Here is what I finally came

Greg K — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:00:21 +0000

Here is what I finally came up with that, trust me, is cleaner that than last nights code big time.

// $aryMatrix = contains the data, and at this point already know there
//              there is at least one combination and less than 50 

$intMaxVar = 1; // Will hold the maximum # of variations
foreach($aryMatrix as $aryMatrixData) $intMaxVar *= count($aryMatrixData);

$aryVariations = array_fill(0,$intMaxVar,array(array_fill(0,count($aryMatrix),0));
$intSecOffset = $intMaxVar;
for($iAtt=0; $iAtt<count($aryData); $iAtt++) {
   $intAttValCount  = count($aryMatrix[$iAtt]['ValIDs']);
   $intSets = $intSecOffset / $intAttValCount;
   for ($iAttVal=0; $iAttVal<$intAttValCount; $iAttVal++) {
      for ($iOffset=0; $iOffset<$intMaxVar; $iOffset+=$intSecOffset) {
         for ($iSetPos=0; $iSetPos<$intSets; $iSetPos++) {
            $aryVariations[$iAttVal*$intSets+$iOffset+$iSetPos][$iAtt] = $aryMatrix[$iAtt]['ValIDs'][$iAttVal];
   }  }  }
   $intSecOffset /= $intAttValCount;
}

Yeah, it loops through total combinations * # attributes, but I know I have a set # for both of these.

Now, the next step I may tackle, here is how the data is originally, (which gets converted to the aryMatrix that I mentioned in my first post):

$aryData = array( ATT_ID => array( 'Name'=> ATT_NAME, 'Values'=> array(VAL_ID => VAL_NAME)),
                  ATT_ID => array( 'Name'=> ATT_NAME, 'Values'=> array(VAL_ID => VAL_NAME)),
(etc)

I think I'm good where I am at. Abhishek, I'll try out your code tomorrow, and do some resource checking/timing tests to see which route to take. I am very grateful for your post, as I just wet back through my entire history in firefox for today, and i cannot find the solution on the PHP documentation site! weird!

-Greg

teammatt3 wrote: And, before

Abhishek Reddy — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:05:00 +0000

teammatt3 wrote:

And, before Abhishek Reddy has a chance to point it out, Python 2.6+ has a method available to do it for you ;)

I would never! I much prefer:

(ns example (:use [clojure.contrib.combinatorics]))

(doseq [element (apply cartesian-product some-seqs)]
  (println element))

Here's a first pass at a more complete PHP version:

<?php
function cartesian_product_appending ($array1, $array2) {
  $result = array();
  foreach ($array1 as $a) {
    foreach ($array2 as $b) {
      $r = $a;
      if (is_array($a))
        array_push($r, $b);
      else
        $r = array($a, $b);
      array_push($result, $r);
    }
  }
  return $result;
}

function cartesian_product_of_arrays ($arrays) {
  $result = array_shift($arrays);
  foreach ($arrays as $array) {
    $result = cartesian_product_appending($result, $array);
  }
  return $result;
}

$aryData = array(2=>array(11,12,13),
                 3=>array(21,22,23),
                 4=>array(31,32));

print_r(cartesian_product_of_arrays($aryData));

?>

Ok, now that I know what to

Greg K — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:42:20 +0000

Ok, now that I know what to look for, there is an example function right in the comments on php.net to do it. I'll have to adapt it a bit, but should work.

-Greg

THANK YOU! I knew there had

Greg K — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:18:00 +0000

THANK YOU! I knew there had to be a name for it. now I can google it better! (or bing it better...)

I'm about to dive into cleaning up the mess of code I have to make it, will post the final version here (or a link to a function that will do the same for me)

For the gist of the DB:

tblAttribute
AttributeID
AttributeName

tblAttributeValue
AttributeValueID
AttriuteID - FK back to tblAttribute
AttributeValue

tblProductAttVal
ProductAttValID
AttributeValueID - FK back to tblAttributeValue
Available - Basically if set, this value is available on this product

note there are other values in use, and there are needs that require it broken down this way out of the scope of my needs here, but this is the gist of the table/fields that affect my challenge.

-Greg

That's a Cartesian product.

teammatt3 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:34:00 +0000

That's a Cartesian product. You might be able to solve the problem with SQL.

{11,12,13} * {21,22,23} * {31,32} = {(11,21,31), (11, 21, 32), (11, 22, 31), (11, 22, 32)} etc. I had to do this by hand for my discrete math class. It look forever.

What does your DB schema look like?

And, before Abhishek Reddy has a chance to point it out, Python 2.6+ has a method available to do it for you