Find Powerset in Python
- Use the Iterative Approach to Get a Powerset in Python
-
Use the
itertools.combinations
Function to Find a Powerset in Python - Use the List Comprehension Method to Find a Powerset in Python
- Use the Recursive Method to Find a Powerset in Python

In mathematics, a power set of any set is a set that contains all the possible subsets of a given set along with an empty set. In other words, all subsets of a set is also known as a powerset. There can be a power set of lists, sets, strings, etc., in Python.
In this tutorial, we will find the power set of a given set in Python.
Use the Iterative Approach to Get a Powerset in Python
Though we can use both recursive approach and iterative approach to find a powerset, the iterative approach is preferred over recursive as it a faster process.
We use a nested for
loop to create such a powerset.
For example,
def powerset(fullset):
listsub = list(fullset)
subsets = []
for i in range(2**len(listsub)):
subset = []
for k in range(len(listsub)):
if i & 1<<k:
subset.append(listsub[k])
subsets.append(subset)
return subsets
subsets = powerset(set([1,2,3,4]))
print(subsets)
print(len(subsets))
Output:
[[], [1], [2], [1, 2], [3], [1, 3], [2, 3], [1, 2, 3], [4], [1, 4], [2, 4], [1, 2, 4], [3, 4], [1, 3, 4], [2, 3, 4], [1, 2, 3, 4]]
16
Use the itertools.combinations
Function to Find a Powerset in Python
itertools
is a module in Python used to iterate over data structures. These data structures are also known as iterables. They can be stepped over by using for-loop.
The combinations
function from this module can create combinations of a set to create a powerset.
See the code below.
from itertools import combinations
def powerset(string):
n = len(string)
for i in range(0,n+1):
for element in combinations(string,i):
print(''.join(element))
string=['x','y','z']
powerset(string)
Output:
x
y
z
xy
xz
yz
xyz
Use the List Comprehension Method to Find a Powerset in Python
List Comprehension is a way to create new lists based on the existing list. It offers a shorter syntax being more compact and faster than the other functions and loops used for creating a list.
We use a nested for
loop in this method also.
For example,
def get_subsets(fullset):
listrep = list(fullset)
n = len(listrep)
return [[listrep[k] for k in range(n) if i&1<<k] for i in range(2**n)]
string=['x','y','z']
print(get_subsets(string))
Output:
[[], ['x'], ['y'], ['x', 'y'], ['z'], ['x', 'z'], ['y', 'z'], ['x', 'y', 'z']]
Use the Recursive Method to Find a Powerset in Python
The recursive method is a method where a function keeps on invoking itself with different arguments. We can create a recursive function to find the powerset of a set.
For example,
def powerSet(string , index , c):
if index == len(string):
print(c)
return
powerSet(string, index + 1,
c + string[index])
powerSet(string, index + 1, c)
s1 = ["a","b","c"]
index = 0
c = ""
powerSet(s1, index , c)
Output:
abc
ab
ac
a
bc
b
c