Question

I’m stuck with a simple task. What I want to do is to transform Map<K,Set<V>> into the List<Map<K,V>> getting all possible combinations:

Map {
  {'k1' => set{'v11', 'v12'}},
  {'k2' => set{'v21', 'v22', 'v23'}},
  {'k3' => set{'v31'}}
}

Expected result:

List
{
  Map{'k1'=>'v11', 'k2'=>'v21', 'k3'=>'v31'}, 
  Map{'k1'=>'v11', 'k2'=>'v22', 'k3'=>'v31'},  
  Map{'k1'=>'v11', 'k2'=>'v23', 'k3'=>'v31'}, 
  Map{'k1'=>'v12', 'k2'=>'v21', 'k3'=>'v31'}, 
  Map{'k1'=>'v12', 'k2'=>'v22', 'k3'=>'v31'}, 
  Map{'k1'=>'v12', 'k2'=>'v23', 'k3'=>'v31'}
}

Answer 1

Use recursion! So at each level of the recursion, you look at another key in the keyset() of the map. You add iteratively add elements in the Set<V> for that key to the current map that you want to add to the list.

You can think of this as a tree. At the root node, you have an empty list. Then each subsequent level of the tree i represents a choice of which element to take from the ith set.

Here is the code along with a main method containing a test case:

import java.util.*;

public class Test {
    // method called to generate combinations using map, putting the combinations in list
    public static <K,V> void combinations( Map<K,Set<V>> map, List<Map<K,V>> list ) {
        recurse( map, new LinkedList<K>( map.keySet() ).listIterator(), new HashMap<K,V>(), list );
    }

    // helper method to do the recursion
    private static <K,V> void recurse( Map<K,Set<V>> map, ListIterator<K> iter, Map<K,V> cur, List<Map<K,V>> list ) {
            // we're at a leaf node in the recursion tree, add solution to list
        if( !iter.hasNext() ) {
            Map<K,V> entry = new HashMap<K,V>();

            for( K key : cur.keySet() ) {
                entry.put( key, cur.get( key ) );
            }

            list.add( entry );
        } else {
            K key = iter.next();
            Set<V> set = map.get( key );

            for( V value : set ) {
                cur.put( key, value );
                recurse( map, iter, cur, list );
                cur.remove( key );
            }

            iter.previous();
        }
    }

    public static void main( String[] args ) {
        Map<Integer,Set<Integer>> map = new HashMap<Integer,Set<Integer>>() {{
            put( 1, new HashSet<Integer>() {{
                add( 11 );
                add( 12 );
            }} );
            put( 2, new HashSet<Integer>() {{
                add( 21 );
                add( 22 );
                add( 23 );
            }} );
            put( 3, new HashSet<Integer>() {{
                add( 31 );
            }} );
        }};
        List<Map<Integer,Integer>> list = new LinkedList<Map<Integer,Integer>>();
        combinations( map, list );

        for( Map<Integer,Integer> combination : list ) {
            System.out.println( combination );
        }
    }
}