I have 4 digit number from 0000 to 1440. I want to generate an equivalent four digit number. That means I can reverse the number from the equivalent number. Basic requirement is the equivalent number must be completely different from the original one. Is there a good equation to do this?
For example, each digit can be replaced by 10 - digit. Thus, 1440 becomes 9660, and 1254 becomes 9756.
Thanks.
You can use a Linear Congruential Generator with a period of 10000. This is a pseudo-random number generator that cycles through each number in the range of 0-9999 once and only once. To generate your number, just take the original number and calculate the next number in the LCG sequence.
An LCG generates random numbers using the following formula:
Xn+1 = ((Xn * a) + c) mod m
To generate 4-digit numbers m should be 10000 (range of 0-9999).
To guarantee no repeats (a "full period") you have to select values for a and c using the following criteria:
c and m are relatively prime
a - 1 is divisible by all prime factors of m
a - 1 is a multiple of 4 if m is a multiple of 4.
The prime factors of 10000 are 2 and 5, and it's also divisible by 4, so any multiple of 20 + 1 will work as a suitable value of a. For c just choose a reasonably large prime number.
e.g: m = 10000, a = 4781, c = 7621
To go the other way, you need to make the function reversible. See this answer for an explanation of the math behind that.
Here's a simple implementation:
#define M (10000)
#define A (4781)
#define C (7621)
int extendedEuclidY(int a, int b);
int extendedEuclidX(int a, int b)
{
return (b==0) ? 1 : extendedEuclidY(b, a-b*(a/b));
}
int extendedEuclidY(int a, int b)
{
return (b==0) ? 0 : extendedEuclidX(b, a-b*(a/b)) - (a/b) * extendedEuclidY(b, a-b*(a/b));
}
int forward(int x)
{
return ((x*A)+C)%M;
}
int backward(int x)
{
return ((extendedEuclidX(A, M)*(x-C)%M)+M)%M;
}
int main()
{
int x;
for(x=0; x<1440; x++)
{
printf("%d <-> %d\n", backward(forward(x)), forward(x));
}
return 0;
}
I've adapted the extendedEuclid functions from the linked answer.
forward(x) finds your equivalent number, backward(x) gets the original back.
This is, perhaps, more of a comment.
I think your question is rather vague, because you don't define "completely different". Typical "easy" ways are something like:
Reverse the number.
Substitute the digits for other digits (an easy way is to increment each digit by 1).
Substitute pairs of digits for other pairs.
And, you can of course combine these.
In your case, you are starting with a range of 1,441 and mapping to a much larger range (10,000). This actually gives you are larger range of possible mappings.
However, the key point is "how different is different"? You should modify your question to explain that point.
Related
while checking if a number n is perfect or not why do we check till square root of (n)?
also can some body explain the if conditions in the following loop
for(int i=2;i<sqrt(n);i++)
{
if(n%i==0)
{
if(i==n/i)
{
sum+=i; //Initially ,sum=1
}
else
{
sum+=i+(n/i);
}
}
}
According to number theory, any number has at least 2 divisors (1, the number itself), and if the number A is a divisor of the number B, then the number B / A is also a divisor of the number B. Now consider a pair of numbers X, Y, such that X * Y == B. If X == Y == sqrt(B), then it is obvious that X, Y <= sqrt(B). If we try to increase Y, then we have to reduce X so that their product is still equal to B. So it turns out that among any pair of numbers X, Y, which in the product give B, at least one of the numbers will be <= sqrt(B). Therefore it is enough to find simply all divisors of number B which <= sqrt(B).
As for the loop condition, then sqrt(B) is a divisor of the number B, but we B / sqrt(B) is also a divisor, and it is equal to sqrt(B), and so as not to add this divisor twice, we wrote this if (but you have to understand that it will never be executed, because your loop is up to sqrt(n) exclusively).
