Generating all “from n choose k” configurations of a simple list [duplicate]

Question

Suppose that I have a 1-D list called myList. Here's an example:

myList = {"A", "B", "C", "D"};

I want to write (or find built-in) a function called getConfigurations that will return all possible "n choose k" lists. Before I explain what I mean by an "n choose k" list, let me just write down the result I would like to obtain from getConfigurations for the list myList given above:

getConfigurations[myList]

{

  (* configurations when ONE element is chosen: k=1 *)
 {{"A"}, {"B"}, {"C"}, {"D"}}, 

  (* configurations when TWO elements are chosen: k=2 *)
 {{"A", "B"}, {"A", "C"}, {"A", "D"}, {"B", "C"}, {"B", "D"}, {"C", "D"}},

  (* configurations when THREE elements are chosen: k=3 *)
 {{"A", "B", "C"}, {"A", "B", "D"}, {"A", "C", "D"}, {"B", "C", "D"}},

  (* configurations when FOUR elements are chosen: k=4 *)
 {{"A", "B", "C", "D"}} 

 }

I am not sure what (if anything) this is called in combinatorics, but it reminds me of the binomial coefficient:

$${n \choose k} = \frac{n!}{k! (n-k)!}$$

which I remember being called the "n choose k" binomial coefficient.

In the example myList given above, $n = 4$ because Length[myList] is 4. For each value of k ($k = 1, 2, 3, 4$), I want to generate all possible configurations. In my case, order does not matter, so for example, {"B", "A"} is indistinguishable from {"A", "B"}.

I think that the formula for $n \choose k$ gives the number of configurations. It turns out that

$${4 \choose 1} = 4$$ $${4 \choose 2} = 6$$ $${4 \choose 3} = 4$$ $${4 \choose 4} = 1$$

which can be seen from Table[Binomial[4, k], {k, 1, 4}].

However, I don't just want the number of possible configurations for each k; instead, I want to actually generate the configurations themselves. Is there a simple and elegant -- or perhaps even built-in -- way to do this?

Answer 1

Subsets does what you want:

myList = {"A", "B", "C", "D"};

Column[Table[{k, Subsets[myList, {k}]}, {k, 1, 4}]]

(*
{1,{{A},{B},{C},{D}}}
{2,{{A,B},{A,C},{A,D},{B,C},{B,D},{C,D}}}
{3,{{A,B,C},{A,B,D},{A,C,D},{B,C,D}}}
{4,{{A,B,C,D}}}
*)