need algorithm name

[drewdaman]

hello all.. been a few days since i visited "the forums"

need some help.

what i would like to do:

-consider an excel sheet. dealing with 5 columns.
-each column has a heading, followed by a bunch of numerical entries
-in the first column i can have 10 possible values, second, 20 possible values, 3rd 5 possible values, 4th 3, and 5th 2 poss values.
-want to write a program to generate all possible combinations of values.

question:
is there a well known algorithm to do this? if so, what is it called? if not, suggestions please.

please do not worry about hooking into excel from c++ etc yet. I have not decided yet whether i will use vba or c++. i'm just looking for an algorithm to do this. also, keep in mind that there is a large number of combinations (which will only get larger in the future- never smaller). there are many other things i have to take into account, so i'm not in the coding phase yet. i just want to see what i can get by way of algorithms so i can plan the rest of the stuff!

i seem to remember from univ courses some sort of good algorithm to do this, but i can't remember! its been a logn time!

thanks!

ps- as much as this sounds like a school assignment, it is not!!!!!!!!!!! i have been done school for a few years!