It's pretty simple according to number theory:
If N has a factor i, it'll also has a factor n/i (1)
If we know all factors from 1 -> sqrt(n), the rest can be calculated by applying (1)
So that's why you only have to check from 1 -> sqrt(n). However, you code didn't reach the clause i==n/i which is the same as i == sqrt(n), so if N is a perfect square, sqrt(n) won't be calculated.
#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int n; cin >> n;
int sum = 1;
for(int i=2;i<sqrt(n);i++)
{
if(n%i==0)
{
if(i==n/i) { sum+=i; }
else { sum+=i+(n/i); }
}
}
cout << sum;
}
Input : 9
Output : 1
As you can see, the factor 3 = sqrt(9) is missed completely. To avoid this, use i <= sqrt(n), or to avoid using sqrt(), use i <= n/i or i*i <= n.
Edit :
As #HansOlsson and #Bathsheba mentioned, there're no odd square which are perfect number (pretty easy to prove, there's even no known odd perfect number), and for even square, there's a proof here. So the sqrt(n) problem could be ignored in this particular case.
However, in other cases when you just need to iterate over the factors some error may occurred. It's better using the right method from the start, than trying to track bugs down afterward when using this for something else.
A related post : Why do we check up to the square root of a prime number to determine if it is prime?
The code uses the trick of finding two factors at once, since if i divides n then n/i divides n as well, and normally adds both of them (else-clause).
However, you are missing the error in the code: it loops while i<sqrt(n) but has code to handle i*i=n (the then-clause - and it should only add i once in that case), which doesn't make sense as both of these cannot be true at the same time.
So the loop should be to <=sqrt(n), even if there are no square perfect numbers. (At least I haven't seen any square perfect numbers, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a simple proof that they don't exist at all.)
For example:
5 = 1+1+1+1+1
5 = 1+1+1+2
5 = 1+1+2+1
5 = 1+2+1+1
5 = 2+1+1+1
5 = 1+2+2
5 = 2+2+1
5 = 2+1+2
Can anyone give a hint for a pseudo code on how this can be done please.
Honestly have no clue how to even start.
Also this looks like an exponential problem can it be done in linear time?
Thank you.
In the example you have provided order of addends is important. (See the last two lines in your example). With this in mind, the answer seems to be related to Fibonacci numbers. Let's F(n) be the ways n can be written as 1s and 2s. Then the last addened is either 1 or 2. So F(n) = F(n-1) + F(n-2). These are the initial values:
F(1) = 1 (1 = 1)
F(2) = 2 (2 = 1 + 1, 2 = 2)
This is actually the (n+1)th Fibonacci number. Here's why:
Let's call f(n) the number of ways to represent n. If you have n, then you can represent it as (n-1)+1 or (n-2)+2. Thus the ways to represent it are the number of ways to represent it is f(n-1) + f(n-2). This is the same recurrence as the Fibonacci numbers. Furthermore, we see if n=1 then we have 1 way, and if n=2 then we have 2 ways. Thus the (n+1)th Fibonacci number is your answer. There are algorithms out there to compute enormous Fibonacci numbers very quickly.
Permutations
If we want to know how many possible orderings there are in some set of size n without repetition (i.e., elements selected are removed from the available pool), the factorial of n (or n!) gives the answer:
double factorial(int n)
{
if (n <= 0)
return 1;
else
return n * factorial(n - 1);
}
Note: This also has an iterative solution and can even be approximated using the gamma function:
std::round(std::tgamma(n + 1)); // where n >= 0
The problem set starts with all 1s. Each time the set changes, two 1s are replaced by one 2. We want to find the number of ways k items (the 2s) can be arranged in a set of size n. We can query the number of possible permutations by computing:
double permutation(int n, int k)
{
return factorial(n) / factorial(n - k);
}
However, this is not quite the result we want. The problem is, permutations consider ordering, e.g., the sequence 2,2,2 would count as six distinct variations.
