I have the full code answer below, and here's the explanation:
Essentially you need to break this problem down to a recurrence. What that means is, you look at the choice at each step (i.e. whether to use a number or not in the sum) and recursively calculate both options.
The base case:
If num == 0 then we know it's true. But if num != 0 and the array has length 0, then we know it's false
Recursive case:
We check if the first number in the array is less than or equal to num. If not, then we can't use it. So we do a recursive call with all the same parameters except the array is now the original array minus the first number
If we CAN use the number (i.e. a[0] <= num) then the true answer might use this or it may not use it. We make a recursive call for each case, and return true if either of the recursive calls return true.
The consecutive number rule:
This is easy to enforce. We add a parameter called 'left' which tells us the number of elements we can consecutively take from the beginning of the array. To start with, left is 2 because at most we can take 2 consecutive numbers. Then in the cases where we DO use the first number in the array in our sum, we decrement left. If we don't use the first number in the array, we reset left to 2. In the cases where left becomes 0, we have no choice but to skip the current number at the top of the array.
class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] a = new int[] {5,4,2,1,3};
System.out.println(sumRule(a, 8));
System.out.println(sumRule(a, 11));
}
public static boolean sumRule(int[] a , int num){
if (num == 0){
return true;
} else {
return sumRule(a,num,2);
}
}
private static boolean sumRule(int[] a, int num, int left){
if (num == 0) {
return true;
}
if (a.length == 0) {
return false;
}
int[] a_new = new int[a.length-1];
for (int i = 1; i < a.length; i++) a_new[i-1] = a[i];
if (left == 0) {
return sumRule(a_new, num, 2);
}
boolean using_a0 = false;
if (a[0] <= num) {
using_a0 = sumRule(a_new, num-a[0], left-1);
}
boolean not_using_a0 = sumRule(a_new, num, 2);
return (not_using_a0 || using_a0);
}
}
Edit - A variation on the code above without copying the array:
class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] a = new int[] {5,4,2,1,3};
System.out.println(sumRule(a, 8));
System.out.println(sumRule(a, 11));
}
public static boolean sumRule(int[] a , int num){
if (num == 0){
return true;
} else {
return sumRuleNoLoop(a,num,2,0);
}
}
private static boolean sumRuleNoLoop(int[] a, int num, int left, int startIdx){
if (num == 0) {
return true;
}
if (startIdx >= a.length) {
return false;
}
if (left == 0) {
return sumRuleNoLoop(a, num, 2, startIdx+1);
}
boolean using_a0 = false;
if (a[startIdx] <= num) {
using_a0 = sumRuleNoLoop(a, num-a[startIdx], left-1, startIdx+1);
}
boolean not_using_a0 = sumRuleNoLoop(a, num, 2, startIdx+1);
return (not_using_a0 || using_a0);
}
}
