--- /dev/null
+%% Copyright (c) 2011 Jordi GutiƩrrez Hermoso <jordigh@octave.org>
+%% Copyright (c) 2011 Juan Pablo Carbajal <carbajal@ifi.uzh.ch>
+%%
+%% This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+%% it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+%% the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+%% any later version.
+%%
+%% This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+%% but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+%% MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+%% GNU General Public License for more details.
+%%
+%% You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+%% along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+%% -*- texinfo -*-
+%% @deftypefn {Function File} {@var{alpha} =} multinom_exp (@var{m}, @var{n})
+%% @deftypefnx {Function File} {@var{alpha} =} multinom_exp (@var{m}, @var{n},@var{sort})
+%% Returns the exponents of the terms in the multinomial expansion
+%% @tex
+%% $$
+%% (x_1 + x_2 + ... + x_m).^n
+%% $$
+%% @end tex
+%% @ifnottex
+%%
+%% @example
+%% (x1 + x2 + ... + xm).^@var{n}
+%% @end example
+%%
+%% @end ifnottex
+%%
+%% For example, for m=2, n=3 the expansion has the terms
+%% @tex
+%% $$
+%% x1^3, x2^3, x1^2*x2, x1*x2^2
+%% $$
+%% @end tex
+%% @ifnottex
+%%
+%% @example
+%% x1^3, x2^3, x1^2*x2, x1*x2^2
+%% @end example
+%%
+%% @end ifnottex
+%%
+%% then @code{alpha = [3 0; 2 1; 1 2; 0 3]};
+%%
+%% The optional argument @var{sort} is passed to function @code{sort} to
+%% sort the exponents by the maximum degree.
+%% The example above calling @code{ multinom(m,n,"ascend")} produces
+%%
+%% @code{alpha = [2 1; 1 2; 3 0; 0 3]};
+%%
+%% calling @code{ multinom(m,n,"descend")} produces
+%%
+%% @code{alpha = [3 0; 0 3; 2 1; 1 2]};
+%%
+%% @seealso{multinom, multinom_coeff, sort}
+%% @end deftypefn
+
+function alpha = multinom_exp(m, n, sortmethod)
+
+ %% This is standard stars and bars.
+ numsymbols = m+n-1;
+ stars = nchoosek (1:numsymbols, n);
+
+ %% Star labels minus their consecutive position becomes their index
+ %% position!
+ idx = bsxfun (@minus, stars, [0:n-1]);
+
+ %% Manipulate indices into the proper shape for accumarray.
+ nr = size (idx, 1);
+ a = repmat ([1:nr], n, 1);
+ b = idx';
+ idx = [a(:), b(:)];
+
+ alpha = accumarray (idx, 1);
+
+ if nargin > 2
+ [~, idx] = sort (max (alpha, [], 2), 1, sortmethod);
+ alpha = alpha(idx, :);
+ end
+end
+
+%!demo
+%! m=2;
+%! n=3;
+%! alpha = multinom_exp(m,n)
+%! alpha_asc = multinom_exp(m,n,'ascend')
+%! alpha_dec = multinom_exp(m,n,'descend')