Combinations
These are essentially permutations which ignore ordering. Since the order no longer matters, many permutations are redundant. Redundancy per permutation can be found by computing k!. Dividing the number of permutations by this value gives the number of combinations:
Note: This is known as the binomial coefficient and should be read as "n choose k."
double combination(int n, int k)
{
return permutation(n, k) / factorial(k);
}
int solve(int n)
{
double result = 0;
if (n > 0) {
for ( int k = 0; k <= n; k += 1, n -= 1 )
result += combination(n, k);
}
return std::round(result);
}
This is a general solution. For example, if the problem were instead to find the number of ways an integer can be represented as a sum of 1s and 3s, we would only need to adjust the decrement of the set size (n-2) at each iteration.
Fibonacci numbers
The reason the solution using Fibonacci numbers works, has to do with their relation to the binomial coefficients. The binomial coefficients can be arranged to form Pascal's triangle, which when stored as a lower-triangular matrix, can be accessed using n and k as row/column indices to locate the element equal to combination(n,k).
The pattern of n and k as they change over the lifetime of solve, plot a diagonal when viewed as coordinates on a 2-D grid. The result of summing values along a diagonal of Pascal's triangle is a Fibonacci number. If the pattern changes (e.g., when finding sums of 1s and 3s), this will no longer be the case and this solution will fail.
Interestingly, Fibonacci numbers can be computed in constant time. Which means we can solve this problem in constant time simply by finding the (n+1)th Fibonacci number.
int fibonacci(int n)
{
constexpr double SQRT_5 = std::sqrt(5.0);
constexpr double GOLDEN_RATIO = (SQRT_5 + 1.0) / 2.0;
return std::round(std::pow(GOLDEN_RATIO, n) / SQRT_5);
}
int solve(int n)
{
if (n > 0)
return fibonacci(n + 1);
return 0;
}
As a final note, the numbers generated by both the factorial and fibonacci functions can be extremely large. Therefore, a large-maths library may be needed if n will be large.
Here is the code using backtracking which solves your problem. At each step, while remembering the numbers used to get the sum so far(using vectors here), first make a copy of them, first subtract 1 from n and add it to the copy then recur with n-1 and the copy of the vector with 1 added to it and print when n==0. then return and repeat the same for 2, which essentially is backtracking.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int n;
void print(vector<int> vect){
cout << n <<" = ";
for(int i=0;i<vect.size(); ++i){
if(i>0)
cout <<"+" <<vect[i];
else cout << vect[i];
}
cout << endl;
}
void gen(int n, vector<int> vect){
if(!n)
print(vect);
else{
for(int i=1;i<=2;++i){
if(n-i>=0){
std::vector<int> vect2(vect);
vect2.push_back(i);
gen(n-i,vect2);
}
}
}
}
int main(){
scanf("%d",&n);
vector<int> vect;
gen(n,vect);
}
This problem can be easily visualized as follows:
Consider a frog, that is present in front of a stairway. It needs to reach the n-th stair, but he can only jump 1 or 2 steps on the stairway at a time. Find the number of ways in which he can reach the n-th stair?
Let T(n) denote the number of ways to reach the n-th stair.
So, T(1) = 1 and T(2) = 2(2 one-step jumps or 1 two-step jump, so 2 ways)
In order to reach the n-th stair, we already know the number of ways to reach the (n-1)th stair and the (n-2)th stair.
So, once can simple reach the n-th stair by a 1-step jump from (n-1)th stair or a 2-step jump from (n-2)th step...
Hence, T(n) = T(n-1) + T(n-2)
Hope it helps!!!
I tried to run this code but it shows time limit exceeded in few cases, how can i shorten the time?
I need to understand what I have used in my program for which time is taking much, like some functions etc.. I understand by improving the iteration and complexity i can reduce execution time but its not helping much.please help
The program is simple, I take point a and point b and calculate the numbers of all the palindrome numbers.
