How to count possible combination for coin problem

Question

I am trying to implement a coin problem, Problem specification is like this

Create a function to count all possible combination of coins which can be used for given amount.

All possible combinations for given amount=15, coin types=1 6 7 
1) 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
2) 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,6,
3) 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,7,
4) 1,1,1,6,6,
5) 1,1,6,7,
6) 1,7,7,

function prototype:

int findCombinationsCount(int amount, int coins[])

assume that coin array is sorted. for above example this function should return 6.

Anyone guide me how to implement this??

Answer 1

Use recursion.

int findCombinationsCount(int amount, int coins[]) {
    return findCombinationsCount(amount, coins, 0);
}

int findCombinationsCount(int amount, int coins[], int checkFromIndex) {
    if (amount == 0)
        return 1;
    else if (amount < 0 || coins.length == checkFromIndex)
        return 0;
    else {
        int withFirstCoin = findCombinationsCount(amount-coins[checkFromIndex], coins, checkFromIndex);
        int withoutFirstCoin = findCombinationsCount(amount, coins, checkFromIndex+1);
        return withFirstCoin + withoutFirstCoin;
    }
}

You should check this implementation though. I don't have a Java IDE here, and I'm a little rusty, so it may have some errors.