All possible combinations of an array

EDIT: As FearUs pointed out, a better solution is to use Guava's Sets.powerset(Set set).

EDIT 2: Updated links.


Quick and dirty translation of this solution:

public static void main(String[] args) {

    List<List<String>> powerSet = new LinkedList<List<String>>();

    for (int i = 1; i <= args.length; i++)
        powerSet.addAll(combination(Arrays.asList(args), i));

    System.out.println(powerSet);
}

public static <T> List<List<T>> combination(List<T> values, int size) {

    if (0 == size) {
        return Collections.singletonList(Collections.<T> emptyList());
    }

    if (values.isEmpty()) {
        return Collections.emptyList();
    }

    List<List<T>> combination = new LinkedList<List<T>>();

    T actual = values.iterator().next();

    List<T> subSet = new LinkedList<T>(values);
    subSet.remove(actual);

    List<List<T>> subSetCombination = combination(subSet, size - 1);

    for (List<T> set : subSetCombination) {
        List<T> newSet = new LinkedList<T>(set);
        newSet.add(0, actual);
        combination.add(newSet);
    }

    combination.addAll(combination(subSet, size));

    return combination;
}

Test:

$ java PowerSet ted williams golden
[[ted], [williams], [golden], [ted, williams], [ted, golden], [williams, golden], [ted, williams, golden]]
$

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class AllPossibleCombinations {

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String[] a={"ted", "williams", "golden"};           
    List<List<String>> list = new AllPossibleElementCombinations().getAllCombinations(Arrays.asList(a));
    for (List<String> arr:list) {
        for(String s:arr){
            System.out.print(s);
        }
        System.out.println();
    }
}

public List<List<String>> getAllCombinations(List<String> elements) {
    List<List<String>> combinationList = new ArrayList<List<String>>();
    for ( long i = 1; i < Math.pow(2, elements.size()); i++ ) {
        List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        for ( int j = 0; j < elements.size(); j++ ) {
            if ( (i & (long) Math.pow(2, j)) > 0 ) {
                list.add(elements.get(j));
            }
        }
        combinationList.add(list);
    }
    return combinationList;
}

}

output:

ted

williams

tedwilliams

golden

tedgolden

williamsgolden

tedwilliamsgolden


I just faced this problem and wasn't really happy with the StackExchange answers posted, so here's my answer. This returns all combinations from an array of Port objects. I'll leave it to the reader to adapt to whatever class you're using (or make it generic).

This version does not use recursion.

public static Port[][] combinations ( Port[] ports ) {
    
    List<Port[]> combinationList = new ArrayList<Port[]>();
    // Start i at 1, so that we do not include the empty set in the results
    for ( long i = 1; i < Math.pow(2, ports.length); i++ ) {
        List<Port> portList = new ArrayList<Port>();
        for ( int j = 0; j < ports.length; j++ ) {
            if ( (i & (long) Math.pow(2, j)) > 0 ) {
                // Include j in set
                portList.add(ports[j]);
            }
        }
        combinationList.add(portList.toArray(new Port[0]));
    }
    return combinationList.toArray(new Port[0][0]);
}

See solution by @Aison on this page for a more optimized version.


Here's a hint:

All-Subsets(X) = {union for all y in X: All-Subsets(X-y)} union {X}