SubsetFinder PHP Package

A dependency-free PHP package for finding subsets within collections based on quantity criteria.

Given a pool of items with quantities, it answers: "How many complete sets can I build, which items go into them, and what is left over?" — useful for bundle pricing, cart discounts ("buy 5 of X and 2 of Y"), and inventory allocation.

▶ See it in action — five practical use cases (cart promotions, gift boxes, assembly, capacity planning, shared stock) with output captured from the actual package. The page is generated by php docs/build.php.

Features

• Pure arithmetic solver: quantities are never expanded into unit items, so memory stays flat and quantities in the billions solve in milliseconds
• Overlap aware: subsets sharing the same item ids draw from a shared pool and are never double counted
• Flexible ordering: allocate cheapest (or any sort order) items first
• Type safe: PHP 8.2+, strict Subsetable interface
• Zero dependencies: plain PHP; accepts arrays or any iterable (including Laravel collections)

Installation

composer require ozdemir/subset-finder

Quick Start

use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\Subset;
use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\SubsetCollection;
use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\SubsetFinder;
use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\SubsetFinderConfig;

// Define your collection and subset criteria.
// Any iterable works: a plain array, a generator, or a Laravel collection.
$collection = [
    new Product(id: 1, quantity: 11, price: 15),
    new Product(id: 2, quantity: 6, price: 5),
    new Product(id: 3, quantity: 6, price: 5),
];

$subsetCollection = new SubsetCollection([
    Subset::of([1, 2])->take(5), // Each set needs 5 items from products 1 and 2
    Subset::of([3])->take(2),    // ...and 2 items from product 3
]);

// Allocate the cheapest items first
$config = new SubsetFinderConfig(sortField: 'price');

$subsetFinder = new SubsetFinder($collection, $subsetCollection, $config);
$subsetFinder->solve();

$subsetFinder->getSubsetQuantity(); // 3 — max number of complete sets
$subsetFinder->getFoundSubsets();   // Subsetable[] — id 2 ×6, id 1 ×9, id 3 ×6 (cheapest first)
$subsetFinder->getRemaining();      // Subsetable[] — id 1 ×2 left over

The Subsetable interface

Collection items must implement Subsetable:

use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\Subsetable;

class Product implements Subsetable
{
    public function __construct(
        public int|string $id,
        public int $quantity,
        public float $price,
    ) {
    }

    public function getId(): int|string
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    public function getQuantity(): int
    {
        return $this->quantity;
    }

    public function setQuantity(int $quantity): void
    {
        $this->quantity = $quantity;
    }
}

Item ids and quantities are read through the interface, so your property names don't matter. Only sortField in the config refers to a property of your objects.

Configuration

$config = new SubsetFinderConfig(
    sortField: 'price',    // Property used to order allocation (default: 'id')
    sortDescending: false  // Ascending = cheapest first (default)
);

Using the Trait

Add subset operations to any iterable collection class of your own — for example a Laravel collection:

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\Traits\HasSubsetOperations;

class ProductCollection extends Collection
{
    use HasSubsetOperations;
}

$products = new ProductCollection([/* Subsetable items */]);

$subsetFinder = $products->findSubsets($subsetCollection);
$products->canSatisfySubsets($subsetCollection);   // bool
$products->getMaxSubsetQuantity($subsetCollection); // int

Other methods

$subsetFinder->getSubsetItems(10);          // First 10 units in sort order
$subsetFinder->isOptimal();                 // true if nothing is left over
$subsetFinder->getEfficiencyPercentage();   // Used / total quantity
$subsetFinder->getPerformanceMetrics();     // Timing and counts of the last solve()

When it fits

The solver models fungible quantity pools: units of the same id are interchangeable, and an item's quantity can split freely across sets (goods, portions, hours, credits). It does not model per-set distinctness — if each set needs N different individuals (e.g. two distinct people per shift), that's an assignment problem, not a quantity pool.

How it works

1. Quantities are aggregated per item id; items are sorted by sortField.
2. The maximum number of complete sets is found by binary search. For each candidate, subsets claim quantities from the shared pool in definition order, consuming items in sort order.
3. The winning allocation becomes getFoundSubsets(); whatever is left becomes getRemaining().

The solver never materializes individual units, so runtime and memory depend on the number of distinct items, not their quantities.

Error Handling

use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\Exceptions\InsufficientQuantityException;
use Ozdemir\SubsetFinder\Exceptions\InvalidArgumentException;

try {
    $subsetFinder = new SubsetFinder($collection, $subsetCollection);
    $subsetFinder->solve();
} catch (InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    // Empty collection, or items not implementing Subsetable
} catch (InsufficientQuantityException $e) {
    // Not even one complete set can be built
}

Testing

# Run tests
composer test

# Run tests with coverage
composer test-coverage

# Run static analysis
composer analyse

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.