Thanks Ben! I didn't know about that "x choose y" deal (I'm not a huge math guy, just better than the average bear ;o) I love it when I can learn something new. :o)
I'm still curious what the circumstances are that are making this pattern necessary for Ken... if you don't mind sharing, Ken. ;o) Chris On 9/25/07, Ben Doom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Technically, he's asking for a combination, which would be > (x choose y) > which is > x!/y!(x-y)! (number of combinations) > instead of > x!/(x-y)! (number of permutations, in which order counts) > > So if there are 7 numbers in the original list, and you need 6 of them, > it's > 7!/6!(7-6)! = 7!/6! * 1! = 7!/6! = 7 > for 7 numbers, choose 5 > 7 choose 5 = 7!/5!(7-5)! = 7!/5!*2! = 7 * 6 / 2 = 7 * 3 = 21 > > Hopefully, that made some sense. > > I missed that part in my original post. > > --Ben Doom > > Christopher Jordan wrote: > > I'm curious why in your case 1,2,3,4,5,6 is considered to be the same as > > 1,2,3,4,6,5? I was going to suggest that you use n! to figure out how > many > > possible permutations of the string there were, but that wouldn't work > given > > your requirements. > > > > Chris > > > > > > On 9/25/07, Ken Fassman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Hi, > >> I have a problem I'm struggling to solve in ColdFusion - I wonder if > >> someone > >> can help me with. > >> > >> I am being given a variable length, numeric string (min 6, max 20). I > >> need > >> to show all combinations of those values that will result in a unique > set > >> of > >> 6. The resulting output is sorted - so 1,2,3,4,5,6 is the same as > >> 1,2,3,4,6,5. > >> > >> I'd also like to see if there is an easy way to calculate the expected > >> number of each in advance. > >> > >> Just to illustrate what I'm looking to do (in case its not clear from > >> above): > >> > >> The input string might be "1,2,3,4,5,6,7" and I'd need to return the > >> following results: > >> 123456 > >> 123457 > >> 123467 > >> 123567 > >> 124567 > >> 134567 > >> 234567 > >> > >> > >> Any thoughts on this on how to approach this are greatly appreciated. > >> > >> Thanks! > >> > >> - KsF > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Check out the new features and enhancements in the latest product release - download the "What's New PDF" now http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/coldfusion/cf8_beta_whatsnew_052907.pdf Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:289482 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
