap, i.e., the minimum value among the two bold ones, and this is 1. We add into the heap the next element from that sequence, thus the heap now contains the elements 2 and 3:
1, 3, 5, 7, ...
2, 7, 12, 17, ...
We again retrieve the head of the heap, this time it contains the value 2, and add the next element of that sequence into the heap:
1, 3, 5, 7, ...
2, 7, 12, 17, ...
The algorithm continues, we will next retrieve value 3, and add 5 into the heap:
1, 3, 5, 7, ...
2, 7, 12, 17, ...
Finally, now we retrieve value 5. At this point we realize that the value 4 is not among the invalid values for a, thus that is the solution that we are looking for.
I can think of two different solutions. First:
p_max = lcm (p[0],p[1],...,p[n]) - 1;
for a = 0 to p_max:
zero_found = false;
for i = 0 to n:
if ( s[i] + a ) mod p[i] == 0:
zero_found = true;
break;
if !zero_found:
return a;
return -1;
I suppose this is the one you call "brute force". Notice that p_max represents Least Common Multiple of p[i]s - 1 (solution is either in the closed interval [0, p_max], or it does not exist). Complexity of this solution is O(n * p_max) in the worst case (plus the running time for calculating lcm!). There is a better solution regarding the time complexity, but it uses an additional binary array - classical time-space tradeoff. Its idea is similar to the Sieve of Eratosthenes, but for remainders instead of primes :)
p_max = lcm (p[0],p[1],...,p[n]) - 1;
int remainders[p_max + 1] = {0};
for i = 0 to n:
int rem = s[i] - p[i];
while rem >= -p_max:
remainders[-rem] = 1;
rem -= p[i];
for i = 0 to n:
if !remainders[i]:
return i;
return -1;
Explanation of the algorithm: first, we create an array remainders that will indicate whether certain negative remainder exists in the whole set. What is a negative remainder? It's simple, notice that 6 = 2 mod 4 is equivalent to 6 = -2 mod 4. If remainders[i] == 1, it means that if we add i to one of the s[j], we will get p[j] (which is 0, and that is what we want to avoid). Array is populated with all possible negative remainders, up to -p_max. Now all we have to do is search for the first i, such that remainder[i] == 0 and return it, if it exists - notice that the solution does not have to exists. In the problem text, you have indicated that you are searching for the minimum positive integer, I don't see why zero would not fit (if all s[i] are positive). However, if that is a strong requirement, just change the for loop to start from 1 instead of 0, and increment p_max.
The complexity of this algorithm is n + sum (p_max / p[i]) = n + p_max * sum (1 / p[i]), where i goes from to 0 to n. Since all p[i]s are at least 2, that is asymptotically better than the brute force solution.
An example for better understanding: suppose that the input is (5,4), (5,1), (2,0). p_max is lcm(5,5,2) - 1 = 10 - 1 = 9, so we create array with 10 elements, initially filled with zeros. Now let's proceed pair by pair:
from the first pair, we have remainders[1] = 1 and remainders[6] = 1
second pair gives remainders[4] = 1 and remainders[9] = 1
last pair gives remainders[0] = 1, remainders[2] = 1, remainders[4] = 1, remainders[6] = 1 and remainders[8] = 1.
Therefore, first index with zero value in the array is 3, which is a desired solution.
I'm stuck as to how to make an algorithm to find a combination of elements from a list where the sum of those factors is the lowest possible where the factor of those numbers is a predetermined target value.
For instance a list:
(2,5,7,6,8,2,3)
And a target value:
12
Would result in these factors:
(2,2,3) and (2,6)
But the optimal combination would be:
(2,2,3)
As it has a lower sum
First erase from the list all numbers that aren't factors of n. So in your example your list would reduce to (2, 6, 2, 3). Then I would sort the list. So you have (2, 2, 3, 6). Start multiplying the elements from the left to right if you reach n stop. If you exceed n find the next smallest permutation of your numbers and repeat. This will be (2, 2, 6, 3) (for a C++ function that finds the next permutation see this link). This will guarantee to find the multiplication with the smallest sum because the we are checking the products in order from smallest sum to largest. This runs in the size of your list factorial but I think that is as good as you're going to get. This problem sounds NP hard.
