Macro to scan through groups of combinations for numbers not in the group

Hi All,

I am not sure if this is feasible. I am trying to find a group of 20 to 30 combinations in a group of 50 combinations that doesn't consist of 6 to 10 of the numbers in 1 to 52.

I.E. below I have 50 combinations of numbers 1 to 52...

5 8 15 26 36 47
14 24 25 35 43 48
7 19 29 32 35 45
17 19 20 32 39 41
1 2 27 31 32 39
16 18 20 26 28 29
28 32 33 40 49 51
14 20 26 27 28 39
2 8 39 44 49 50
6 25 26 35 39 50
16 19 20 25 43 52
2 3 32 34 39 47
11 17 25 26 35 49
14 17 32 38 46 49
1 5 12 14 27 30
5 12 22 26 31 47
2 8 18 38 39 46
6 7 18 30 47 50
15 20 23 30 44 50
1 7 11 34 48 52
13 14 30 31 38 47
2 3 19 29 32 47
3 7 21 35 42 50
4 8 18 33 49 50
5 6 7 9 12 19
9 16 17 33 34 36
13 15 20 27 46 49
8 10 12 34 40 48
11 19 21 34 39 47
18 25 29 35 38 51
1 4 5 17 27 38
4 18 19 24 31 32
4 15 19 23 24 25
9 23 25 34 37 51
9 20 24 36 44 46
10 23 30 43 47 52
5 6 15 16 39 44
3 4 7 9 25 44
4 5 7 26 33 45
5 18 19 30 40 50
2 5 24 33 37 39
3 6 13 14 17 35
12 19 24 28 30 39
18 35 36 39 45 47
7 10 22 31 36 37
5 12 15 35 38 50
11 20 24 35 39 49
5 7 10 15 36 37
13 21 31 38 39 40
8 18 21 25 40 45

For the above of 50 combinations, I would like a macro to scan through all possible combinations of 20 to 30 combinations to look for a group of combinations that is missing 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 numbers in 1 to 52.

So its like the marco will prompt me asking how many combinations I want to scan through that 50 combinations. Maybe I enter 25 and it will look through all possible combinations of 25 in the 50 combinations for a group of combination that is missing 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 numbers in 1 to 52.

For the above case, I know excel would have to look through 126410606437752 groups of 25 combinations to look for 1 group of combination that has 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 missing numbers in 1 to 52, so I was wondering is it possible.

Thanks in advance for the help/advise.

Flex

It is unclear to me what you need. Where are the numbers stored and how?

=COMBIN(52,6)= 20,358,520 combinations. Obviously, not even excel2007 can handle that many rows. One typically puts each number into a cell. So, 52x6 would have 6 columns and 20,358,520 rows if that were possible.

I have stored these kinds of numbers in a text file but one can store them in other file formats like MDB. If you had your combinations in an MDB table, it might make your query a bit easier and faster.

Thanks for the replies, Mrice and Kenneth Hobson.

I am after a single group of say 26 combinations out of 50 combinations that satisfy the criteria of missing 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 numbers in the range of 1 to 52.

I.E. The 26 combinations below do not have the numbers 2 15 21 22 23 37 42 47

14 24 25 35 43 48
7 19 29 32 35 45
17 19 20 32 39 41
16 18 20 26 28 29
28 32 33 40 49 51
14 20 26 27 28 39
6 25 26 35 39 50
16 19 20 25 43 52
11 17 25 26 35 49
14 17 32 38 46 49
1 5 12 14 27 30
1 7 11 34 48 52
4 8 18 33 49 50
5 6 7 9 12 19
9 16 17 33 34 36
8 10 12 34 40 48
18 25 29 35 38 51
1 4 5 17 27 38
4 18 19 24 31 32
9 20 24 36 44 46
3 4 7 9 25 44
4 5 7 26 33 45
5 18 19 30 40 50
3 6 13 14 17 35
12 19 24 28 30 39
11 20 24 35 39 49

What I want is for the macro to turn out the group of combinations that does not have the 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 numbers. Or rather what I want are the missing numbers in that group of combinations

So it's like the macro can prompt me for the number of combinations I want to search through the 50 combinations and say I enter 25 and it will search for a particular group of 25 combinations that does not have 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 numbers in the range of 1 to 52.

I know excel would have to search through 126410606437752 groups of 25 combinations in 50 combinations to find that one group that does not have 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 numbers which I doubt excel is able to handle but just thought I ask anyway.

Thanks again for the help.