Algorithm to generate all possible permutations of

Question

Say I have a list of n elements, I know there are n! possible ways to order these elements. What is an algorithm to generate all possible orderings of this list? Example, I have list [a, b, c]. The algorithm would return [[a, b, c], [a, c, b,], [b, a, c], [b, c, a], [c, a, b], [c, b, a]].

I'm reading this here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation#Algorithms_to_generate_permutations

But Wikipedia has never been good at explaining. I don't understand much of it.

Answer 1

#!/usr/bin/env python
import time

def permutations(sequence):
  # print sequence
  unit = [1, 2, 1, 2, 1]

  if len(sequence) >= 4:
    for i in range(4, (len(sequence) + 1)):
      unit = ((unit + [i - 1]) * i)[:-1]
      # print unit
    for j in unit:
      temp = sequence[j]
      sequence[j] = sequence[0]
      sequence[0] = temp
      yield sequence
  else:
    print 'You can use PEN and PAPER'


# s = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
s = [x for x in 'PYTHON']

print s

z = permutations(s)
try:
  while True:
    # time.sleep(0.0001)
    print next(z)
except StopIteration:
    print 'Done'

---

['P', 'Y', 'T', 'H', 'O', 'N']
['Y', 'P', 'T', 'H', 'O', 'N']
['T', 'P', 'Y', 'H', 'O', 'N']
['P', 'T', 'Y', 'H', 'O', 'N']
['Y', 'T', 'P', 'H', 'O', 'N']
['T', 'Y', 'P', 'H', 'O', 'N']
['H', 'Y', 'P', 'T', 'O', 'N']
['Y', 'H', 'P', 'T', 'O', 'N']
['P', 'H', 'Y', 'T', 'O', 'N']
['H', 'P', 'Y', 'T', 'O', 'N']
['Y', 'P', 'H', 'T', 'O', 'N']
['P', 'Y', 'H', 'T', 'O', 'N']
['T', 'Y', 'H', 'P', 'O', 'N']
['Y', 'T', 'H', 'P', 'O', 'N']
['H', 'T', 'Y', 'P', 'O', 'N']
['T', 'H', 'Y', 'P', 'O', 'N']
['Y', 'H', 'T', 'P', 'O', 'N']
['H', 'Y', 'T', 'P', 'O', 'N']
['P', 'Y', 'T', 'H', 'O', 'N']
.
.
.
['Y', 'T', 'N', 'H', 'O', 'P']
['N', 'T', 'Y', 'H', 'O', 'P']
['T', 'N', 'Y', 'H', 'O', 'P']
['Y', 'N', 'T', 'H', 'O', 'P']
['N', 'Y', 'T', 'H', 'O', 'P']

Answer 2

In Scala

    def permutazione(n: List[Int]): List[List[Int]] = permutationeAcc(n, Nil)



def permutationeAcc(n: List[Int], acc: List[Int]): List[List[Int]] = {

    var result: List[List[Int]] = Nil
    for (i ← n if (!(acc contains (i))))
        if (acc.size == n.size-1)
            result = (i :: acc) :: result
        else
            result = result ::: permutationeAcc(n, i :: acc)
    result
}

Answer 3

this is a java version for permutation

public class Permutation {

    static void permute(String str) {
        permute(str.toCharArray(), 0, str.length());
    }

    static void permute(char [] str, int low, int high) {
        if (low == high) {
            System.out.println(str);
            return;
        }

        for (int i=low; i<high; i++) {
            swap(str, i, low);
            permute(str, low+1, high);
            swap(str, low, i);
        }

    }

    static void swap(char [] array, int i, int j) {
        char t = array[i];
        array[i] = array[j];
        array[j] = t;
    }
}

Answer 4

Another one in Python, it's not in place as @cdiggins's, but I think it's easier to understand

def permute(num):
    if len(num) == 2:
        # get the permutations of the last 2 numbers by swapping them
        yield num
        num[0], num[1] = num[1], num[0]
        yield num
    else:
        for i in range(0, len(num)):
            # fix the first number and get the permutations of the rest of numbers
            for perm in permute(num[0:i] + num[i+1:len(num)]):
                yield [num[i]] + perm

for p in permute([1, 2, 3, 4]):
    print p

Answer 5

I was thinking of writing a code for getting the permutations of any given integer of any size, i.e., providing a number 4567 we get all possible permutations till 7654...So i worked on it and found an algorithm and finally implemented it, Here is the code written in "c". You can simply copy it and run on any open source compilers. But some flaws are waiting to be debugged. Please appreciate.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <malloc.h>