You can do slightly better by pruning the permutations. Lets say you were looking for 24 and your list is (2, 4, 8, 12). The only subset is (2, 12). But the next permutation will be (2, 4, 12, 8) which you don't even need to generate because you knew that 2*4 was too small and 2*4*8 was too big and swapping 12 with 8 only increased 2*4*8. This way you didn't have to test that permutation.
You should be able to break the problem down recursively. You have a multiset of potential factors S = {n_1, n_2, ..., n_k}. Let f(S,n) be the maximum sum n_i_1 + n_i_2 + ... + n_i_j where n_i_l are distinct elements of the multiset and n_i_1 * ... * n_i_j = n. Then f(S,n) = max_i { (n_i + f(S-{n_i},n/n_i)) where n_i divides n }. In other words, f(S,n) can be computed recursively. With a little more work you can get the algorithm to spit out the actual n_is that work. The time complexity could be bad, but you don't say what your goals are in that regard.
def primes(n):
primfac = []
d = 2
while d*d <= n:
while (n % d) == 0:
primfac.append(d) # supposing you want multiple factors repeated
n //= d
d += 1
if n > 1:
primfac.append(n)
return primfac
def get_factors_list(dividend, ceiling = float('infinity')):
""" Yield all lists of factors where the largest is no larger than ceiling """
for divisor in range(min(ceiling, dividend - 1), 1, -1):
quotient, mod = divmod(dividend, divisor)
if mod == 0:
if quotient <= divisor:
yield [divisor, quotient]
for factors in get_factors_list(quotient, divisor):
yield [divisor] + factors
def print_factors(x):
factorList = []
if x > 0:
for factors in get_factors_list(x):
factorList.append(list(map(int, factors)))
return factorList
Here's is how you could do it in Haskell:
import Data.List(sortBy, subsequences)
import Data.Function(on)
lowestSumTargetFactor :: (Ord b, Num b) => [b] -> b -> [b]
lowestSumTargetFactor xs target = do
let l = filter (/= []) $ sortBy (compare `on` sum)
[x | x <- subsequences xs, product x == target]
if l == []
then error $ "lowestSumTargetFactor: " ++
"no subsequence product equals target."
else head l
Here's what is happening:
[x | x <- subsequences xs, product x == target] builds a list made of all subsequences of the list xs whose product equals target. In your example, it would build the list [[2,6],[6,2],[2,2,3]].
Then the sortBy (compareonsum) part sorts that list of list by the sum of it's list elements. It would return the list [[2,2,3],[2,6],[6,2]].
I then filter that list, removing any [] elements because product [] returns 1 (don't know the reasoning for this, yet). This was done because lowestSumTargetFactor [1, 1, 1] 1 would return [] instead of the expected [1].
Then I ask if the list we built is []. If no, I use the function head to return the first element of that list ([2,2,3] in your case). If yes, it returns the error as written.
Obs1: where it appears above, the $ just means that everything after it is enclosed in parentheses.
Obs2: the lowestSumTargetFactor :: (Ord b, Num b) => [b] -> b -> [b] part is just the function's type signature. It means that the function takes a list made of bs, a second argument b and returns another list made of bs, b being a member of both the Ord class of totally ordered datatypes, and the Num class, the basic numeric class.
Obs3: I'm still a beginner. A more experienced programmer would probably do this much more efficiently and elegantly.
Given a number K which is a product of two different numbers (A,B), find the maximum number(<=A & <=B) who's square divides the K .
Eg : K = 54 (6*9) . Both the numbers are available i.e 6 and 9.
My approach is fairly very simple or trivial.
taking the smallest of the two ( 6 in this case).Lets say A
Square the number and divide K, if its a perfect division, that's the number.
Else A = A-1 ,till A =1.
For the given example, 3*3 = 9 divides K, and hence 3 is the answer.
Looking for a better algorithm, than the trivial solution.
Note : The test cases are in 1000's so the best possible approach is needed.
I am sure someone else will come up with a nice answer involving modulus arithmetic. Here is a naive approach...
Each of the factors can themselves be factored (though it might be an expensive operation).
Given the factors, you can then look for groups of repeated factors.
For instance, using your example:
Prime factors of 9: 3, 3
Prime factors of 6: 2, 3
All prime factors: 2, 3, 3, 3
There are two 3s, so you have your answer (the square of 3 divides 54).
