77. Combinations

1. Description

Given two integers n and k, return all possible combinations of k numbers out of the range [1, n].
You may return the answer in any order.

2. Example

Example 1

Input: n = 4, k = 2
Output: [[1,2],[1,3],[1,4],[2,3],[2,4],[3,4]]
Explanation: There are 4 choose 2 = 6 total combinations.
Note that combinations are unordered, i.e., [1,2] and [2,1] are considered to be the same combination.

Example 2

Input: n = 1, k = 1
Output: [[1]]
Explanation: There is 1 choose 1 = 1 total combination.

3. Constraints

  • 1 <= n <= 20
  • 1 <= k <= n

4. Solutions

Backtracking

Time complexity: O($C_{n}^{k}k$)
Space complexity: O(n)

class Solution {
public:
    vector<vector<int>> combine(int n, int k) {
        vector<int> current_combination;
        vector<vector<int>> total_combinations;

        generate_combinations(n, k, 1, current_combination, total_combinations);

        return total_combinations;
    }

private:
    void generate_combinations(
        const int n,
        const int k,
        int val,
        vector<int> &current,
        vector<vector<int>> &total) {
        if (current.size() == k) {
            total.push_back(current);
            return;
        }

        for (int i = val, limit = n - k + 1 + current.size(); i <= limit; ++i) {
            current.push_back(i);
            generate_combinations(n, k, i + 1, current, total);
            current.pop_back();
        }
    }
};
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