I am having a hard time trying to figure out something and was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction,

ok....say I have x number of attributes
ex. ABCD

How could I write code to find every combination of the 4 letters but no two combinations have the same letters in them.

A,B,C,D,AB,AC,AD,... ABC,BCD...ABCD etc.

and if it has BCD then it won't have CBD.

Also it has to work no matter how many attributes are entered.

Any help would be greatful.


Thanks so much.

Yup this can be done, but I'm gonna struggle explaining it!

I'll take your example: ABCD.
Have one loop i. For i=0, you'll tkae one letter at a time. A, B, C, D.

For i=1, you'll take 2 letters at a time. One of the letters will always be A, the second will be either B, C or D. This'll give you AB, AC, AD.

For i=2, you'll take 3 at a time. First 2 are AB, then either C & D. Gives you ABC, ABD.

Then i=3, take 4 at a time, only ABCD.

This should give you unique permutations of the letters. This algorithm will expand to any number of letters.

Good?
GF