LeetCode - Combination Sum

1 minute read

Problem description

description

Given a set of candidate numbers (candidates) (without duplicates) and a target number (target), find all unique combinations in candidates where the candidate numbers sums to target.

The same repeated number may be chosen from candidates unlimited number of times.

Note:

  1. All numbers (including target) will be positive integers.
  2. The solution set must not contain duplicate combinations.

Example 1:

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Input: candidates = [2,3,6,7], target = 7,
A solution set is:
[
  [7],
  [2,2,3]
]

Example 2:

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Input: candidates = [2,3,5], target = 8,
A solution set is:
[
  [2,2,2,2],
  [2,3,3],
  [3,5]
]

Analysis

This is a standard backtrack. Here’s the code:

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public class CombinationSum {
  public List<List<Integer>> combinationSum(int[] candidates, int target) {
    Arrays.sort(candidates);

    List<List<Integer>> res = new ArrayList<>();

    backtrack(res, candidates, target, new ArrayList<>(), 0);

    return res;
  }

  void backtrack(
      List<List<Integer>> res, int[] candidates, int target, List<Integer> list, int start) {
    if (target == 0) {
      res.add(new ArrayList<>(list));
      return;
    } else if (target > 0) {
      for (int i = start; i < candidates.length; i++) {
        if (target - candidates[i] < 0) {
          break;
        }
        list.add(candidates[i]);
        backtrack(res, candidates, target - candidates[i], list, i);
        list.remove(list.size() - 1);
      }
    }
  }
}

What to improve

  • analyse more carefully