Generating all permutations of a given string

Question

What is an elegant way to find all the permutations of a string. E.g. permutation for ba, would be ba and ab, but what about longer string such as abcdefgh? Is there any Java implementation example?

Answer 1

public static void permutation(String str) { 
    permutation("", str); 
}

private static void permutation(String prefix, String str) {
    int n = str.length();
    if (n == 0) System.out.println(prefix);
    else {
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
            permutation(prefix + str.charAt(i), str.substring(0, i) + str.substring(i+1, n));
    }
}

(via Introduction to Programming in Java)

Answer 2

Use recursion.

• Try each of the letters in turn as the first letter and then find all the permutations of the remaining letters using a recursive call.
• The base case is when the input is an empty string the only permutation is the empty string.

Answer 3

Here is my solution that is based on the idea of the book "Cracking the Coding Interview" (P54):

/**
 * List permutations of a string.
 * 
 * @param s the input string
 * @return  the list of permutations
 */
public static ArrayList<String> permutation(String s) {
    // The result
    ArrayList<String> res = new ArrayList<String>();
    // If input string's length is 1, return {s}
    if (s.length() == 1) {
        res.add(s);
    } else if (s.length() > 1) {
        int lastIndex = s.length() - 1;
        // Find out the last character
        String last = s.substring(lastIndex);
        // Rest of the string
        String rest = s.substring(0, lastIndex);
        // Perform permutation on the rest string and
        // merge with the last character
        res = merge(permutation(rest), last);
    }
    return res;
}

/**
 * @param list a result of permutation, e.g. {"ab", "ba"}
 * @param c    the last character
 * @return     a merged new list, e.g. {"cab", "acb" ... }
 */
public static ArrayList<String> merge(ArrayList<String> list, String c) {
    ArrayList<String> res = new ArrayList<>();
    // Loop through all the string in the list
    for (String s : list) {
        // For each string, insert the last character to all possible positions
        // and add them to the new list
        for (int i = 0; i <= s.length(); ++i) {
            String ps = new StringBuffer(s).insert(i, c).toString();
            res.add(ps);
        }
    }
    return res;
}

---

Running output of string "abcd":

• Step 1: Merge [a] and b: [ba, ab]

• Step 2: Merge [ba, ab] and c: [cba, bca, bac, cab, acb, abc]

• Step 3: Merge [cba, bca, bac, cab, acb, abc] and d: [dcba, cdba, cbda, cbad, dbca, bdca, bcda, bcad, dbac, bdac, badc, bacd, dcab, cdab, cadb, cabd, dacb, adcb, acdb, acbd, dabc, adbc, abdc, abcd]

Answer 4

Of all the solutions given here and in other forums, I liked Mark Byers the most. That description actually made me think and code it myself. Too bad I cannot voteup his solution as I am newbie.
Anyways here is my implementation of his description

public class PermTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String str = "abcdef";
        StringBuffer strBuf = new StringBuffer(str);
        doPerm(strBuf,0);
    }

    private static void doPerm(StringBuffer str, int index){

        if(index == str.length())
            System.out.println(str);            
        else { //recursively solve this by placing all other chars at current first pos
            doPerm(str, index+1);
            for (int i = index+1; i < str.length(); i++) {//start swapping all other chars with current first char
                swap(str,index, i);
                doPerm(str, index+1);
                swap(str,i, index);//restore back my string buffer
            }
        }
    }

    private  static void swap(StringBuffer str, int pos1, int pos2){
        char t1 = str.charAt(pos1);
        str.setCharAt(pos1, str.charAt(pos2));
        str.setCharAt(pos2, t1);
    }
}   

I prefer this solution ahead of the first one in this thread because this solution uses StringBuffer. I wouldn't say my solution doesn't create any temporary string (it actually does in system.out.println where the toString() of StringBuffer is called). But I just feel this is better than the first solution where too many string literals are created. May be some performance guy out there can evalute this in terms of 'memory' (for 'time' it already lags due to that extra 'swap')

