[LeetCode]039. Combination Sum

Given a set of candidate numbers (C) and a target number (T), find all unique combinations in C where the candidate numbers sums to T.

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

Note:

• All numbers (including target) will be positive integers.
• Elements in a combination (a1, a2, … , ak) must be in non-descending order. (ie, a1 ≤ a2 ≤ … ≤ ak).
• The solution set must not contain duplicate combinations.

For example, given candidate set 2,3,6,7 and target 7, 
A solution set is: 
[7] 
[2, 2, 3] 

Solution: use the DP and recursion method.

Note the back tracking and the null pointer error in line 21.(still don't know why)

public class Solution {
    public ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> combinationSum(int[] candidates, int target) {
        // Note: The Solution object is instantiated only once and is reused by each test case.
        ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> result = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>>();
        int len = candidates.length;
        if(candidates == null || len == 0){
            return result;
        }
        Arrays.sort(candidates);
        if(target < candidates[0]){
            return result;
        }
        ArrayList<Integer> al = new ArrayList<Integer>();
        findSum(candidates, 0, len, target, result, al);
        return result;
        
    }
    
    public void findSum(int[] candidates, int start, int end, int target, ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> result, ArrayList<Integer> al){
        if(target == 0){
            result.add(new ArrayList<Integer>(al));
            //at first I wrote result.add(al) here, and get the wrong answer, don't know why.
            return;
        }
        for(int i=start; i<end; i++){
            if(target < candidates[i]){
                break;
            }
            al.add(candidates[i]);
            target -= candidates[i];
            findSum(candidates, i, end, target, result, al);
            target += al.remove(al.size()-1);
            //use the back traking here!
        }
    }
}