Find out which combinations of numbers in a set add up to a given total

Question

I\'ve been tasked with helping some accountants solve a common problem they have - given a list of transactions and a total deposit, which transactions are part of the depos

Answer 1

There is a cheap Excel Add-in that solves this problem: SumMatch

Answer 2

C# version

setup test:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
    // subtotal list
    List<double> totals = new List<double>(new double[] { 1, -1, 18, 23, 3.50, 8, 70, 99.50, 87, 22, 4, 4, 100.50, 120, 27, 101.50, 100.50 });

    // get matches
    List<double[]> results = Knapsack.MatchTotal(100.50, totals);

    // print results
    foreach (var result in results)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(string.Join(",", result));
    }

    Console.WriteLine("Done.");
    Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

code:

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

public class Knapsack
{
    internal static List<double[]> MatchTotal(double theTotal, List<double> subTotals)
    {
    List<double[]> results = new List<double[]>();

    while (subTotals.Contains(theTotal))
    {
        results.Add(new double[1] { theTotal });
        subTotals.Remove(theTotal);
    }

    // if no subtotals were passed
    // or all matched the Total
    // return
    if (subTotals.Count == 0)
        return results;

    subTotals.Sort();

    double mostNegativeNumber = subTotals[0];
    if (mostNegativeNumber > 0)
        mostNegativeNumber = 0;

    // if there aren't any negative values
    // we can remove any values bigger than the total
    if (mostNegativeNumber == 0)
        subTotals.RemoveAll(d => d > theTotal);

    // if there aren't any negative values
    // and sum is less than the total no need to look further
    if (mostNegativeNumber == 0 && subTotals.Sum() < theTotal)
        return results;

    // get the combinations for the remaining subTotals
    // skip 1 since we already removed subTotals that match
    for (int choose = 2; choose <= subTotals.Count; choose++)
    {
        // get combinations for each length
        IEnumerable<IEnumerable<double>> combos = Combination.Combinations(subTotals.AsEnumerable(), choose);

        // add combinations where the sum mathces the total to the result list
        results.AddRange(from combo in combos
                 where combo.Sum() == theTotal
                 select combo.ToArray());
    }

    return results;
    }
}

public static class Combination
{
    public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> Combinations<T>(this IEnumerable<T> elements, int choose)
    {
    return choose == 0 ?                        // if choose = 0
        new[] { new T[0] } :                    // return empty Type array
        elements.SelectMany((element, i) =>     // else recursively iterate over array to create combinations
        elements.Skip(i + 1).Combinations(choose - 1).Select(combo => (new[] { element }).Concat(combo)));
    }
}

results:

100.5
100.5
-1,101.5
1,99.5
3.5,27,70
3.5,4,23,70
3.5,4,23,70
-1,1,3.5,27,70
1,3.5,4,22,70
1,3.5,4,22,70
1,3.5,8,18,70
-1,1,3.5,4,23,70
-1,1,3.5,4,23,70
1,3.5,4,4,18,70
-1,3.5,8,18,22,23,27
-1,3.5,4,4,18,22,23,27
Done.

If subTotals are repeated, there will appear to be duplicate results (the desired effect). In reality, you will probably want to use the subTotal Tupled with some ID, so you can relate it back to your data.

Answer 3

The Excel Solver Addin as posted over on superuser.com has a great solution (if you have Excel) https://superuser.com/questions/204925/excel-find-a-subset-of-numbers-that-add-to-a-given-total

Answer 4

Its kind of like 0-1 Knapsack problem which is NP-complete and can be solved through dynamic programming in polynomial time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem

But at the end of the algorithm you also need to check that the sum is what you wanted.

Answer 5

Depending on your data you could first look at the cents portion of each transaction. Like in your initial example you know that 2.50 has to be part of the total because it is the only set of non-zero cent transactions which add to 50.

Answer 6

This special case of the Knapsack problem is called Subset Sum.