Calculates the number of combinations from choosing r elements from a set of n total elements. The function takes advantage of the fact that the number of combinations is symmetric (based on r) to avoid calculating large numbers when possible.
public long Factorial(long x, long lowerBound)
{
long fact = 1;
while (x >= 1 && x > lowerBound)
{
fact *= x;
x--;
}
return fact;
}
public long Choose(long n, long r)
{
return (long)((double)Factorial(n, Math.Max(n - r, r)) / (Factorial(Math.Min(n - r, r))));
}