Algorithm for Determining Variations of Differing Lengths
- by joseph.ferris
I have four objects - for the sake of arguments, let say that they are the following letters:
A B C D
I need to calculate the number of variations that can be made for these under the following two conditions:
No repetition
Objects are position agnostic
Taking the above, this means that with a four object sequence, I can have only one sequence that matches the criteria (since order is not considered for being unique):
ABCD
There are four variations for a three object combination from the four object pool:
ABC, ABD, ACD, and BCD
There are six variations for a two object combination from the four object pool:
AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, and CD
And the most simple one, if taken on at a time:
A, B, C, and D
I swear that this was something covered in school, many, many years ago - and probably forgotten since I didn't think I would use it. :-) I am anticipating that factorials will come into play, but just trying to force an equation is not working.
Any advice would be appreciated.
