I have a collection of groups: Group1, Group2, ...
In each group there are a number of items.
I need to produce a list of all possible item combinations where one item is
picked from each group.

What would be the best algorithm for this? Recursive or iterative?
What would be the best datatypes to use?
Readability is more important than speed.

Example:
Group1: Item1, Item2
Group2: Item3, Item4, Item5
Group3: Item6, Item7

This would produce the following list:
Item1, Item3, Item6
Item1, Item3, Item7
Item1, Item4, Item6
Item1, Item4, Item7
Item1, Item5, Item6
Item1, Item5, Item7
Item2, Item3, Item6
Item2, Item3, Item7
Item2, Item4, Item6
Item2, Item4, Item7
Item2, Item5, Item6
Item2, Item5, Item7

Wouldn't 3 nested loops take care of it?

For each grp1 As Group1Item in Group1
  For each grp2 as Group2Item in Group2
    For each grp3 as Group3Item in Group3
        Console.WriteLine (grp1 & ", " & grp2 & ", " & grp3)
    Next
  Next
Next

I'd probably use Generics to do this.

Robin S.
------------------------------------

Show quoteHide quote

The number of groups is dynamic.

If the groups are in generic lists, it's okay that the number of them be
dynamic.
The For Each will work. A Generic List is a collection of objects that are
the
same type.

Dim Group1 as New List(Of Integer)
Group1.Add(1)
Group1.Add(2)
Group1.Add(3)
Dim Group2 as New List(Of Integer)
Group2.Add(4)
Group2.Add(5)
Group2.Add(6)
Dim Group3 As New List(Of Integer)
Group3.Add(7)
Group3.Add(8)
Group3.Add(9)

For Each gr1 As Integer In Group1
  For Each gr2 as Integer In Group2
    For Each gr3 as Integer in Group 3
      Console.WriteLine(gr1.ToString & ", " & _
        gr2.ToString & ", " & gr3.ToString)
    Next
  Next
Next

should give you this:
1, 4, 7
1, 4, 8
1, 4, 9
1, 5, 7
1, 5, 8
1, 5, 9
1, 6, 7
1, 6, 8
1, 6, 9
2, 4, 7
2, 4, 8
2, 4, 9
(etc.)

For generic lists, you can use any type you want. I've used
Integer. You can have generic lists of objects, like
Dim Group1 as List(Of Product)

Robin S.
------------------------------------------
Show quoteHide quote

In your examples there is a dynamic number of items in each group. Fine. That
has never been the problem.
My point is that the number of GROUPS is dynamic.
I don't know how many groups I will have, there can be 3 like in my first
example but it can also be 4, 5 ......

Yikes. I think you could use some kind of recursion, with the groups
being in an arraylist. I'm going to think about it for a bit, and I'll
see if I can come up with an algorithm for you.

Robin S.
---------------------------------------
Show quoteHide quote

If you're doing VB, you might want to post this in
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb.

If you're doing C#, you might want to post this in
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp.

Someone else might have a solution to this already.
If I come up with something, I'll post it. I'm busy
and am going to have to think about it a little, and
write some test code.

Robin S.
--------------------------------------
Show quoteHide quote

Thanks anyhow Robin for your interest!

As a matter of fact I came up with a solution today that actually works.
It is not recursive, but relies on a whole lot of calculations and iterative
loops.
I am not very proud of it but I can live with it :-)

Hi,

In my opinion, a nested loop will do this for you. A recursive loop will be
more complex in this case.

Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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rights.)

Hello Jakob,

Just a bit of a recursion...

    class Program {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            List<string> group1 = new List<string>(new string[] { "Item 1", "Item
2" });
            List<string> group2 = new List<string>(new string[] { "Item 3", "Item
4", "Item 5" });
            List<string> group3 = new List<string>(new string[] { "Item 6", "Item
7" });

            List<List<string>> groups = new List<List<string>>(
                new List<string>[] { group1, group2, group3 });

            Iterate(groups, 0, "");
            Console.ReadLine( );
        }

        static void Iterate(List<List<string>> groups, int currentGroup, string
completeString) {
            List<string> group = groups[currentGroup];
            foreach (string element in group) {
                if (currentGroup < groups.Count - 1)
                    Iterate(groups, currentGroup + 1, AppendToString(completeString,
element));
                else
                    Console.WriteLine(AppendToString(completeString, element));
            }
        }

        static string AppendToString(string stringSoFar, string newElement) {
            if (!(string.IsNullOrEmpty(stringSoFar)))
                stringSoFar += ", ";
            return stringSoFar + newElement;
        }
    }


                Oliver Sturm

On Mon, 4 Dec 2006 07:38:01 -0800, Jakob Lithner wrote:

If you don't know the number of items or the number of groups, I would say
store the items in a collection of some sort, and then the groups would be
in a collection of collections.

Yikes!

So for instance you could store your items in an array and then those
arrays in an array of arrays, if you get my drift.

That way you can loop through each element in an array and then each array
in the containing array

Positively makes your head spin, doesn't it? :)

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 00:09:49 +0300, Rad [Visual C# MVP] wrote:

Show quoteHide quoteOther valid collections would be array lists and, if you know the types,
generic lists

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