How to Generate all k-elements subsets from an N-elements set recursively in Java

So I am stuck with this problem of trying to find all k-elements subsets from a given N-elements set. I know what the total number of k-subsets is using the formula C(n,k)=C(n-1, k-1)+C(n-1, k) and I also have an idea how to do it in a iterative manner, but I 开发者_高级运维get stuck when I try to think of a recursive solution. Can anyone give me a hint? Thanks!

For each element of the set, take that element, then add in turn to that all (k-1) subsets of the remaining N-1 element set.

"It was a dark and stormy night, and the Captain said ..."

Better

This is broken for the k=0 case, because I think it'll return a set containing the empty set, which isn't quite right. Anyway. There's also an iteration in here, you could probably replace that with recursion if the goal is being PURELY recursive. This is a fairly straightforward modification of the algorithm given at wikipedia: powerset. I'll leave fixing the corner cases (k=0) to the reader.

This is not properly tail-recursive, not that it matters in most JVMs. (I guess the IBM JVM does this...)

class RecursivePowerKSet
{  
  static public <E> Set<Set<E>> computeKPowerSet(final Set<E> source, final int k)
  {
    if (k==0 || source.size() < k) {
      Set<Set<E>> set = new HashSet<Set<E>>();
      set.add(Collections.EMPTY_SET);
      return set;
    }

    if (source.size() == k) {
      Set<Set<E>> set = new HashSet<Set<E>>();
      set.add(source);
      return set;
    }

    Set<Set<E>> toReturn = new HashSet<Set<E>>();

    // distinguish an element
    for(E element : source) {
      // compute source - element
      Set<E> relativeComplement = new HashSet<E>(source);
      relativeComplement.remove(element);

      // add the powerset of the complement
      Set<Set<E>> completementPowerSet = computeKPowerSet(relativeComplement,k-1);
      toReturn.addAll(withElement(completementPowerSet,element));
    }

    return toReturn;
  }

  /** Given a set of sets S_i and element k, return the set of sets {S_i U {k}} */ 
  static private <E> Set<Set<E>> withElement(final Set<Set<E>> source, E element)
  {

    Set<Set<E>> toReturn = new HashSet<Set<E>>();
    for (Set<E> setElement : source) {
      Set<E> withElementSet = new HashSet<E>(setElement);
      withElementSet.add(element);
      toReturn.add(withElementSet);
    }

    return toReturn;
  }

  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    Set<String> source = new HashSet<String>();
    source.add("one");
    source.add("two");
    source.add("three");
    source.add("four");
    source.add("five");

    Set<Set<String>> powerset = computeKPowerSet(source,3);

    for (Set<String> set : powerset) {
      for (String item : set) {
        System.out.print(item+" ");
      }
      System.out.println();
    }   
  }
}

Power Set Only This doesn't probably quite get there, and isn't really elegant, but it computes the full powerset recursively, then trims it (iteratively) for size.

class RecursivePowerSet
{


  static public <E> Set<Set<E>> computeConstrainedSets(final Set<Set<E>> source, final SizeConstraint<Set<E>> constraint)
  {
    Set<Set<E>> constrained = new HashSet<Set<E>>();
    for (Set<E> candidate : source) {
      if (constraint.meetsConstraint(candidate)) {
        constrained.add(candidate);
      }
    }
    return constrained;
  }

  static public <E> Set<Set<E>> computePowerSet(final Set<E> source)
  {

    if (source.isEmpty()) {
      Set<Set<E>> setOfEmptySet = new HashSet<Set<E>>();
      setOfEmptySet.add(Collections.EMPTY_SET);
      return setOfEmptySet;
    }


    Set<Set<E>> toReturn = new HashSet<Set<E>>();

    // distinguish an element
    E element = source.iterator().next();

    // compute source - element
    Set<E> relativeComplement = new HashSet<E>(source);
    relativeComplement.remove(element);

    // add the powerset of the complement
    Set<Set<E>> completementPowerSet = computePowerSet(relativeComplement);
    toReturn.addAll(completementPowerSet);
    toReturn.addAll(withElement(completementPowerSet,element));

    return toReturn;
  }

  static private <E> Set<Set<E>> withElement(final Set<Set<E>> source, E element)
  {

    Set<Set<E>> toReturn = new HashSet<Set<E>>();
    for (Set<E> setElement : source) {
      Set<E> withElementSet = new HashSet<E>(setElement);
      withElementSet.add(element);
      toReturn.add(withElementSet);
    }

    return toReturn;
  }

  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    Set<String> source = new HashSet<String>();
    source.add("one");
    source.add("two");
    source.add("three");
    source.add("four");
    source.add("five");

    SizeConstraint<Set<String>> constraint = new SizeConstraint<Set<String>>(3);

    Set<Set<String>> powerset = computePowerSet(source);
    Set<Set<String>> constrained = computeConstrainedSets(powerset, constraint);
    for (Set<String> set : constrained) {
      for (String item : set) {
        System.out.print(item+" ");
      }
      System.out.println();
    }

  }

  static class SizeConstraint<V extends Set> {

    final int size;
    public SizeConstraint(final int size)
    {
     this.size = size; 
    }

    public boolean meetsConstraint(V set)
    {
      return set.size() == size;
    }
  }

}

Here's some pseudocode. You can cut same recursive calls by storing the values for each call as you go and before recursive call checking if the call value is already present.

The following algorithm will have all the subsets excluding the empty set.

list * subsets(string s, list * v){
    if(s.length() == 1){
        list.add(s);    
        return v;
    }
    else
    {
        list * temp = subsets(s[1 to length-1], v);     
        int length = temp->size();

        for(int i=0;i<length;i++){
            temp.add(s[0]+temp[i]);
        }

        list.add(s[0]);
        return temp;
    }
}