In computer science, the subset sum problem is an important problem in complexity theory and cryptography. The problem is this: given a set of integers, is there a non-empty subset whose sum is zero? For example, given the set { −7, −3, −2, 5, 8}, the answer is yes because the subset { −3, −2, 5} sums to zero. The problem is NP-complete.
An equivalent problem is this: given a set of integers and an integer s, does any non-empty subset sum to s? Subset sum can also be thought of as a special case of the knapsack problem. One interesting special case of subset sum is the partition problem, in which s is half of the sum of all elements in the set.
Read more about Subset Sum Problem: Complexity, Exponential Time Algorithm, Pseudo-polynomial Time Dynamic Programming Solution, Polynomial Time Approximate Algorithm, Further Reading
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“but Overall is beyond me: is the sum of these events
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)