Description
https://leetcode.com/problems/combinations/
Given two integers n and k, return all possible combinations of k numbers out of the range [1, n].
You may return the answer in any order.
Example 1:
Input: n = 4, k = 2 Output: [ [2,4], [3,4], [2,3], [1,2], [1,3], [1,4], ]
Example 2:
Input: n = 1, k = 1 Output: [[1]]
Constraints:
1 <= n <= 201 <= k <= n
Explanation
Use backtracking approach to build all possible combinations.
Python Solution
class Solution:
def combine(self, n: int, k: int) -> List[List[int]]:
results = []
nums = [i for i in range(1, n + 1)]
self.helper(nums, k, results, [], 0)
return results
def helper(self, nums, k, results, combination, start):
if len(combination) == k:
results.append(list(combination))
return
for i in range(start, len(nums)):
num = nums[i]
combination.append(num)
self.helper(nums, k, results, combination, i + 1)
combination.pop()
- Time Complexity: O(N).
- Space Complexity: O(N).
Hi, this may be a dumb question, but how is the helper() function able to write to results variable inside combine() function? When results variable is passed to the helper() function inside the combine() function, is it passing a copy of it or passing by reference (like in C)? I’m not really understanding how the helper() function is able to affect THE results variable instead of its local copy of results variable.