Print all combinations

Question

Question:

Input String 1 = {1, 2, 3, ... , 26}

Input String 2 = {A, B, C, ... , Z}

Output Result 1 = {1, A, 2, B, 3, C, ... , 26, Z}

Output Result 2 = {1, A, 2, A, B, 3, A, B, C, ... , 26, A, B, C, . , Z}

Solution:

public class Combinations {

    private static String stringNumbers[];                  //1, 2, 3, ... , 26
    private static String stringAlphabets[];                //A, B, C, ... , Z

    private static String resultNumberAlphabet[];           //1, A, 2, B, 3, C, ... , 26, Z
    private static String resultNumberAlphabets[];          //1, A, 2, A, B, 3, A, B, C, ... , 26, A, B, ... , Z

    private static final int MAX_NUMBERS = 26;
    private static final int MAX_ALPHABETS = 26;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        initVariables();
        findCombinations();
        printResults(resultNumberAlphabet);
        printResults(resultNumberAlphabets);
    }

    private static void initVariables() {
        stringNumbers = new String[MAX_NUMBERS];
        stringAlphabets = new String[MAX_ALPHABETS];
        resultNumberAlphabet = new String[stringNumbers.length + stringAlphabets.length];
        resultNumberAlphabets = new String[stringNumbers.length + (stringAlphabets.length * (stringAlphabets.length + 1)/2)];   //  Summation Equation = [n*(n+1)/2];

        for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++) {
            stringNumbers[i] = (i + 1) + "";
            stringAlphabets[i] = Character.toString((char)(i + 65));
        }
    }

    private static void findCombinations() {
        int k = -1;
        int l = -1;
        for (int i = 0; i < stringNumbers.length; i++) {
            resultNumberAlphabet[++k] = stringNumbers[i];
            resultNumberAlphabet[++k] = stringAlphabets[i];
            resultNumberAlphabets[++l] = stringNumbers[i];
            for (int j = 0; j <= i; j++) {
                resultNumberAlphabets[++l] = stringAlphabets[j];
            }
        }
    }

    private static void printResults(String result[]) {
        for (int i = 0; i < result.length; i++) {
            System.out.print(result[i]);
            if ((i + 1) == result.length) {
                System.out.println(".");
            } else {
                System.out.print(", ");
            }
        }
    }

}

Any review comments or suggestions?

Answer 1

• Why a string array . Just a String would suffice.

• Do we really need to store it in arrays. The computed arrays would only be usde to display. So we can work towards a display method instead of storing and displaying them.

  int i;
  for(i=1;i<26;i++){
      System.out.print(i+", ");
      System.out.print(Character.toString((char)(64+i))+", ");
  }
  System.out.print(i+", ");
  System.out.println(Character.toString((char)(64+i))+".");
  
  StringBuilder next = new StringBuilder();
  for(i=1;i<26;i++){
      System.out.print(i+", ");
      next.append(Character.toString((char)(64+i)) + ", ");
      System.out.print(next);
  }
  System.out.print(i+", ");
  next.append(Character.toString((char)(64+i)));
  System.out.println(next);
  // Time complexity: O(n)
  // Space complexity: O(n+m*(m+1)/2))
  

• Assuming we are striving to have a generic implementation wherein we have two input arrays and we wish to provide the output. Even in that case we can carry forward with above implementation with slight changes.

• Having the last condition check seems an unneeded overhead. Instead we loop in for last-but-one index and print the last outside.

  if ((i + 1) == result.length)
  

Answer 2

If you are only using single characters you should use char[] instead of String[] for much better performance.

You should also consider instantiating your class, rather than using statics. So as a first step you would get:

public class Combinations {

private char stringNumbers[];                  //1, 2, 3, ... , 26
private char stringAlphabets[];                //A, B, C, ... , Z

private char resultNumberAlphabet[];           //1, A, 2, B, 3, C, ... , 26, Z
private char resultNumberAlphabets[];          //1, A, 2, A, B, 3, A, B, C, ... , 26, A, B, ... , Z

private final int MAX_NUMBERS = 26;
private final int MAX_ALPHABETS = 26;

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Combinations myCombinations = new Combinations();
    myCombinations.go();
}

public void go(){
    initVariables();
    findCombinations();
    printResults(resultNumberAlphabet);
    printResults(resultNumberAlphabets);
}

private void initVariables() {
    stringNumbers = new char[MAX_NUMBERS];
    stringAlphabets = new char[MAX_ALPHABETS];
    resultNumberAlphabet = new char[stringNumbers.length + stringAlphabets.length];
    resultNumberAlphabets = new char[stringNumbers.length + (stringAlphabets.length * (stringAlphabets.length + 1)/2)];   //  Summation Equation = [n*(n+1)/2];

    for (int i = 0; i < 26; i++) {
        stringNumbers[i] = Character.forDigit(i + 1, 10);
        stringAlphabets[i] = (char)(i + 65);
    }
}

private void findCombinations() {
    int k = -1;
    int l = -1;
    for (int i = 0; i < stringNumbers.length; i++) {
        resultNumberAlphabet[++k] = stringNumbers[i];
        resultNumberAlphabet[++k] = stringAlphabets[i];
        resultNumberAlphabets[++l] = stringNumbers[i];
        for (int j = 0; j <= i; j++) {
            resultNumberAlphabets[++l] = stringAlphabets[j];
        }
    }
}

private void printResults(char result[]) {
    for (int i = 0; i < result.length; i++) {
        System.out.print(result[i]);
        if ((i + 1) == result.length) {
            System.out.println(".");
        } else {
            System.out.print(", ");
        }
    }
}}

There are a few more optimizations, for example, your printResults() method can be optimized to work without the if-/else-condition. Because you are only printing ". " at the end, you can simply skip the last iteration and print ", " otherwise as follows:

private void printResults(char result[]) {
    for (int i = 0; i < result.length - 1; i++) {
        System.out.print(result[i] + ", ");
    }
    System.out.println(".");
}