77. Combinations

Given two integers n and k, return all possible combinations of k numbers out of 1 ... n.

For example,
If n = 4 and k = 2, a solution is:

[
  [2,4],
  [3,4],
  [2,3],
  [1,2],
  [1,3],
  [1,4],
]

Solution 1 Backtracking recursive

public static List<List<Integer>> combine(int n, int k) {
		List<List<Integer>> res = new ArrayList<List<Integer>>();
		helper(res, new ArrayList<Integer>(), n, 1, k);
		return res;
	}

	public static void helper(List<List<Integer>> res, List<Integer> list, int n, int index, int k) {
		if (k == 0) {
			res.add(list);
			return;
		}
		for (int i = index; i <= n; i++) {
			List<Integer> temp = new ArrayList<Integer>(list);
			temp.add(i);
			helper(res, temp, n, i + 1, k - 1);
		}
	}

Solution 2 Iterative

//Iterative
	public static List<List<Integer>> combine2(int n, int k) {
	    if (n == 0 || k == 0 || k > n) return Collections.emptyList();
	    List<List<Integer>> res = new ArrayList<List<Integer>>();
	    for (int i = 1; i <= n + 1 - k; i++) res.add(Arrays.asList(i));
	    for (int i = 2; i <= k; i++) {
	        List<List<Integer>> tmp = new ArrayList<List<Integer>>();
	        for (List<Integer> list : res) {
	            for (int m = list.get(list.size() - 1) + 1; m <= n - (k - i); m++) {
	                List<Integer> newList = new ArrayList<Integer>(list);
	                newList.add(m);
	                tmp.add(newList);
	            }
	        }
	        res = tmp;
	    }
	    return res;
	}