Second example of 36 x 9 = 324
Prime factors of 36: 2, 2, 3, 3
Prime factors of 9: 3, 3
All prime factors: 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3
So you have two 2s and four 3s, which means 2x3x3 is repeated. 2x3x3 = 18, so the square of 18 divides 324.
Edit: python prototype
import math
def factors(num, dict):
""" This finds the factors of a number recursively.
It is not the most efficient algorithm, and I
have not tested it a lot. You should probably
use another one. dict is a dictionary which looks
like {factor: occurrences, factor: occurrences, ...}
It must contain at least {2: 0} but need not have
any other pre-populated elements. Factors will be added
to this dictionary as they are found.
"""
while (num % 2 == 0):
num /= 2
dict[2] += 1
i = 3
found = False
while (not found and (i <= int(math.sqrt(num)))):
if (num % i == 0):
found = True
factors(i, dict)
factors(num / i, dict)
else:
i += 2
if (not found):
if (num in dict.keys()):
dict[num] += 1
else:
dict[num] = 1
return 0
#MAIN ROUTINE IS HERE
n1 = 37 # first number (6 in your example)
n2 = 41 # second number (9 in your example)
dict = {2: 0} # initialise factors (start with "no factors of 2")
factors(n1, dict) # find the factors of f1 and add them to the list
factors(n2, dict) # find the factors of f2 and add them to the list
sqfac = 1
# now find all factors repeated twice and multiply them together
for k in dict.keys():
dict[k] /= 2
sqfac *= k ** dict[k]
# here is the result
print(sqfac)
Answer in C++
int func(int i, j)
{
int k = 54
float result = pow(i, 2)/k
if (static_cast<int>(result)) == result)
{
if(i < j)
{
func(j, i);
}
else
{
cout << "Number is correct: " << i << endl;
}
}
else
{
cout << "Number is wrong" << endl;
func(j, i)
}
}
Explanation:
First recursion then test if result is a positive integer if it is then check if the other multiple is less or greater if greater recursive function tries the other multiple and if not then it is correct. Then if result is not positive integer then print Number is wrong and do another recursive function to test j.
If I got the problem correctly, I see that you have a rectangle of length=A, width=B, and area=K
And you want convert it to a square and lose the minimum possible area
If this is the case. So the problem with your algorithm is not the cost of iterating through mutliple iterations till get the output.
Rather the problem is that your algorithm depends heavily on the length A and width B of the input rectangle.
While it should depend only on the area K
For example:
Assume A =1, B=25
Then K=25 (the rect area)
Your algorithm will take the minimum value, which is A and accept it as answer with a single
iteration which is so fast but leads to wrong asnwer as it will result in a square of area 1 and waste the remaining 24 (whatever cm
or m)
While the correct answer here should be 5. which will never be reached by your algorithm
So, in my solution I assume a single input K
My ideas is as follows
x = sqrt(K)
if(x is int) .. x is the answer
else loop from x-1 till 1, x--
if K/x^2 is int, x is the answer
This might take extra iterations but will guarantee accurate answer
Also, there might be some concerns on the cost of sqrt(K)
but it will be called just once to avoid misleading length and width input
Actually, this question can be generalized as below:
Find all possible combinations from a given set of elements, which meets
a certain criteria.
So, any good algorithms?
There are only 16 possibilities (and one of those is to add together "none of them", which ain't gonna give you 24), so the old-fashioned "brute force" algorithm looks pretty good to me:
for (unsigned int choice = 1; choice < 16; ++choice) {
int sum = 0;
if (choice & 1) sum += elements[0];
if (choice & 2) sum += elements[1];
if (choice & 4) sum += elements[2];
if (choice & 8) sum += elements[3];
if (sum == 24) {
// we have a winner
}
}
In the completely general form of your problem, the only way to tell whether a combination meets "certain criteria" is to evaluate those criteria for every single combination. Given more information about the criteria, maybe you could work out some ways to avoid testing every combination and build an algorithm accordingly, but not without those details. So again, brute force is king.
There are two interesting explanations about the sum problem, both in Wikipedia and MathWorld.
In the case of the first question you asked, the first answer is good for a limited number of elements. You should realize that the reason Mr. Jessop used 16 as the boundary for his loop is because this is 2^4, where 4 is the number of elements in your set. If you had 100 elements, the loop limit would become 2^100 and your algorithm would literally take forever to finish.
In the case of a bounded sum, you should consider a depth first search, because when the sum of elements exceeds the sum you are looking for, you can prune your branch and backtrack.
