Using recursion and backtracking to generate all possible combinations

Question

I\'m trying to implement a class that will generate all possible unordered n-tuples or combinations given a number of elements and the size of the combination.

In ot

Answer 1

In MATLAB:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% combinations.m

function combinations(n, k, func)
assert(n >= k);
n_set = [1:n];
k_set = zeros(k, 1);
recursive_comb(k, 1, n_set, k_set, func)
return

function recursive_comb(k_set_index, n_set_index, n_set, k_set, func)
if k_set_index == 0,
  func(k_set);
  return;
end;
for i = n_set_index:length(n_set)-k_set_index+1,
  k_set(k_set_index) = n_set(i);
  recursive_comb(k_set_index - 1, i + 1, n_set, k_set, func); 
end;
return;

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Test:
>> combinations(5, 3, @(x) printf('%s\n', sprintf('%d ', x)));
3 2 1 
4 2 1 
5 2 1 
4 3 1 
5 3 1 
5 4 1 
4 3 2 
5 3 2 
5 4 2 
5 4 3