#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; use feature qw{ say }; my %ops = map eval "'$_' => sub { \$_[0] $_ \$_[1] }", qw( + - * / ); sub show { my ($x, $op, $y) = @{ $_[0] }[ 1 .. 3 ]; return join q(), '(', $#$x ? show($x) : $x->[0], $op, $#$y ? show($y) : $y->[0], ')' } my %shown; sub num { my ($result, @nums) = @_; if (1 == @nums) { if ($result == $nums[0][0]) { my $r = show($nums[0]); say $r unless $shown{$r}; $shown{$r} = 1; } return } for my $i (0 .. $#nums - 1) { for my $j ($i + 1 .. $#nums) { for my $op (keys %ops) { my @couples = ([ $i, $j ]); push @couples, [ $j, $i ] if $op !~ /[+*]/; for my $couple (@couples) { my ($x, $y) = @$couple; next if '/' eq $op && 0 == $nums[$y][0]; my $r = $ops{$op}->(map $_->[0], @nums[ $x, $y ]); num($result, [ $r, $nums[$x], $op, $nums[$y] ], @nums[grep $_ != $x && $_ != $y, 0 .. $#nums]); } } } } } num(17, map [$_], 2, 5, 6, 6);