Efficient way to generate combinations ordered by increasing sum of indexes

Question

For a heuristic algorithm I need to evaluate, one after the other, the combinations of a certain set until I reach a stop criterion.

Since they are a lot, at the momen

Answer 1

The solution I had in mind was:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
class Program
{
  // Preconditions:
  // * items is a sequence of non-negative monotone increasing integers
  // * n is the number of items to be in the subsequence
  // * sum is the desired sum of that subsequence.
  // Result:
  // A sequence of subsequences of the original sequence where each 
  // subsequence has n items and the given sum.
  static IEnumerable> M(IEnumerable items, int sum, int n)
  {
    // Let's start by taking some easy outs. If the sum is negative
    // then there is no solution. If the number of items in the
    // subsequence is negative then there is no solution.

    if (sum < 0 || n < 0)
      yield break;

    // If the number of items in the subsequence is zero then
    // the only possible solution is if the sum is zero.

    if (n == 0)
    {
      if (sum == 0)
        yield return Enumerable.Empty();
      yield break;
    }

    // If the number of items is less than the required number of 
    // items, there is no solution.

    if (items.Count() < n)
      yield break;

    // We have at least n items in the sequence, and
    // and n is greater than zero, so First() is valid:

    int first = items.First();

    // We need n items from a monotone increasing subsequence
    // that have a particular sum. We might already be too 
    // large to meet that requirement:

    if (n * first > sum)
      yield break;

    // There might be some solutions that involve the first element.
    // Find them all.

    foreach(var subsequence in M(items.Skip(1), sum - first, n - 1))
      yield return new[]{first}.Concat(subsequence);      

    // And there might be some solutions that do not involve the first element.
    // Find them all.

    foreach(var subsequence in M(items.Skip(1), sum, n))
      yield return subsequence;
  }
  static void Main()
  {
    int[] x = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
    for (int i = 0; i <= 15; ++i)
      foreach(var seq in M(x, i, 4))
        Console.WriteLine("({0}) SUM {1}", string.Join(",", seq), i);
  }
}       

The output is your desired output.

I've made no attempt to optimize this. It would be interesting to profile it and see where most of the time is spent.

UPDATE: Just for fun I wrote a version that uses an immutable stack instead of an arbitrary enumerable. Enjoy!

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

abstract class ImmutableList : IEnumerable
{
  public static readonly ImmutableList Empty = new EmptyList();
  private ImmutableList() {}  
  public abstract bool IsEmpty { get; }
  public abstract T Head { get; }
  public abstract ImmutableList Tail { get; }
  public ImmutableList Push(T newHead)
  {
    return new List(newHead, this);
  }  

  private sealed class EmptyList : ImmutableList
  {
    public override bool IsEmpty { get { return true; } }
    public override T Head { get { throw new InvalidOperationException(); } }
    public override ImmutableList Tail { get { throw new InvalidOperationException(); } }
  }
  private sealed class List : ImmutableList
  {
    private readonly T head;
    private readonly ImmutableList tail;
    public override bool IsEmpty { get { return false; } }
    public override T Head { get { return head; } }
    public override ImmutableList Tail { get { return tail; } }
    public List(T head, ImmutableList tail)
    {
      this.head = head;
      this.tail = tail;
    }
  }
  System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
  {
    return this.GetEnumerator();
  }
  public IEnumerator GetEnumerator()
  {
    for (ImmutableList current = this; !current.IsEmpty; current = current.Tail)
      yield return current.Head;
  }
}  

class Program
{
  // Preconditions:
  // * items is a sequence of non-negative monotone increasing integers
  // * n is the number of items to be in the subsequence
  // * sum is the desired sum of that subsequence.
  // Result:
  // A sequence of subsequences of the original sequence where each 
  // subsequence has n items and the given sum.
  static IEnumerable> M(ImmutableList items, int sum, int n)
  {
    // Let's start by taking some easy outs. If the sum is negative
    // then there is no solution. If the number of items in the
    // subsequence is negative then there is no solution.

    if (sum < 0 || n < 0)
      yield break;

    // If the number of items in the subsequence is zero then
    // the only possible solution is if the sum is zero.
    if (n == 0)
    {
      if (sum == 0)
        yield return ImmutableList.Empty;
      yield break;
    }

    // If the number of items is less than the required number of 
    // items, there is no solution.

    if (items.Count() < n)
      yield break;

    // We have at least n items in the sequence, and
    // and n is greater than zero.
    int first = items.Head;

    // We need n items from a monotone increasing subsequence
    // that have a particular sum. We might already be too 
    // large to meet that requirement:

    if (n * first > sum)
      yield break;

    // There might be some solutions that involve the first element.
    // Find them all.

    foreach(var subsequence in M(items.Tail, sum - first, n - 1))
      yield return subsequence.Push(first);      

    // And there might be some solutions that do not involve the first element.
    // Find them all.
    foreach(var subsequence in M(items.Tail, sum, n))
      yield return subsequence;
  }
  static void Main()
  {
    ImmutableList x = ImmutableList.Empty.Push(5).
                           Push(4).Push(3).Push(2).Push(1).Push(0);
    for (int i = 0; i <= 15; ++i)
      foreach(var seq in M(x, i, 4))
        Console.WriteLine("({0}) SUM {1}", string.Join(",", seq), i);
  }
}