In the case of the generic question, finding the subset of elements that satisfy certain criteria, this is known as the Knapsack problem, which is known to be NP-Complete. Given that, there is no algorithm that will solve it in less than exponential time.
Nevertheless, there are several heuristics that bring good results to the table, including (but not limited to) genetic algorithms (one I personally like, for I wrote a book on them) and dynamic programming. A simple search in Google will show many scientific papers that describe different solutions for this problem.
Find all possible combinations from a given set of elements, which
meets a certain criteria
If i understood you right, this code will helpful for you:
>>> from itertools import combinations as combi
>>> combi.__doc__
'combinations(iterable, r) --> combinations object\n\nReturn successive r-length
combinations of elements in the iterable.\n\ncombinations(range(4), 3) --> (0,1
,2), (0,1,3), (0,2,3), (1,2,3)'
>>> set = range(4)
>>> set
[0, 1, 2, 3]
>>> criteria = range(3)
>>> criteria
[0, 1, 2]
>>> for tuple in list(combi(set, len(criteria))):
... if cmp(list(tuple), criteria) == 0:
... print 'criteria exists in tuple: ', tuple
...
criteria exists in tuple: (0, 1, 2)
>>> list(combi(set, len(criteria)))
[(0, 1, 2), (0, 1, 3), (0, 2, 3), (1, 2, 3)]
Generally for a problem as this you have to try all posebilities, the thing you should do have the code abort the building of combiantion if you know it will not satesfie the criteria (if you criteria is that you do not have more then two blue balls, then you have to abort calculation that has more then two). Backtracing
def perm(set,permutation):
if lenght(set) == lenght(permutation):
print permutation
else:
for element in set:
if permutation.add(element) == criteria:
perm(sett,permutation)
else:
permutation.pop() //remove the element added in the if
The set of input numbers matters, as you can tell as soon as you allow e.g. negative numbers, imaginary numbers, rational numbers etc in your start set. You could also restrict to e.g. all even numbers, all odd number inputs etc.
That means that it's hard to build something deductive. You need brute force, a.k.a. try every combination etc.
In this particular problem you could build an algoritm that recurses - e.g. find every combination of 3 Int ( 1,22) that add up to 23, then add 1, every combination that add to 22 and add 2 etc. Which can again be broken into every combination of 2 that add up to 21 etc. You need to decide if you can count same number twice.
Once you have that you have a recursive function to call -
combinations( 24 , 4 ) = combinations( 23, 3 ) + combinations( 22, 3 ) + ... combinations( 4, 3 );
combinations( 23 , 3 ) = combinations( 22, 2 ) + ... combinations( 3, 2 );
etc
This works well except you have to be careful around repeating numbers in the recursion.
private int[][] work()
{
const int target = 24;
List<int[]> combos = new List<int[]>();
for(int i = 0; i < 9; i++)
for(int x = 0; x < 9; x++)
for(int y = 0; y < 9; y++)
for (int z = 0; z < 9; z++)
{
int res = x + y + z + i;
if (res == target)
{
combos.Add(new int[] { x, y, z, i });
}
}
return combos.ToArray();
}
It works instantly, but there probably are better methods rather than 'guess and check'. All I am doing is looping through every possibility, adding them all together, and seeing if it comes out to the target value.
If i understand your question correctly, what you are asking for is called "Permutations" or the number (N) of possible ways to arrange (X) numbers taken from a set of (Y) numbers.
N = Y! / (Y - X)!
I don't know if this will help, but this is a solution I came up with for an assignment on permutations.
You have an input of : 123 (string) using the substr functions
1) put each number of the input into an array
array[N1,N2,N3,...]
2)Create a swap function
function swap(Number A, Number B)
{
temp = Number B
Number B = Number A
Number A = temp
}
3)This algorithm uses the swap function to move the numbers around until all permutations are done.
original_string= '123'
temp_string=''
While( temp_string != original_string)
{
swap(array element[i], array element[i+1])
if (i == 1)
i == 0
temp_string = array.toString
i++
}
Hopefully you can follow my pseudo code, but this works at least for 3 digit permutations
(n X n )
built up a square matrix of nxn
and print all together its corresponding crossed values
e.g.
1 2 3 4
1 11 12 13 14
2 .. .. .. ..
3 ..
4 .. ..