If you're used to something like Java then multidimensional arrays are a little different in syntax in C#.
Here's a page describing how to do them in C#. Here's a snippet from said page:
// Two-dimensional array.
int[,] array2D = new int[,] { { 1, 2 }, { 3, 4 }, { 5, 6 }, { 7, 8 } };
// The same array with dimensions specified.
int[,] array2Da = new int[4, 2] { { 1, 2 }, { 3, 4 }, { 5, 6 }, { 7, 8 } };
// A similar array with string elements.
string[,] array2Db = new string[3, 2] { { "one", "two" }, { "three", "four" },
{ "five", "six" } };
// Three-dimensional array.
int[, ,] array3D = new int[,,] { { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } },
{ { 7, 8, 9 }, { 10, 11, 12 } } };
// The same array with dimensions specified.
int[, ,] array3Da = new int[2, 2, 3] { { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } },
{ { 7, 8, 9 }, { 10, 11, 12 } } };
If you're interested in different combinations of things with a fixed number of them, something like this should be all you need.
If you're interested in different combinations of things with a dynamic number of them, something like this should be all you need.
(Unless you're trying to optimize performance, it's better to be readable/expressive, generally speaking.)
You may need to consider whether or not order matters (un-ordered set vs. ordered list). I would assume it doesn't from your code (in which case sorting is good to eliminate "duplicates"), but I can't tell for sure.
Here's a good example that's easy to read and modify for variations and isn't so bad for small numbers:
// -1, 0, ..., 5
var choices = Enumerable.Range(-1, 6);
var possibleChoices =
from a in choices
from b in choices
from c in choices
from d in choices
from e in choices
select (IEnumerable<int>)new [] { a, b, c, d, e };
// Remove -1's because they represent not being in the choice.
possibleChoices =
possibleChoices.Select(c => c.Where(d => d >= 0));
// Remove choices that have non-unique digits.
possibleChoices =
possibleChoices.Where(c => c.Distinct().Count() == c.Count());
// Sort the choices to indicate order doesn't matter
possibleChoices =
possibleChoices.Select(c => c.OrderBy(d => d));
// Remove duplicates
possibleChoices =
possibleChoices.Select(c => new
{
Key = string.Join(",", c),
Choice = c
}).
GroupBy(c => c.Key).
Select(g => g.FirstOrDefault().Choice);
foreach (var choice in possibleChoices) {
Console.Out.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", choice));
}
Output:
0
1
2
3
4
0, 1
0, 2
0, 3
0, 4
1, 2
1, 3
1, 4
2, 3
2, 4
3, 4
0, 1, 2
0, 1, 3
0, 1, 4
0, 2, 3
0, 2, 4
0, 3, 4
1, 2, 3
1, 2, 4
1, 3, 4
2, 3, 4
0, 1, 2, 3
0, 1, 2, 4
0, 1, 3, 4
0, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4
0, 1, 2, 3, 4
This is probably a little more dense to understand, hard-coded to this specific variation of combination and involves recursion but is a bit more generic/isn't hard-coded to 5 (and took 0.047s on dotnetfiddle.net instead of 0.094s). It's also completely lazy/IEnumerable.
public static void Main()
{
var possibleChoices = Choose(5);
foreach (var choice in possibleChoices) {
Console.Out.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", choice));
}
}
public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<int>> Choose(int max)
{
var remaining = Enumerable.Range(0, max);
return ChooseRecursive(remaining, Enumerable.Empty<int>());
}
public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<int>> ChooseRecursive(IEnumerable<int> remaining, IEnumerable<int> chosen)
{
yield return chosen;
foreach (var digit in remaining)
{
var choices = ChooseRecursive(
remaining.Where(d => d > digit),
chosen.Concat(new [] { digit })
);
foreach (var choice in choices)
{
yield return choice;
}
}
}
Output:
0
0, 1
0, 1, 2
0, 1, 2, 3
0, 1, 2, 3, 4
0, 1, 2, 4
0, 1, 3
0, 1, 3, 4
0, 1, 4
0, 2
0, 2, 3
0, 2, 3, 4
0, 2, 4
0, 3
0, 3, 4
0, 4
1
1, 2
1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 4
1, 3
1, 3, 4
1, 4
2
2, 3
2, 3, 4
2, 4
3
3, 4
4