#include<stdio.h>
int ifpalin(int g)
{
int rev=0;
int tmp=g;
while(tmp>0)
{
rev=rev*10+(tmp%10);
tmp=tmp/10;
}
if(rev==g)
return 1;
else
return 0;
}
int findpalin(int a1,int b1)
{
int sm=0;
for(int i=a1;i<=b1;i++)
{
if (ifpalin(i)==1)
sm++;
}
printf("%d",sm);
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
int main()
{
int a,b,n;
scanf("%d",&n);
for(int i=0;i<n;i++)
{
scanf("%d",&a);
scanf("%d",&b);
findpalin(a,b);
}
return 0;
}
Your code is already pretty efficient (as an implementation of your algorithm, which is the thing that can be improved). These challenges want to you to find a "non-obvious", but more efficient, algorithm. I.e., in this particular case, you should not check every number between a and b.
There is another solution here, i.e. you can "know" the number of palidromes directly. Think about it´like this:
With one digit, there are 10 palidromes [0, ..., 9],
With two digits, there are 9 palindromes [11, ..., 99].
With three digits, there are 9 possibilities where the first and last digit are equal [1, ..., 9]. For a viable palindrom, the middle has to be a palindrome as well. Since the middle has one digit, we know there are 10 possibilities for palindromes here and thus we have 9 * 10 = 90 palindromes with 3 digits.
With four digits, we got 9 * 10 (two-digit palindromes, 00 now also allowed) and with 5 digits 9 * 100 (3-digit p, starting with 0 allowed).
Thus you can derive a formula for n-digit numbers.
Then, you can directly derive the number for large streaks between a and b and only have to worry about which number of digits are relevant and how many numbers are lost in the beginning and end due to a and b not being 10^(n-1) and and 10^n - 1
Your int ifpalin(int g) fnction, for each given g, could be run in parallel because it seems like different input data for this function, has no effect on other data. you can run this function in parallel.
In int findpalin(int a1,int b1) function, there is a for loop which its complexity order is N, this is where you can run your threads. (each thread, runs function ifpalin). Of course, a good parallelism plan is needed.
You can run this function in some logical bunch, and aggregate the results.
On the other hand, any benchmark should be performed in release mode.
I hope it helps.
Excuse me if my writing in English is bad, and please correct me.
In ifpalin
Convert the number to string
Reverse the string
Compare with the original
If equal then it's a palindrome
See How to reverse an std::string?
Given a number N (<=10000), find the minimum number of primatic numbers which sum up to N.
A primatic number refers to a number which is either a prime number or can be expressed as power of prime number to itself i.e. prime^prime e.g. 4, 27, etc.
I tried to find all the primatic numbers using seive and then stored them in a vector (code below) but now I am can't see how to find the minimum of primatic numbers that sum to a given number.
Here's my sieve:
#include<algorithm>
#include<vector>
#define MAX 10000
typedef long long int ll;
ll modpow(ll a, ll n, ll temp) {
ll res=1, y=a;
while (n>0) {
if (n&1)
res=(res*y)%temp;
y=(y*y)%temp;
n/=2;
}
return res%temp;
}
int isprimeat[MAX+20];
std::vector<int> primeat;
//Finding all prime numbers till 10000
void seive()
{
ll i,j;
isprimeat[0]=1;
isprimeat[1]=1;
for (i=2; i<=MAX; i++) {
if (isprimeat[i]==0) {
for (j=i*i; j<=MAX; j+=i) {
isprimeat[j]=1;
}
}
}
for (i=2; i<=MAX; i++) {
if (isprimeat[i]==0) {
primeat.push_back(i);
}
}
isprimeat[4]=isprimeat[27]=isprimeat[3125]=0;
primeat.push_back(4);
primeat.push_back(27);
primeat.push_back(3125);
}
int main()
{
seive();
std::sort(primeat.begin(), primeat.end());
return 0;
}
One method could be to store all primatics less than or equal to N in a sorted list - call this list L - and recursively search for the shortest sequence. The easiest approach is "greedy": pick the largest spans / numbers as early as possible.
for N = 14 you'd have L = {2,3,4,5,7,8,9,11,13}, so you'd want to make an algorithm / process that tries these sequences:
13 is too small
13 + 13 -> 13 + 2 will be too large
11 is too small
11 + 11 -> 11 + 4 will be too large
11 + 3 is a match.
