From: Aric Campbell <ajcampbell0128@...>
Date: 2007-08-10T23:19:55+09:00
Subject: simple cipher solver, finding all possible key combinations

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I am trying to find every possible combination of the letters of the alphabet to create a file by a program to solve simple replacement ciphers. There shouldn't be any repeats of letters in the combination (i.e. a can only occur once in a given combination). 

I had thought of using the code below to get every possible combination and, even though it contains duplicate letters in the combinations it generates, I was going to prune those out. The problem is that it would take a very considerable number of years before the program finishes. Anyone know of an algorithm that I could use to generate the possibilities in a more timely manner?



class Value
  def initialize val='a'
    @value = val
  end
  
  def == rhs    
    if rhs.class != self.class
      return false
      
    end    
    rhs.value == self.value    
  end
  
  def next
    if @value == 'z'
      self.reset
    else
      @value = @value.next
    end
  end
  
  def reset
    @value = 'a'
  end
  
  def value
    @value
  end
  
end




class Set
  def initialize
    @buffer = []
    26.times {@buffer << Value.new} 
   end
  
  def value
    @buffer
    
    temp = []
    
    @buffer.each{|a| temp << a.value}
    
    temp
  end
  
  def exausted?
    @buffer.each do |a|
      if a.value != 'z'
        return false
      end      
    end
    return true   
  end
  
  def next
    cursor = 1
    
    
    while true
      if @buffer.last(cursor)[0].value == 'z'
      
        @buffer.last(cursor)[0].next()      
        cursor += 1
        @buffer.last(cursor)[0].next()
      
      else
        @buffer.last(cursor)[0].next()
        break
      end
    end
    self.value
    
  end
  
end


#################################################################
#################################################################


s = Set.new
f = open "sets.out",'w'

f << s.value


while s.exausted? == false
  f << s.next << "\n"
end



       
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