Is there an algorithm to find unique combinations of 2 lists? 5 lists?

Question

I have N Lists I\'d like to find unique combinations of. I\'ve written it out on my whiteboard and it all seems to have a pattern, I just haven\'t found it

Answer 1

Might that do the trick?

def getAllCombinations(listOfLists):
    if len(listOfLists) == 1:
        return [str(x) for x in listOfLists[0]]

    result = set()
    head, tail = listOfLists[0], listOfLists[1:]

    tailCombs = getAllCombinations(tail)
    for elem in head:
        for tc in tailCombs:
            result.add(str(elem) + tc)
    return result

v = [1, 'a']
w = [1, 'b']
x = [1, 'c']
y = [1, 'd']
z = [1, 'e']

>>> print getAllCombinations([v, w, x, y, z])
set(['111de', 'abc11', 'a1c1e', 'a111e', '11c11', 'ab11e', '1bc11', 'ab1d1', 'a1cd1', '1b1de', 'a11d1', '11111', '1b111', '11cd1', 'abcd1', '1bcde', 'ab111', '1bc1e', 'abc1e', '111d1', 'a1111', '11c1e', 'a1c11', '11cde', '1b11e', '1bcd1', 'abcde', 'a1cde', '1b1d1', 'a11de', 'ab1de', '1111e'])