Find set of numbers in one collection that adds up to a number in another.

Answer 1

Sounds like a Knapsack problem (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem. On that page they also explain that the problem is NP-complete in general.

I think this means that if you want to find ALL valid combinations, you just need a lot of time.

Answer 2

This problem is NP-Complete... This is some variation of the sub-set sum problem which is known to be NP-Complete (actually, the sub-set sum problem is easier than yours).

Read here for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subset_sum_problem

Answer 3

This is a small generalization of the subset sum problem. In general, it is NP-complete, but as long as all the numbers are integers and the maximum number in B is relatively small, the pseudo-polynomial solution described in the Wikipedia article I linked should do the trick.

Answer 4

As said in the comments with numbers ranging only from 1 to 30 the problem has a fast solution. I tested it in C and for your given example it only needs miliseconds and will scale very well. The complexity is O(n+k) where n is length of list A and k the length of list B, but with a high constant factor (there are 28.598 possibilites to get a sum from 1 to 30).

#define WIDTH 30000
#define MAXNUMBER 30

int create_combination(unsigned char comb[WIDTH][MAXNUMBER+1], 
                       int n, 
                       unsigned char i, 
                       unsigned char len, 
                       unsigned char min, 
                       unsigned char sum) {
    unsigned char j;

    if (len == 1) {
        if (n+1>=WIDTH) {
            printf("not enough space!\n");
            exit(-1);
        }
        comb[n][i] = sum;
        for (j=0; j<=i; j++)
            comb[n+1][j] = comb[n][j];
        n++;
        return n;
    }

    for (j=min; j<=sum/len; j++) {
        comb[n][i] = j;
        n = create_combination(comb, n, i+1, len-1, j, sum-j);
    }

    return n;
}

---

int main(void)
{
    unsigned char A[6] = { 7, 4, 9, 1, 15, 2 };
    unsigned char B[5] = { 11, 18, 14, 8, 3 };

    unsigned char combinations[WIDTH][MAXNUMBER+1];
    unsigned char needed[WIDTH][MAXNUMBER];
    unsigned char numbers[MAXNUMBER];
    unsigned char sums[MAXNUMBER];
    unsigned char i, j, k;
    int n=0, m;

    memset(combinations, 0, sizeof combinations);
    memset(needed, 0, sizeof needed);
    memset(numbers, 0, sizeof numbers);
    memset(sums, 0, sizeof sums);

    // create array with all possible combinations
    // combinations[n][0] stores the sum
    for (i=2; i<=MAXNUMBER; i++) {
        for (j=2; j<=i; j++) {
            for (k=1; k<=MAXNUMBER; k++)
                combinations[n][k] = 0;
            combinations[n][0] = i;
            n = create_combination(combinations, n, 1, j, 1, i);
        }
    }

    // count quantity of any summands in each combination
    for (m=0; m<n; m++)
        for (i=1; i<=MAXNUMBER && combinations[m][i] != 0; i++)
            needed[m][combinations[m][i]-1]++;

    // count quantity of any number in A
    for (m=0; m<6; m++)
        if (numbers[A[m]-1] < MAXNUMBER)
            numbers[A[m]-1]++;

    // collect possible sums from B
    for (m=0; m<5; m++)
        sums[B[m]-1] = 1;

    for (m=0; m<n; m++) {
        // check if sum is in B
        if (sums[combinations[m][0]-1] == 0)
            continue;

        // check if enough summands from current combination are in A
        for (i=0; i<MAXNUMBER; i++) {
            if (numbers[i] < needed[m][i])
                break;
        }

        if (i<MAXNUMBER)
            continue;

        // output result
        for (j=1; j<=MAXNUMBER && combinations[m][j] != 0; j++) {
            printf(" %s %d", j>1 ? "+" : "", combinations[m][j]);
        }
        printf(" = %d\n", combinations[m][0]);
    }

    return 0;
}

---

1 + 2 = 3
1 + 7 = 8
2 + 9 = 11
4 + 7 = 11
1 + 4 + 9 = 14
1 + 2 + 4 + 7 = 14
1 + 2 + 15 = 18
2 + 7 + 9 = 18