Finding all possible combinations of numbers to reach a given sum

Question

How would you go about testing all possible combinations of additions from a given set N of numbers so they add up to a given final number?

A brief exam

Answer 1

Here is a Java version which is well suited for small N and very large target sum, when complexity O(t*N) (the dynamic solution) is greater than the exponential algorithm. My version uses a meet in the middle attack, along with a little bit shifting in order to reduce the complexity from the classic naive O(n*2^n) to O(2^(n/2)).

If you want to use this for sets with between 32 and 64 elements, you should change the int which represents the current subset in the step function to a long although performance will obviously drastically decrease as the set size increases. If you want to use this for a set with odd number of elements, you should add a 0 to the set to make it even numbered.

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class SubsetSumMiddleAttack {
    static final int target = 100000000;
    static final int[] set = new int[]{ ... };

    static List evens = new ArrayList<>();
    static List odds = new ArrayList<>();

    static int[][] split(int[] superSet) {
        int[][] ret = new int[2][superSet.length / 2]; 

        for (int i = 0; i < superSet.length; i++) ret[i % 2][i / 2] = superSet[i];

        return ret;
    }

    static void step(int[] superSet, List accumulator, int subset, int sum, int counter) {
        accumulator.add(new Subset(subset, sum));
        if (counter != superSet.length) {
            step(superSet, accumulator, subset + (1 << counter), sum + superSet[counter], counter + 1);
            step(superSet, accumulator, subset, sum, counter + 1);
        }
    }

    static void printSubset(Subset e, Subset o) {
        String ret = "";
        for (int i = 0; i < 32; i++) {
            if (i % 2 == 0) {
                if ((1 & (e.subset >> (i / 2))) == 1) ret += " + " + set[i];
            }
            else {
                if ((1 & (o.subset >> (i / 2))) == 1) ret += " + " + set[i];
            }
        }
        if (ret.startsWith(" ")) ret = ret.substring(3) + " = " + (e.sum + o.sum);
        System.out.println(ret);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[][] superSets = split(set);

        step(superSets[0], evens, 0,0,0);
        step(superSets[1], odds, 0,0,0);

        for (Subset e : evens) {
            for (Subset o : odds) {
                if (e.sum + o.sum == target) printSubset(e, o);
            }
        }
    }
}

class Subset {
    int subset;
    int sum;

    Subset(int subset, int sum) {
        this.subset = subset;
        this.sum = sum;
    }
}