Statistics: combinations in Python

Question

I need to compute combinatorials (nCr) in Python but cannot find the function to do that in math, numpy or stat libraries. Something

Answer 1

Why not write it yourself? It's a one-liner or such:

from operator import mul    # or mul=lambda x,y:x*y
from fractions import Fraction

def nCk(n,k): 
  return int( reduce(mul, (Fraction(n-i, i+1) for i in range(k)), 1) )

Test - printing Pascal's triangle:

>>> for n in range(17):
...     print ' '.join('%5d'%nCk(n,k) for k in range(n+1)).center(100)
...     
                                                   1                                                
                                                1     1                                             
                                             1     2     1                                          
                                          1     3     3     1                                       
                                       1     4     6     4     1                                    
                                    1     5    10    10     5     1                                 
                                 1     6    15    20    15     6     1                              
                              1     7    21    35    35    21     7     1                           
                           1     8    28    56    70    56    28     8     1                        
                        1     9    36    84   126   126    84    36     9     1                     
                     1    10    45   120   210   252   210   120    45    10     1                  
                  1    11    55   165   330   462   462   330   165    55    11     1               
               1    12    66   220   495   792   924   792   495   220    66    12     1            
            1    13    78   286   715  1287  1716  1716  1287   715   286    78    13     1         
         1    14    91   364  1001  2002  3003  3432  3003  2002  1001   364    91    14     1      
      1    15   105   455  1365  3003  5005  6435  6435  5005  3003  1365   455   105    15     1   
    1    16   120   560  1820  4368  8008 11440 12870 11440  8008  4368  1820   560   120    16     1
>>> 

PS. edited to replace int(round(reduce(mul, (float(n-i)/(i+1) for i in range(k)), 1))) with int(reduce(mul, (Fraction(n-i, i+1) for i in range(k)), 1)) so it won't err for big N/K