Obtaining a powerset of a set in Java

Question

The powerset of {1, 2, 3} is:

{{}, {2}, {3}, {2, 3}, {1, 2}, {1, 3}, {1, 2, 3}, {1}}

Let\'s say I have a Set in Java:<

Answer 1

A sub-set of t is any set that can be made by removing zero or more elements of t. The withoutFirst subset adds the subsets of t that are missing the first element and the for loop will deal with adding subsets with the first element. For example, if t contained the elements ["1", "2", "3"], missingFirst will add [[""], ["2"], ["3"], ["2","3"]] and the for loop will stick the "1" in front of these element and add it to the newSet. So we'll end up with [[""], ["1"], ["2"], ["3"], ["1", "2"], ["1", "3"], ["2","3"], ["1", "2", "3"]].

public static Set> allSubsets(Set t) {
        Set> powerSet = new TreeSet<>();
        if(t.isEmpty()) {
            powerSet.add(new TreeSet<>());
            return powerSet;
        }
        String first = t.get(0);
        Set> withoutFirst = allSubsets(t.subSet(1, t.size()));
        for (List 1st : withoutFirst) {
            Set newSet = new TreeSet<>();
            newSet.add(first);
            newSet.addAll(lst);
            powerSet.add(newSet);
        }
        powerSet.addAll(withoutFirst);
        return powerSet;
    }