Listing combinations WITH repetitions in Scala

Question

Trying to learn a bit of Scala and ran into this problem. I found a solution for all combinations without repetions here and I somewhat understand the idea behind i

Answer 1

I understand your question now. I think the easiest way to achieve what you want is to do the following:

def mycomb[T](n: Int, l: List[T]): List[List[T]] =
  n match {
    case 0 => List(List())
    case _ => for(el <- l;
              sl <- mycomb(n-1, l dropWhile { _ != el } ))
              yield el :: sl
}

def comb[T](n: Int, l: List[T]): List[List[T]] = mycomb(n, l.removeDuplicates)

The comb method just calls mycomb with duplicates removed from the input list. Removing the duplicates means it is then easier to test later whether two elements are 'the same'. The only change I have made to your mycomb method is that when the method is being called recursively I strip off the elements which appear before el in the list. This is to stop there being duplicates in the output.

> comb(3, List(1,2,3))
> List[List[Int]] = List(
    List(1, 1, 1), List(1, 1, 2), List(1, 1, 3), List(1, 2, 2), 
    List(1, 2, 3), List(1, 3, 3), List(2, 2, 2), List(2, 2, 3), 
    List(2, 3, 3), List(3, 3, 3))

> comb(6, List(1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2))
> List[List[Int]] = List(
    List(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1), List(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2), List(1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2), 
    List(1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2), List(1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2), List(1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2), 
    List(2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2))