I want to try every combination of 10 numbers out of 1 to 64 (I reckon
there are about 1,300 odd but that is just my intuitive guess rather
than any mathematical knowledge.

I should think there is a for...next loop over a few layers that would
do it but I cannot for the life of me figure it out not having a maths
background. Can anyone help me out?

Kind regards, mark

Ouch!
=COMBIN(64,10)

returns:
151,473,214,816

Unless I misunderstood the question, this seems like too much. Are you
trying to calculate something else?

HTH
Dana DeLouis


"Mark" wrote in message
m...
I want to try every combination of 10 numbers out of 1 to 64 (I reckon
there are about 1,300 odd but that is just my intuitive guess rather
than any mathematical knowledge.

I should think there is a for...next loop over a few layers that would
do it but I cannot for the life of me figure it out not having a maths
background. Can anyone help me out?

Kind regards, mark

1300? you must either be dreaming or mean something entirely different..

=COMBIN(64,10) = 151,473,214,816
=PERMUT(64,10) = 549,666,001,924,301,000

keepITcool

< email : keepitcool chello nl (with @ and .)
< homepage: http://members.chello.nl/keepitcool


(Mark) wrote:

I want to try every combination of 10 numbers out of 1 to 64 (I reckon
there are about 1,300 odd but that is just my intuitive guess rather
than any mathematical knowledge.

I should think there is a for...next loop over a few layers that would
do it but I cannot for the life of me figure it out not having a maths
background. Can anyone help me out?

Kind regards, mark

I think there are many more than 1,300...this would generate the #'s
believe but try it first with just the references to variables a and
active as shown

Sub Macro1()
'
z = 1
For a = 1 To 55
For b = a + 1 To 56
'For c = b + 1 To 57
'For d = c + 1 To 58
'For e = d + 1 To 59
'For f = e + 1 To 60
'For g = f + 1 To 61
'For h = g + 1 To 62
'For i = h + 1 To 63
'For j = i + 1 To 64
Cells(z, 1) = a
Cells(z, 2) = b
'Cells(z, 3) = c
'Cells(z, 4) = d
'Cells(z, 5) = e
'Cells(z, 6) = f
'Cells(z, 7) = g
'Cells(z, 8) = h
'Cells(z, 9) = i
'Cells(z, 10) = j
z = z + 1
'Next j
'Next i
'Next h
'Next g
'Next f
'Next e
'Next d
'Next c
Next b
Next a
End Su

--
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com

Dear Duane,

Yep, that looks like exactly what I need, will try it (and cut down on
the numbers which are somewhat larger than I had anticipated). Thanks
very much for your input. Kind regards, Mark


*** Sent via Developersdex http://www.developersdex.com ***
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"Mark Stephens" wrote...
Yep, that looks like exactly what I need, will try it (and cut down on
the numbers which are somewhat larger than I had anticipated). Thanks
very much for your input. Kind regards, Mark

Somewhat larger than you had anticipated!

You lack mathematical intuition, and any other form of intuition is useless
in mathematics. I'm not trying to be nasty (some would say it's effortless
for me), what I mean is that *you* can't guess about this. You're going to
need to design what you're trying to do carefully.

You'll need to do some heavy adaptation of duane's code because Excel
worksheets have only 16,777,216 cells per worksheet, and cutting down your
originally proposed 10 items from 64 to something that would fit into a
single worksheet will be a challenge since there are more than 28 million
combinations of 9 items out of 32.

So just how much can you whittle away at your original specs?

Mark;

You could undoubtedly program a loop to do this, but it would take a
long time to run. When selecting 10 numbers out of 64, there are
151,473,214,816 combinations, and a whopping 549,666,001,924,301,000
permutations (if the order of selection of the 10 numbers matters).
You can derive these numbers using factorials, or do what I did and
use the built in COMBIN and PERMUT excel functions. e.g
=COMBIN(64,10).

You might want to consider if there is another way of tackling your
problem.

David Sauder








(Mark) wrote in message om...
I want to try every combination of 10 numbers out of 1 to 64 (I reckon
there are about 1,300 odd but that is just my intuitive guess rather
than any mathematical knowledge.

I should think there is a for...next loop over a few layers that would
do it but I cannot for the life of me figure it out not having a maths
background. Can anyone help me out?