Answer 5

A very basic solution in Java is to use recursion + Set ( to avoid repetitions ) if you want to store and return the solution strings :

public static Set<String> generatePerm(String input)
{
    Set<String> set = new HashSet<String>();
    if (input == "")
        return set;

    Character a = input.charAt(0);

    if (input.length() > 1)
    {
        input = input.substring(1);

        Set<String> permSet = generatePerm(input);

        for (String x : permSet)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i <= x.length(); i++)
            {
                set.add(x.substring(0, i) + a + x.substring(i));
            }
        }
    }
    else
    {
        set.add(a + "");
    }
    return set;
}

Answer 6

All the previous contributors have done a great job explaining and providing the code. I thought I should share this approach too because it might help someone too. The solution is based on (heaps' algorithm )

Couple of things:

1. Notice the last item which is depicted in the excel is just for helping you better visualize the logic. So, the actual values in the last column would be 2,1,0 (if we were to run the code because we are dealing with arrays and arrays start with 0).

2. The swapping algorithm happens based on even or odd values of current position. It's very self explanatory if you look at where the swap method is getting called.You can see what's going on.

Here is what happens:

public static void main(String[] args) {

        String ourword = "abc";
        String[] ourArray = ourword.split("");
        permute(ourArray, ourArray.length);

    }

    private static void swap(String[] ourarray, int right, int left) {
        String temp = ourarray[right];
        ourarray[right] = ourarray[left];
        ourarray[left] = temp;
    }

    public static void permute(String[] ourArray, int currentPosition) {
        if (currentPosition == 1) {
            System.out.println(Arrays.toString(ourArray));
        } else {
            for (int i = 0; i < currentPosition; i++) {
                // subtract one from the last position (here is where you are
                // selecting the the next last item 
                permute(ourArray, currentPosition - 1);

                // if it's odd position
                if (currentPosition % 2 == 1) {
                    swap(ourArray, 0, currentPosition - 1);
                } else {
                    swap(ourArray, i, currentPosition - 1);
                }
            }
        }
    }

Answer 7

Let's use input abc as an example.

Start off with just the last element (c) in a set (["c"]), then add the second last element (b) to its front, end and every possible positions in the middle, making it ["bc", "cb"] and then in the same manner it will add the next element from the back (a) to each string in the set making it:

"a" + "bc" = ["abc", "bac", "bca"]  and  "a" + "cb" = ["acb" ,"cab", "cba"] 

Thus entire permutation:

["abc", "bac", "bca","acb" ,"cab", "cba"]

Code:

public class Test 
{
    static Set<String> permutations;
    static Set<String> result = new HashSet<String>();

    public static Set<String> permutation(String string) {
        permutations = new HashSet<String>();

        int n = string.length();
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--) 
        {
            shuffle(string.charAt(i));
        }
        return permutations;
    }

    private static void shuffle(char c) {
        if (permutations.size() == 0) {
            permutations.add(String.valueOf(c));
        } else {
            Iterator<String> it = permutations.iterator();
            for (int i = 0; i < permutations.size(); i++) {

                String temp1;
                for (; it.hasNext();) {
                    temp1 = it.next();
                    for (int k = 0; k < temp1.length() + 1; k += 1) {
                        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(temp1);

                        sb.insert(k, c);

                        result.add(sb.toString());
                    }
                }
            }
            permutations = result;
            //'result' has to be refreshed so that in next run it doesn't contain stale values.
            result = new HashSet<String>();
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Set<String> result = permutation("abc");

        System.out.println("\nThere are total of " + result.size() + " permutations:");
        Iterator<String> it = result.iterator();
        while (it.hasNext()) {
            System.out.println(it.next());
        }
    }
}

Answer 8

This one is without recursion

public static void permute(String s) {
    if(null==s || s.isEmpty()) {
        return;
    }

