On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:42:58 -0700, Ross wrote:
> I'm new to python and I'm trying to come up with a function that takes a
> given number of players in a game and returns all possible unique
> pairings. Here's the code I've come up with so far, but I'm not getting
> the output I'd like to:
Others have already given a solution for Python 2.6, using
itertools.combinations(). Here's a solution for Python 2.4 and 2.5.
The thing to remember about combinations is that they can be defined
recursively. To find the combinations of [1, 2, 3, 4] we can do something
like this:
Combinations of [1, 2, 3, 4]:
Start with the first item, 1.
Combinations are given by [1] + combinations of what's left: [2, 3, 4].
Combinations of [2, 3, 4]:
Start with the first item, 2.
Combinations are given by [2] + combinations of what's left: [3, 4].
Combinations of [3, 4]:
Start with the first item, 3.
Combinations are given by [3] + combinations of what's left: [4].
Combinations of [4]:
Start with the first item, 4.
Combinations are given by [4] + combinations of what's left: [].
Combinations of []:
There aren't any, so we're done.
Using that algorithm gives us this function:
def combinations(seq, r=None):
"""Generator returning combinations of items from sequence <seq>
taken <r> at a time. Order is not significant. If <r> is not given,
the entire sequence is returned.
"""
if r == None:
r = len(seq)
if r <= 0:
yield []
else:
for i in xrange(len(seq)):
for cc in combinations(seq[i+1:], r-1):
yield [seq[i]]+cc
def all_pairings(players):
return list(combinations(range(players), 2))
> If I were to execute the function with all_pairings(4), I want to get
> the output [[0,1],[0,2],[0,3],[1,2],[1,3],[2,3].
>>> all_pairings(4)
[[0, 1], [0, 2], [0, 3], [1, 2], [1, 3], [2, 3]]
--
Steven
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