You can continue the process by making the search function recurse each time it needs another primatic in the sum, which you would aim to have occur a minimum number of times. To do so you can pick the largest -> smallest primatic in each position (the 1st, 2nd etc primatic in the sum), and include another number in the sum only if the primatics in the sum so far are small enough that an additional primatic won't go over N.
I'd have to make a working example to find a small enough N that doesn't result in just 2 numbers in the sum. Note that because you can express any natural number as the sum of at most 4 squares of natural numbers, and you have a more dense set L than the set of squares, so I'd think it rare you'd have a result of 3 or more for any N you'd want to compute by hand.
Dynamic Programming approach
I have to clarify that 'greedy' is not the same as 'dynamic programming', it can give sub-optimal results. This does have a DP solution though. Again, i won't write the final process in code but explain it as a point of reference to make a working DP solution from.
To do this we need to build up solutions from the bottom up. What you need is a structure that can store known solutions for all numbers up to some N, this list can be incrementally added to for larger N in an optimal way.
Consider that for any N, if it's primatic then the number of terms for N is just 1. This applies for N=2-5,7-9,11,13,16,17,19. The number of terms for all other N must be at least two, which means either it's a sum of two primatics or a sum of a primatic and some other N.
The first few examples that aren't trivial:
6 - can be either 2+4 or 3+3, all the terms here are themselves primatic so the minimum number of terms for 6 is 2.
10 - can be either 2+8, 3+7, 4+6 or 5+5. However 6 is not primatic, and taking that solution out leaves a minimum of 2 terms.
12 - can be either 2+10, 3+9, 4+8, 5+7 or 6+6. Of these 6+6 and 2+10 contain non-primatics while the others do not, so again 2 terms is the minimum.
14 - ditto, there exist two-primatic solutions: 3+11, 5+9, 7+7.
The structure for storing all of these solutions needs to be able to iterate across solutions of equal rank / number of terms. You already have a list of primatics, this is also the list of solutions that need only one term.
Sol[term_length] = list(numbers). You will also need a function / cache to look up some N's shortest-term-length, eg S(N) = term_length iif N in Sol[term_length]
Sol[1] = {2,3,4,5 ...} and Sol[2] = {6,10,12,14 ...} and so on for Sol[3] and onwards.
Any solution can be found using one term from Sol[1] that is primatic. Any solution requiring two primatics will be found in Sol[2]. Any solution requiring 3 will be in Sol[3] etc.
What you need to recognize here is that a number S(N) = 3 can be expressed Sol[1][a] + Sol[1][b] + Sol[1][c] for some a,b,c primatics, but it can also be expressed as Sol[1][a] + Sol[2][d], since all Sol[2] must be expressible as Sol[1][x] + Sol[1][y].
This algorithm will in effect search Sol[1] for a given N, then look in Sol[1] + Sol[K] with increasing K, but to do this you will need S and Sol structures roughly in the form shown here (or able to be accessed / queried in a similar manner).
Working Example
Using the above as a guideline I've put this together quickly, it even shows which multi-term sum it uses.
https://ideone.com/7mYXde
I can explain the code in-depth if you want but the real DP section is around lines 40-64. The recursion depth (also number of additional terms in the sum) is k, a simple dual-iterator while loop checks if a sum is possible using the kth known solutions and primatics, if it is then we're done and if not then check k+1 solutions, if any. Sol and S work as described.
The only confusing part might be the use of reverse iterators, it's just to make != end() checking consistent for the while condition (end is not a valid iterator position but begin is, so != begin would be written differently).
Edit - FYI, the first number that takes at least 3 terms is 959 - had to run my algorithm to 1000 numbers to find it. It's summed from 6 + 953 (primatic), no matter how you split 6 it's still 3 terms.
