poj 1011 Sticks

Thinking:

1. Sort the sticks from the longest to the shortest.

2. Among those small sticks, we start from the largest one Smax. The length of the complete stick  L should range from Smax to (Sum of sticks),and Sum%L == 0

AC code:

#include<iostream>
#include<cstring>
#include<cmath>
#include<algorithm>

using namespace std;
bool cmp(const int a,const int b)
{
    return a > b;
}
int stk[70];
bool used[70];
int per;// L

int n;
bool check_validity(int remain,int n_stk,int now_stk)// remain: how long do we need to complete current stick
{//n_stk: how many sticks should be assembled
    //now_stk :the stick chosen last time
    if(n_stk== 1)// if there is only one stick left to be complete, then it's perfect
        return true;
    if(remain == per)//start of a new stick
    {
        int k = 1;
        while(used[k]) k++;// find the largest unused stick
        used[k] = true;
        if(check_validity(remain-stk[k],n_stk,k))//assemble
            return true;
        used[k] = false;
        return false;
    }
    else if(remain == 0)//finished the assembling of a stick
        return check_validity(per,n_stk-1,1);//start next one
    else
    {
        for(int i = now_stk+1;i <= n;i++)
        {
            if(!used[i]&&(remain-stk[i] >=0))// choose unused ones and remain should be larger than the stk
            {
                if(!used[i-1]&&stk[i] == stk[i-1])continue;// **important  if the stk[j] failed and stk[j+1] == stk[j],it is unnecessary to try j+1 
                used[i] = true;
                if(check_validity(remain-stk[i],n_stk,i))
                    return true;
                used[i] = false;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }


}



int main()
{
    while(scanf("%d",&n)&&n)
    {
            for(int i = 1;i <= n;i++)
                scanf("%d",&stk[i]);
        sort(stk+1,stk+1+n,cmp);
        int maxx = stk[1];
        int sum(0);
        bool flag =false;
        for(int i = 1;i <= n;i++)
            sum+=stk[i];
        for(int i = maxx;i <= sum/2;i++)
        {
            memset(used,false,sizeof(used));

            if(sum % i == 0)
            {
                per = i;
                if(check_validity(i,sum/i,1))
                {
                    flag = true;
                    printf("%d\n", i);
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        if(!flag)
            printf("%d\n",sum);

    }

return 0;
}