Can I Find the Nth Lexicographic Subset in Less Than O(N^2) Time?

Revision en2, by vamaddur, 2017-07-19 15:33:25

Given a set {a, b, c, d}, its non-empty subsets in lexicographic order are as follows: {a, ab, abc, abcd, abd, ac, acd, ad, b, bc, bcd, bd, c, cd, d}

I found an O((sizeofset)^2) method of finding the Nth lexicographically smallest subset here, but I was wondering if there was a faster way to do this.

I know that finding the Nth lexicographically smallest string can be reduced from O((sizeofset)^2) time to O(sizeofset). time, which motivated me to ask this question about a similar reduction for subsets.

Please help, and thanks in advance!

Tags subset, lexicography

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  Rev. Lang. By When Δ Comment
en2 English vamaddur 2017-07-19 15:33:25 35
en1 English vamaddur 2017-07-19 12:19:47 638 Initial revision (published)