Partition Problem

[Donovan Hide]

Hi,
    thanks for the responses, I can see the ambiguity in the original
question. What I am actually looking for is the enumeration of all the 6
whole numbers greater than 0 that sum to 17.

    After that, another enumeration is required, this time to find all 6
whole numbers greater than 0 that sum to 20. Order is unimportant.

    I have found a book that covers this exact area, Combinatorial
Algorithms by Kreher and Stinson. Their source for the book is at
http://www.math.mtu.edu/~kreher/cages/Src.html

    They have used recursive algorithms to solve this problem and many other
similar partitioning problems I had no idea that existed. However, it is all
coded in C!

    Also working in this area is Frank Ruskey,
http://www.csr.uvic.ca/~fruskey/, who seems to be the main man.

    So, apart from this short bibliography, I am still stuck. I don't want
any of the readers of this newsgroup to do my homework, because this isn't
homework. I am learning Python casually and this problem seemed like a good
starting point for a newbie.

    Waffle aside,
        can someone fill the gaps:

def Partition(n,k):
    res=[[0]*k]                               #results list, each result
nested in the main list
    res[0][0]=(n-k+1)                     #enumerate first result
    for x in range(1,k):
        res[0][x]=1
    step=1
    while 1:                                     #iterate through remaining
possible partitions
        next=NextPartition(n,k,step)
        step=step+1
        if next !=0:
            res.append(next)
        else:
            break
    return res

def NextPartition(n,k,step):
    #generate next possible partition
    #return next possible partition as list

    #if no more partitions left
    return 0

a=Partition(7,4)
print a

[[4, 1, 1, 1], [3, 2, 1, 1],[2,2,2,1]]

Cheers,
Donovan Hide.

P.S. A pint for the winning Algorithm Master!