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
Excel VBA version below. I needed to implement this in VBA (not my preference, don't judge me!), and used the answers on this page for the approach. I'm uploading in case others also need a VBA version.
Option Explicit
Public Sub SumTarget()
Dim numbers(0 To 6) As Long
Dim target As Long
target = 15
numbers(0) = 3: numbers(1) = 9: numbers(2) = 8: numbers(3) = 4: numbers(4) = 5
numbers(5) = 7: numbers(6) = 10
Call SumUpTarget(numbers, target)
End Sub
Public Sub SumUpTarget(numbers() As Long, target As Long)
Dim part() As Long
Call SumUpRecursive(numbers, target, part)
End Sub
Private Sub SumUpRecursive(numbers() As Long, target As Long, part() As Long)
Dim s As Long, i As Long, j As Long, num As Long
Dim remaining() As Long, partRec() As Long
s = SumArray(part)
If s = target Then Debug.Print "SUM ( " & ArrayToString(part) & " ) = " & target
If s >= target Then Exit Sub
If (Not Not numbers) <> 0 Then
For i = 0 To UBound(numbers)
Erase remaining()
num = numbers(i)
For j = i + 1 To UBound(numbers)
AddToArray remaining, numbers(j)
Next j
Erase partRec()
CopyArray partRec, part
AddToArray partRec, num
SumUpRecursive remaining, target, partRec
Next i
End If
End Sub
Private Function ArrayToString(x() As Long) As String
Dim n As Long, result As String
result = "{" & x(n)
For n = LBound(x) + 1 To UBound(x)
result = result & "," & x(n)
Next n
result = result & "}"
ArrayToString = result
End Function
Private Function SumArray(x() As Long) As Long
Dim n As Long
SumArray = 0
If (Not Not x) <> 0 Then
For n = LBound(x) To UBound(x)
SumArray = SumArray + x(n)
Next n
End If
End Function
Private Sub AddToArray(arr() As Long, x As Long)
If (Not Not arr) <> 0 Then
ReDim Preserve arr(0 To UBound(arr) + 1)
Else
ReDim Preserve arr(0 To 0)
End If
arr(UBound(arr)) = x
End Sub
Private Sub CopyArray(destination() As Long, source() As Long)
Dim n As Long
If (Not Not source) <> 0 Then
For n = 0 To UBound(source)
AddToArray destination, source(n)
Next n
End If
End Sub
Output (written to the Immediate window) should be:
SUM ( {3,8,4} ) = 15
SUM ( {3,5,7} ) = 15
SUM ( {8,7} ) = 15
SUM ( {5,10} ) = 15