Kind regards, mark

"David Sauder" wrote...
. . . When selecting 10 numbers out of 64, there are
151,473,214,816 combinations, and a whopping 549,666,001,924,301,000
permutations (if the order of selection of the 10 numbers matters).
....

Permutation count incorrect. There are 549,666,001,924,300,800 permutations
of 10 items from 64. Your figure is affected by Excel's 15 decimal digit
precision limit.

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 21:57:40 -0700, Harlan Grove wrote:

"David Sauder" wrote...
. . . When selecting 10 numbers out of 64, there are
151,473,214,816 combinations, and a whopping 549,666,001,924,301,000
permutations (if the order of selection of the 10 numbers matters).
...

Permutation count incorrect. There are 549,666,001,924,300,800 permutations
of 10 items from 64. Your figure is affected by Excel's 15 decimal digit
precision limit.

Whoo! 200 less! Now it seems so plausible! <g

Just for kicks, I tested the nested for-next loops - no output, mind
you, just a single variable assignment (o&=a & b & ... & j) and after 60
seconds, it had done something like 10 million. At that rate, it would
only take ~10-1/2 days to finish the whole problem. [rolls eyes]
--
auric underscore underscore at hotmail dot com
*****
There was a war... a war that set the sky on fire.

Auric__ wrote...
Harlan Grove wrote:
"David Sauder" wrote...
...
. . . and a whopping 549,666,001,924,301,000 permutations
...
Permutation count incorrect. There are
549,666,001,924,300,800 permutations. . . .
...

Whoo! 200 less! Now it seems so plausible! <g

Sarcasm aside, problems such as this are better handled with softwar
that uses arbitrary precision. Or did you suppose I calculated th
exact permutation count manually?

Now try storing your intermediate results

--
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com

On 17 Jul 2004 15:30:33 -0700, Mark wrote:

I want to try every combination of 10 numbers out of 1 to 64 (I reckon
there are about 1,300 odd but that is just my intuitive guess rather
than any mathematical knowledge.

I should think there is a for...next loop over a few layers that would
do it but I cannot for the life of me figure it out not having a maths
background. Can anyone help me out?

Kind regards, mark

Can you clarify a bit exactly what you want? I know it may seem pretty
clear, but before I post my (pretty ridiculous-looking) reply, I'd like
to verify that I'm not way out in left field.

I'm interested in that 1,300 figure of yours - if I'm correct in my
thinking of what you want, it's closer to a quarter-quintillion... so to
prevent me from wasting time and bandwidth with a possibly "what the
hell is that" answer, please clarify.
--
auric underscore underscore at hotmail dot com
*****
You see, I am over here, on this page where normal people live and work
and play... while you, on the other hand, are waaaay over here, not only
on a different page but quite possibly in a whole other library...

Duane already posted a macro to do it and others have established that the
number would be much larger.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

"Auric__" wrote in message
...
On 17 Jul 2004 15:30:33 -0700, Mark wrote:

I want to try every combination of 10 numbers out of 1 to 64 (I reckon
there are about 1,300 odd but that is just my intuitive guess rather
than any mathematical knowledge.

I should think there is a for...next loop over a few layers that would
do it but I cannot for the life of me figure it out not having a maths
background. Can anyone help me out?

Kind regards, mark

Can you clarify a bit exactly what you want? I know it may seem pretty
clear, but before I post my (pretty ridiculous-looking) reply, I'd like
to verify that I'm not way out in left field.

I'm interested in that 1,300 figure of yours - if I'm correct in my
thinking of what you want, it's closer to a quarter-quintillion... so to
prevent me from wasting time and bandwidth with a possibly "what the
hell is that" answer, please clarify.
--
auric underscore underscore at hotmail dot com
*****
You see, I am over here, on this page where normal people live and work
and play... while you, on the other hand, are waaaay over here, not only
on a different page but quite possibly in a whole other library...

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 22:27:57 -0400, Tom Ogilvy wrote:

Duane already posted a macro to do it and others have established that the
number would be much larger.

Yes, I know. My @#$% ISP is having "issues" with their servers...
--
auric underscore underscore at hotmail dot com
*****
Before the internet, the village idiot would stay in his own village.