LeetCode 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] 

思路分析：这题可以用DFS搜索解决，要注意先排序，这样才能返回题目要求的解。这题可以重复使用元素，因此dfs递归调用传入的start仍然是i，也就是仍然尝试放当前元素去生成组合，直到搜索完毕返回i才会+1.还要注意dfs返回后对item容器恢复现场。最后一个tricky的地方是，如何避免产生冲入的solution呢？if(i > start && candidates[i] == candidates[i-1]) continue; 这行代码的处理比较巧妙，首先排序后重复元素一定是相邻元素，这个判断可以保证不产生相同的solution。当然也可以用HashSet或者最后返回res之前再去重。这题属于NP问题，时间复杂度O（2^n）。

AC Code

public class Solution {
    public List<List<Integer>> combinationSum(int[] candidates, int target) {
        List<List<Integer>> res = new ArrayList<List<Integer>>();
        int m = candidates.length;
        if(m == 0) return  res;
        Arrays.sort(candidates);
        List<Integer> item = new ArrayList<Integer>();
        dfs(candidates, target, 0, item, res);
        return res;
    }
    
    public void dfs(int[] candidates, int target, int start, List<Integer> item, List<List<Integer>> res){
        if(target == 0){
            res.add(new ArrayList<Integer>(item));
            return;
        }
        if(target < 0) return;
        for(int i = start; i < candidates.length; i++){
            if(i > start && candidates[i] == candidates[i-1]) continue;// avoid duplicate solutions
            item.add(candidates[i]);
            dfs(candidates, target - candidates[i], i, item, res);
            item.remove(item.size() - 1);
        }
    }
}