Generating power set recursively without any loops

Question

How do you write a recursive method PowerSet(String input) that prints out all possible combinations of a string that is passed to it?

For example: PowerSet(\"abc\")

Answer 1

Well if you don't have loops, emulate one with recursion, using iterators this is acutally quite simple.

    public final Set<Set<Integer>> powerSet(Set<Integer> set) {
        Set<Set<Integer>> powerSet = new HashSet<>();
        powerSet(set, powerSet, set.iterator());
        return powerSet;
    }
    public final void powerSet(Set<Integer> set, Set<Set<Integer>> powerSet, Iterator<Integer> iterator) {
        if(iterator.hasNext()) {
            Integer exlude = iterator.next();
            Set<Integer> powThis = new HashSet<Integer>();
            powThis.addAll(set);
            powThis.remove(exlude);
            powerSet.add(powThis);
            powerSet(powThis, powerSet, powThis.iterator());
            powerSet(set, powerSet, iterator);
        }
    }
//usage
        Set<Integer> set = new HashSet<>();
        set.add(1);
        set.add(2);
        set.add(3);
        set.add(4);
        log.error(powerSet(set).toString());

Answer 2

This will also do the trick:

var powerset = function(arr, prefix, subsets) {
  subsets = subsets || [];
  prefix = prefix || [];
  if (arr.length) {
    powerset(arr.slice(1), prefix.concat(arr[0]), subsets);
    powerset(arr.slice(1), prefix, subsets);
  } else {
    subsets.push(prefix);
  }
  return subsets;
};

powerset('abc');