如何不迭代生成第 i 个组合/排列

Question

给定一个可迭代的对象，比如说："ABCDEF"

我们可以把它看成一个类似数字系统的东西，像这样：

A
B
C
D
E
F
AA
AB
AC
AD
AE
AF
BA
BB
BC
....
FF
AAA
AAB
....

我想知道如何找到这个列表中的第 i 个成员？要高效一点，不想一个一个数过去。我想找到第十亿个（比如说）成员。我在用 Python 2.4（不是我选择的），这可能有点关系，因为我没有 itertools 这个库。

很好，但不是必须的：能不能把这个解决方案推广到伪 "混合基数" 系统？

--- 结果 ---

# ------ paul -----
def f0(x, alph='ABCDE'):
    result = ''
    ct = len(alph)
    while x>=0:
        result += alph[x%ct]
        x /= ct-1
    return result[::-1]

# ----- Glenn Maynard -----
import math
def idx_to_length_and_value(n, length):
    chars = 1
    while True:
        cnt = pow(length, chars)
        if cnt > n:
            return chars, n

        chars += 1
        n -= cnt

def conv_base(chars, n, values):
    ret = []
    for i in range(0, chars):
        c = values[n % len(values)]
        ret.append(c)
        n /= len(values)

    return reversed(ret)

def f1(i, values = "ABCDEF"):
    chars, n = idx_to_length_and_value(i, len(values))
    return "".join(conv_base(chars, n, values))

# -------- Laurence Gonsalves ------
def f2(i, seq):
    seq = tuple(seq)
    n = len(seq)
    max = n # number of perms with 'digits' digits
    digits = 1
    last_max = 0
    while i >= max:
        last_max = max
        max = n * (max + 1)
        digits += 1
    result = ''
    i -= last_max
    while digits:
        digits -= 1
        result = seq[i % n] + result
        i //= n
    return result

# -------- yairchu -------
def f3(x, alphabet = 'ABCDEF'):
    x += 1 # Make us skip "" as a valid word
    group_size = 1
    num_letters = 0
    while 1: #for num_letters in itertools.count():
        if x < group_size:
            break
        x -= group_size
        group_size *= len(alphabet)
        num_letters +=1
    letters = []
    for i in range(num_letters):
        x, m = divmod(x, len(alphabet))
        letters.append(alphabet[m])
    return ''.join(reversed(letters))

# ----- testing ----
import time
import random
tries = [random.randint(1,1000000000000) for i in range(10000)]
numbs = 'ABCDEF'

time0 = time.time()
s0 = [f1(i, numbs) for i in tries]
print 's0 paul',time.time()-time0, 'sec'
time0 = time.time()
s1 = [f1(i, numbs) for i in tries]
print 's1 Glenn Maynard',time.time()-time0, 'sec'
time0 = time.time()
s2 = [f2(i, numbs) for i in tries]
print 's2 Laurence Gonsalves',time.time()-time0, 'sec'
time0 = time.time()
s3 = [f3(i,numbs) for i in tries]
print 's3 yairchu',time.time()-time0, 'sec'

次数：

s0 paul 0.470999956131 sec
s1 Glenn Maynard 0.472999811172 sec
s2 Laurence Gonsalves 0.259000062943 sec
s3 yairchu 0.325000047684 sec
>>> s0==s1==s2==s3
True

Answer 1

你现在做的事情有点像把十进制（就是我们常用的数字）转换成六进制，里面的数字用的是ABCDEF。唯一不同的是“AA”和“A”被当作不同的数字，这样做是不对的，因为如果把“A”当作零的话，它们应该是一样的。

如果你把下一个更大的六的幂加到你的数字上，然后用这些数字进行六进制转换，最后去掉第一个数字（应该是“B”，也就是“1”），你就能得到结果了。

我只是想在这里分享一个想法，并不是给出具体的实现，因为我觉得这个问题有点像作业（当然我也给你留了余地，这只是我的感觉）。

Answer 2

底部有一个多基数的解决方案。

import math
def idx_to_length_and_value(n, length):
    chars = 1
    while True:
        cnt = pow(length, chars)
        if cnt > n:
            return chars, n

        chars += 1
        n -= cnt

def conv_base(chars, n, values):
    ret = []
    for i in range(0, chars):
        c = values[n % len(values)]
        ret.append(c)
        n /= len(values)

    return reversed(ret)

values = "ABCDEF"
for i in range(0, 100):
    chars, n = idx_to_length_and_value(i, len(values))
    print "".join(conv_base(chars, n, values))

---

import math
def get_max_value_for_digits(digits_list):
    max_vals = []

    for val in digits_list:
        val = len(val)
        if max_vals:
            val *= max_vals[-1]
        max_vals.append(val)
    return max_vals

def idx_to_length_and_value(n, digits_list):
    chars = 1
    max_vals = get_max_value_for_digits(digits_list)

    while True:
        if chars-1 >= len(max_vals):
            raise OverflowError, "number not representable"
        max_val = max_vals[chars-1]
        if n < max_val:
            return chars, n

        chars += 1
        n -= max_val

def conv_base(chars, n, digits_list):
    ret = []
    for i in range(chars-1, -1, -1):
        digits = digits_list[i]
        radix = len(digits)

        c = digits[n % len(digits)]
        ret.append(c)
        n /= radix

    return reversed(ret)

digits_list = ["ABCDEF", "ABC", "AB"]
for i in range(0, 120):
    chars, n = idx_to_length_and_value(i, digits_list)
    print "".join(conv_base(chars, n, digits_list))

Answer 3

第三次总会成功：

def perm(i, seq):
  seq = tuple(seq)
  n = len(seq)
  max = n # number of perms with 'digits' digits
  digits = 1
  last_max = 0
  while i >= max:
    last_max = max
    max = n * (max + 1)
    digits += 1
  result = ''
  i -= last_max
  while digits:
    digits -= 1
    result = seq[i % n] + result
    i //= n
  return result