                //PROTOTYPES

int fact(int);                  //For finding the factorial
void swap(int*,int*);           //Swapping 2 given numbers
void sort(int*,int);            //Sorting the list from the specified path
int imax(int*,int,int);         //Finding the value of imax
int jsmall(int*,int);           //Gives position of element greater than ith but smaller than rest (ahead of imax)
void perm();                    //All the important tasks are done in this function


int n;                         //Global variable for input OR number of digits

void main()
{
int c=0;

printf("Enter the number : ");
scanf("%d",&c);
perm(c);
getch();
}

void perm(int c){
int *p;                     //Pointer for allocating separate memory to every single entered digit like arrays
int i, d;               
int sum=0;
int j, k;
long f;

n = 0;

while(c != 0)               //this one is for calculating the number of digits in the entered number
{
    sum = (sum * 10) + (c % 10);
    n++;                            //as i told at the start of loop
    c = c / 10;
}

f = fact(n);                        //It gives the factorial value of any number

p = (int*) malloc(n*sizeof(int));                //Dynamically allocation of array of n elements

for(i=0; sum != 0 ; i++)
{
    *(p+i) = sum % 10;                               //Giving values in dynamic array like 1234....n separately
    sum = sum / 10;
}

sort(p,-1);                                         //For sorting the dynamic array "p"

for(c=0 ; c<f/2 ; c++) {                        //Most important loop which prints 2 numbers per loop, so it goes upto 1/2 of fact(n)

    for(k=0 ; k<n ; k++)
        printf("%d",p[k]);                       //Loop for printing one of permutations
    printf("\n");

    i = d = 0;
    i = imax(p,i,d);                            //provides the max i as per algo (i am restricted to this only)
    j = i;
    j = jsmall(p,j);                            //provides smallest i val as per algo
    swap(&p[i],&p[j]);

    for(k=0 ; k<n ; k++)
        printf("%d",p[k]);
    printf("\n");

    i = d = 0;
    i = imax(p,i,d);
    j = i;
    j = jsmall(p,j);
    swap(&p[i],&p[j]);

    sort(p,i);
}
free(p);                                        //Deallocating memory
}

int fact (int a)
{
long f=1;
while(a!=0)
{
    f = f*a;
    a--;
}
return f;
}


void swap(int *p1,int *p2)
{
int temp;
temp = *p1;
*p1 = *p2;
*p2 = temp;
return;
}


void sort(int*p,int t)
{
int i,temp,j;
for(i=t+1 ; i<n-1 ; i++)
{
    for(j=i+1 ; j<n ; j++)
    {
        if(*(p+i) > *(p+j))
        {
            temp = *(p+i);
            *(p+i) = *(p+j);
            *(p+j) = temp;
        }
    }
}
}


int imax(int *p, int i , int d)
{
    while(i<n-1 && d<n-1)
{
    if(*(p+d) < *(p+d+1))
    {   
        i = d;
        d++;
    }
    else
        d++;
}
return i;
}


int jsmall(int *p, int j)
{
int i,small = 32767,k = j;
for (i=j+1 ; i<n ; i++)
{
    if (p[i]<small && p[i]>p[k])
    {     
       small = p[i];
       j = i;
    }
}
return j;
}

Answer 6

You can't really talk about solving a permultation problem in recursion without posting an implementation in a (dialect of) language that pioneered the idea. So, for the sake of completeness, here is one of the ways that can be done in Scheme.

(define (permof wd)
  (cond ((null? wd) '())
        ((null? (cdr wd)) (list wd))
        (else
         (let splice ([l '()] [m (car wd)] [r (cdr wd)])
           (append
            (map (lambda (x) (cons m x)) (permof (append l r)))
            (if (null? r)
                '()
                (splice (cons m l) (car r) (cdr r))))))))

calling (permof (list "foo" "bar" "baz")) we'll get:

'(("foo" "bar" "baz")
  ("foo" "baz" "bar")
  ("bar" "foo" "baz")
  ("bar" "baz" "foo")
  ("baz" "bar" "foo")
  ("baz" "foo" "bar"))

I won't go into the algorithm details because it's been explained enough in other posts. The idea is the same.

However, recursive problems tend to be much harder to model and think about in destructive medium like Python, C, and Java, while in Lisp or ML it can be concisely expressed.