Using letters $(a,b,c,d,e)$ how many distinct $n$ length words can be formed ? Note that every word can contain same letter $m$ times at most.
For: $n=3, m=2 $ $$Answer=5∗5∗5−5=120$$ (all combinations except $aaa,bbb,ccc,ddd,eee$).
How many n-letter distinct words can be formed using at most m repeated letter?
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combinatorics
permutations
combinations
1 Answers
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This is equivalent to asking about the number of partitions of $\{1,\dots,n\}$ to at most $5$ parts (assuming your alphabet is of size $5$), where each size is of size at most $m$. See here:
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2The Gaussian binomial coefficients enumerate integer partitions. I don't see how that helps here because this question is closer to counting set partitions with restricted size. For this we can use *egf*s $\sum\limits_{k=a}^{b}\frac{x^k}{k!}$. Here $a$ is the minimum number of times a letter is used and $b$ is the maximum. We have an *egf* for each letter then multiply them and evaluate the coefficient of $\frac{x^n}{n!}$, this is then the count required. – 2017-02-16