Generating excel combinations

I have a list of range of data like
A 20
B 3
C 4
D 26
E 10
F 3
G 7


I would like to be able to generate a table with all the combinations of 4
selections which total 40 or less. Any sugestions as to how I could do this
in excel.

To quote Myrna Larson earlier today

Go to Google newsgroup search and search for

combination equal number

in groups microsoft.public.excel.*

You'll find lots of hits on how to do this with Solver.

--

HTH

RP
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)


"mark4006" <mark4006@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:009A1F4E-2529-4EE5-A74D-BC368349E111@microsoft.com...
> I have a list of range of data like
> A 20
> B 3
> C 4
> D 26
> E 10
> F 3
> G 7
>
>
> I would like to be able to generate a table with all the combinations of 4
> selections which total 40 or less. Any sugestions as to how I could do
this
> in excel.
>

Excel's solver would give you only one solution, I think.

In Don Knuth's Pre-Fascicle 3A you will find a solution
(exhaustive but not ideal, as he mentions) which I put
into VBA (see below).

Copy the code into the VBA editor, run it and press CTRL G
to see the results.

HTH,
Bernd

--------- Snipp here for code -------------

Option Explicit

'Knuth fasc3a.pdf, page 11 of 65, Filling a rucksack

Sub Fill_Rucksack()

Const n As Long = 7
Dim w(0 To n) As Long
Dim delta(1 To n) As Long 'delta(j) = w(j) - w(j-1) for 1
<= j < n
Dim t As Long
Const NCap As Long = 40
Dim c(0 To n) As Long
Dim r As Long
Dim i As Long
Dim length As Long

w(0) = 0
w(1) = 3
w(2) = 3
w(3) = 4
w(4) = 7
w(5) = 10
w(6) = 20
w(7) = 26

F1: 'Initialize

t = 0
c(0) = n
r = NCap

F2: 'Visit

'Visit the combination c(0)...c(t), which uses NCap -
r units of capacity
length = 0
For i = 0 To t
length = length + w(c(i))
Next i
If length <= NCap And w(c(t)) <> 0 Then
Debug.Print "Solution: ";
For i = 0 To t: Debug.Print "["; c(i); "]"; w(c
(i));: Next i
Debug.Print
End If

F3: 'Try to add w(0)

If c(t) > 0 And r >= w(0) Then
t = t + 1
c(t) = 0
r = r - w(0)
GoTo F2
End If

F4: 'Try to increase c(t)

If t = 0 Then
GoTo Terminate
End If
If c(t - 1) > c(t) + 1 And r >= delta(c(t) + 1) Then
c(t) = c(t) + 1
r = r - delta(c(t))
GoTo F2
End If

F5: 'Remove c(t)

r = r + w(c(t))
t = t - 1
GoTo F4

Terminate:

End Sub


---------- Snipp here for solutions ----------

Solution: [ 7 ] 26
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 2 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 2 ] 3 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 3 ] 4
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 3 ] 4 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 3 ] 4 [ 2 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 3 ] 4 [ 2 ] 3 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 4 ] 7
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 4 ] 7 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 4 ] 7 [ 2 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 4 ] 7 [ 2 ] 3 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 4 ] 7 [ 3 ] 4
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 4 ] 7 [ 3 ] 4 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 4 ] 7 [ 3 ] 4 [ 2 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 5 ] 10
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 5 ] 10 [ 1 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 5 ] 10 [ 2 ] 3
Solution: [ 7 ] 26 [ 5 ] 10 [ 3 ] 4