I am trying to write a C++ program that works like the game 24. For those who don't know how it is played, basically you try to find any way that 4 numbers can total 24 through the four algebraic operators of +, -, /, *, and parenthesis.
As an example, say someone inputs 2,3,1,5
((2+3)*5) - 1 = 24
It was relatively simple to code the function to determine if three numbers can make 24 because of the limited number of positions for parenthesis, but I can not figure how code it efficiently when four variables are entered.
I have some permutations working now but I still cannot enumerate all cases because I don't know how to code for the cases where the operations are the same.
Also, what is the easiest way to calculate the RPN? I came across many pages such as this one:
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15406
but as a beginner, I am not sure how to implement it.
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;
bool MakeSum(int num1, int num2, int num3, int num4)
{
vector<int> vi;
vi.push_back(num1);
vi.push_back(num2);
vi.push_back(num3);
vi.push_back(num4);
sort(vi.begin(),vi.end());
char a1 = '+';
char a2 = '-';
char a3 = '*';
char a4 = '/';
vector<char> va;
va.push_back(a1);
va.push_back(a2);
va.push_back(a3);
va.push_back(a4);
sort(va.begin(),va.end());
while(next_permutation(vi.begin(),vi.end()))
{
while(next_permutation(va.begin(),va.end()))
{
cout<<vi[0]<<vi[1]<<vi[2]<<vi[3]<< va[0]<<va[1]<<va[2]<<endl;
cout<<vi[0]<<vi[1]<<vi[2]<<va[0]<< vi[3]<<va[1]<<va[2]<<endl;
cout<<vi[0]<<vi[1]<<vi[2]<<va[0]<< va[1]<<vi[3]<<va[2]<<endl;
cout<<vi[0]<<vi[1]<<va[0]<<vi[2]<< vi[3]<<va[1]<<va[2]<<endl;
cout<<vi[0]<<vi[1]<<va[0]<<vi[2]<< va[1]<<vi[3]<<va[2]<<endl;
}
}
return 0;
}
int main()
{
MakeSum(5,7,2,1);
return 0;
}
So, the simple way is to permute through all possible combinations. This is slightly tricky, the order of the numbers can be important, and certainly the order of operations is.
One observation is that you are trying to generate all possible expression trees with certain properties. One property is that the tree will always have exactly 4 leaves. This means the tree will also always have exactly 3 internal nodes. There are only 3 possible shapes for such a tree:
A
/ \
N A
/ \ (and the mirror image)
N A
/ \
N N
A
/ \
N A
/ \
A N (and the mirror image)
/ \
N N
A
/` `\
A A
/ \ / \
N N N N
In each spot for A you can have any one of the 4 operations. In each spot for N you can have any one of the numbers. But each number can only appear for one N.
Coding this as a brute force search shouldn't be too hard, and I think that after you have things done this way it will become easier to think about optimizations.
For example, + and * are commutative. This means that mirrors that flip the left and right children of those operations will have no effect. It might be possible to cut down searching through all such flips.
Someone else mentioned RPN notation. The trees directly map to this. Here is a list of all possible trees in RPN:
N N N N A A A
N N N A N A A
N N N A A N A
N N A N N A A
N N A N A N A
That's 4*3*2 = 24 possibilities for numbers, 4*4*4 = 64 possibilities for operations, 24 * 64 * 5 = 7680 total possibilities for a given set of 4 numbers. Easily countable and can be evaluated in a tiny fraction of a second on a modern system. Heck, even in basic on my old Atari 8 bit I bet this problem would only take minutes for a given group of 4 numbers.
You can just use Reverse Polish Notation to generate the possible expressions, which should remove the need for parantheses.
An absolutely naive way to do this would be to generate all possible strings of 4 digits and 3 operators (paying no heed to validity as an RPN), assume it is in RPN and try to evaluate it. You will hit some error cases (as in invalid RPN strings). The total number of possibilities (if I calculated correctly) is ~50,000.
