All Possible Combinations of a list of Values

I have a list of integers List<int> in my C# program. However, I know the number of items I have in my list only at runtime.

Let us say, for the sake of simplicity, my list is {1, 2, 3} Now I need to generate all possible combinations as follows.

{1, 2, 3}
{1, 2}
{1, 3}
{2, 3}
{1}
{2}
{3}

Can somebody please help with this?


try this:

static void Main(string[] args)
{

    GetCombination(new List<int> { 1, 2, 3 });
}

static void GetCombination(List<int> list)
{
    double count = Math.Pow(2, list.Count);
    for (int i = 1; i <= count - 1; i++)
    {
        string str = Convert.ToString(i, 2).PadLeft(list.Count, '0');
        for (int j = 0; j < str.Length; j++)
        {
            if (str[j] == '1')
            {
                Console.Write(list[j]);
            }
        }
        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

Here are two generic solutions for strongly typed lists that will return all unique combinations of list members (if you can solve this with simpler code, I salute you):

// Recursive
public static List<List<T>> GetAllCombos<T>(List<T> list)
{
  List<List<T>> result = new List<List<T>>();
  // head
  result.Add(new List<T>());
  result.Last().Add(list[0]);
  if (list.Count == 1)
    return result;
  // tail
  List<List<T>> tailCombos = GetAllCombos(list.Skip(1).ToList());
  tailCombos.ForEach(combo =>
  {
    result.Add(new List<T>(combo));
    combo.Add(list[0]);
    result.Add(new List<T>(combo));
  });
  return result;
}

// Iterative, using 'i' as bitmask to choose each combo members
public static List<List<T>> GetAllCombos<T>(List<T> list)
{
  int comboCount = (int) Math.Pow(2, list.Count) - 1;
  List<List<T>> result = new List<List<T>>();
  for (int i = 1; i < comboCount + 1; i++)
  {
    // make each combo here
    result.Add(new List<T>());
    for (int j = 0; j < list.Count; j++)
    {
      if ((i >> j) % 2 != 0)
        result.Last().Add(list[j]);
    }
  }
  return result;
}

// Example usage
List<List<int>> combos = GetAllCombos(new int[] { 1, 2, 3 }.ToList());