Algorithm to determine coin combinations

Question

I was recently faced with a prompt for a programming algorithm that I had no idea what to do for. I\'ve never really written an algorithm before, so I\'m kind of a newb at t

Answer 1

Here's a recursive solution in Java:

// Usage: int[] denoms = new int[] { 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 };       
// System.out.println(ways(denoms, denoms.length, 200));
public static int ways(int denoms[], int index, int capacity) {
    if (capacity == 0) return 1;
    if (capacity < 0 || index <= 0 ) return 0;
    int withoutItem = ways(denoms, index - 1, capacity); 
    int withItem = ways(denoms, index, capacity - denoms[index - 1]); 
    return withoutItem + withItem;
}