A more clever way should get it down to ~7500 I believe (64*24*5 to be exact): Generate a permutation of the digits (24 ways), generate a triplet of 3 operators (4^3 = 64 ways) and now place the operators among the digits to make it valid RPN(there are 5 ways, see Omnifarious' answer).
You should be able to find permutation generators and RPN calculators easily on the web.
Hope that helps!
PS: Just FYI: RPN is nothing but the postorder traversal of the corresponding expression tree, and for d digits, the number is d! * 4^(d-1) * Choose(2(d-1), (d-1))/d. (The last term is a catalan number).
Edited: The solution below is wrong. We also need to consider the numbers makeable with just x_2 and x_4, and with just x_1 and x_4. This approach can still work, but it's going to be rather more complex (and even less efficient). Sorry...
Suppose we have four numbers x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4. Write
S = { all numbers we can make just using x_3, x_4 },
Then we can rewrite the set we're interested in, which I'll call
T = { all numbers we can make using x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4 }
as
T = { all numbers we can make using x_1, x_2 and some s from S }.
So an algorithm is to generate all possible numbers in S, then use each number s in S in turn to generate part of T. (This will generalise fairly easily to n numbers instead of just 4).
Here's a rough, untested code example:
#include <set> // we can use std::set to store integers without duplication
#include <vector> // we might want duplication in the inputs
// the 2-number special case
std::set<int> all_combinations_from_pair(int a, int b)
{
std::set results;
// here we just use brute force
results.insert(a+b); // = b+a
results.insert(a-b);
results.insert(b-a);
results.insert(a*b); // = b*a
// need to make sure it divides exactly
if (a%b==0) results.insert(a/b);
if (b%a==0) results.insert(b/a);
return results;
}
// the general case
std::set<int> all_combinations_from(std::vector<int> inputs)
{
if (inputs.size() == 2)
{
return all_combinations_from_pair(inputs[0], inputs[1]);
}
else
{
std::set<int> S = all_combinations_from_pair(inputs[0], inputs[1]);
std::set<int> T;
std::set<int> rest = S;
rest.remove(rest.begin());
rest.remove(rest.begin()); // gets rid of first two
for (std::set<int>.iterator i = S.begin(); i < S.end(); i++)
{
std::set<int> new_inputs = S;
new_inputs.insert(*i);
std::set<int> new_outputs = all_combinations_from(new_inputs);
for (std::set<int>.iterator j = new_outputs.begin(); j < new_outputs.end(); j++)
T.insert(*j); // I'm sure you can do this with set_union()
}
return T;
}
}
If you are allowed to use the same operator twice, you probably don't want to mix the operators into the numbers. Instead, perhaps use three 0's as a placeholder for where operations will occur (none of the 4 numbers are 0, right?) and use another structure to determine which operations will be used.
The second structure could be a vector<int> initialized with three 1's followed by three 0's. The 0's correspond to the 0's in the number vector. If a 0 is preceded by zero 1's, the corresponding operation is +, if preceded by one 1, it's -, etc. For example:
6807900 <= equation of form ( 6 # 8 ) # ( 7 # 9 )
100110 <= replace #'s with (-,-,/)
possibility is (6-8)-(7/9)
Advance through the operation possibilities using next_permutation in an inner loop.
By the way, you can also return early if the number-permutation is an invalid postfix expression. All permutations of the above example less than 6708090 are invalid, and all greater are valid, so you could start with 9876000 and work your way down with prev_permutation.
Look up the Knapsack problem (here's a link to get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem), this problem is pretty close to that, just a little harder (and the Knapsack problem is NP-complete!)
One thing that might make this faster than normal is parallelisation. Check out OpenMP. Using this, more than one check is carried out at once (your "alg" function) thus if you have a dual/quad core cpu, your program should be faster.
That said, if as suggested above the problem is NP-complete, it'll be faster, not necessarily fast.
i wrote something like this before. You need a recursive evaluator. Call evaluate, when you hit "(" call evaluate again otherwise run along with digits and operators till you hit ")", now return the result of the -+*/ operations the the evaluate instance above you