Print all sequences of given length in C++

In this problem, we are given two integer values, k, and n. And we have to print all the sequences of length k from numbers from 1 to n in sorted order.

Let’s take an example to understand the topic −

Input:k = 2 ; n = 3
Output:
1 1
1 2
1 3
2 1
2 2
2 3
3 1
3 2
3 3

So in this problem, we have to print the sequence as stated above.

A simple way to solve this problem is by incrementing integers of the sequence till they get to the max value i.e. n. The following is a detailed description of the solution.

Algorithm

1) Create an array of size k with all values = 1 i.e. {1, 1, ..ktimes}.
2) Repeat step 3 and 4 till the array becomes {n, n, …, n}.
3) Print the array.
4) Increment the value such that the elements of the array become the next value. For example, {1, 1, 1} incremented to {1, 1, 2} and {1, 3, 3} incremented to {2, 1, 1}. For this we need to check the kth element of the array, if it’s equal to n become update, then check k-1 element in the sequence and so on for the same condition.

Example

The following program will make the concept more clear to you.

Live Demo

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
void printSequence(int arr[], int size){
   for(int i = 0; i < size; i++)
      cout<<arr[i]<<"\t";
   cout<<endl;
   return;
}
int nextElement(int arr[], int k, int n){
   int s = k - 1;
   while (arr[s] == n)
      s--;
   if (s < 0)
      return 0;
   arr[s] = arr[s] + 1;
   for(int i = s + 1; i < k; i++)
      arr[i] = 1;
   return 1;
}
void generateSequence(int n, int k){
   int *arr = new int[k];
   for(int i = 0; i < k; i++)
      arr[i] = 1;
   while(1){
      printSequence(arr, k);
   if(nextElement(arr, k, n) == 0)
      break;
   }
   return;
}
int main(){
   int n = 3;
   int k = 2;
   cout<<"The sequence is :\n";
   generateSequence(n, k);
   return 0;
}

Output

The sequence is −

This method is easy to understand but can be made better and more efficient.

This method uses recursion and an extra index to check for sequence offset (value after which the sequence will be flipped). The function will be called recursively and will not update the terms till index. And recure the function for next terms after index.

Example

Live Demo

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
void printSequence (int arr[], int size){
   for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
      cout << arr[i] << "\t";
   cout << endl;
   return;
}
void generateSequence (int arr[], int n, int k, int index){
   int i;
   if (k == 0){
      printSequence (arr, index);
   }
   if (k > 0){
      for (i = 1; i <= n; ++i){
         arr[index] = i;
         generateSequence (arr, n, k - 1, index + 1);
      }
   }
}
int main (){
   int n = 3;
   int k = 2;
   int *arr = new int[k];
   cout<<"The sequence is:\n";
   generateSequence (arr, n, k, 0);
   return 0;
}