    // List containing words formed in each iteration 
    List<String> strings = new LinkedList<String>();
    strings.add(String.valueOf(s.charAt(0))); // add the first element to the list

     // Temp list that holds the set of strings for 
     //  appending the current character to all position in each word in the original list
    List<String> tempList = new LinkedList<String>(); 

    for(int i=1; i< s.length(); i++) {

        for(int j=0; j<strings.size(); j++) {
            tempList.addAll(merge(s.charAt(i), strings.get(j)));
                        }
        strings.removeAll(strings);
        strings.addAll(tempList);

        tempList.removeAll(tempList);

    }

    for(int i=0; i<strings.size(); i++) {
        System.out.println(strings.get(i));
    }
}

/**
 * helper method that appends the given character at each position in the given string 
 * and returns a set of such modified strings 
 * - set removes duplicates if any(in case a character is repeated)
 */
private static Set<String> merge(Character c,  String s) {
    if(s==null || s.isEmpty()) {
        return null;
    }

    int len = s.length();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    Set<String> list = new HashSet<String>();

    for(int i=0; i<= len; i++) {
        sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.append(s.substring(0, i) + c + s.substring(i, len));
        list.add(sb.toString());
    }

    return list;
}

Answer 9

Well here is an elegant, non-recursive, O(n!) solution:

public static StringBuilder[] permutations(String s) {
        if (s.length() == 0)
            return null;
        int length = fact(s.length());
        StringBuilder[] sb = new StringBuilder[length];
        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            sb[i] = new StringBuilder();
        }
        for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
            char ch = s.charAt(i);
            int times = length / (i + 1);
            for (int j = 0; j < times; j++) {
                for (int k = 0; k < length / times; k++) {
                    sb[j * length / times + k].insert(k, ch);
                }
            }
        }
        return sb;
    }

Answer 10

One of the simple solution could be just keep swapping the characters recursively using two pointers.

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String str="abcdefgh";
    perm(str);
}
public static void perm(String str)
{  char[] char_arr=str.toCharArray();
    helper(char_arr,0);
}
public static void helper(char[] char_arr, int i)
{
    if(i==char_arr.length-1)
    {
        // print the shuffled string 
            String str="";
            for(int j=0; j<char_arr.length; j++)
            {
                str=str+char_arr[j];
            }
            System.out.println(str);
    }
    else
    {
    for(int j=i; j<char_arr.length; j++)
    {
        char tmp = char_arr[i];
        char_arr[i] = char_arr[j];
        char_arr[j] = tmp;
        helper(char_arr,i+1);
        char tmp1 = char_arr[i];
        char_arr[i] = char_arr[j];
        char_arr[j] = tmp1;
    }
}
}

Answer 11

python implementation

def getPermutation(s, prefix=''):
        if len(s) == 0:
                print prefix
        for i in range(len(s)):
                getPermutation(s[0:i]+s[i+1:len(s)],prefix+s[i] )



getPermutation('abcd','')

Answer 12

This is what I did through basic understanding of Permutations and Recursive function calling. Takes a bit of time but it's done independently.

public class LexicographicPermutations {

public static void main(String[] args) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    String s="abc";
    List<String>combinations=new ArrayList<String>();
    combinations=permutations(s);
    Collections.sort(combinations);
    System.out.println(combinations);
}

private static List<String> permutations(String s) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    List<String>combinations=new ArrayList<String>();
    if(s.length()==1){
        combinations.add(s);
    }
    else{
        for(int i=0;i<s.length();i++){
            List<String>temp=permutations(s.substring(0, i)+s.substring(i+1));
            for (String string : temp) {
                combinations.add(s.charAt(i)+string);
            }
        }
    }
    return combinations;
}}

which generates Output as [abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, cba].

Basic logic behind it is

For each character, consider it as 1st character & find the combinations of remaining characters. e.g. [abc](Combination of abc)->.

1. a->[bc](a x Combination of (bc))->{abc,acb}
2. b->[ac](b x Combination of (ac))->{bac,bca}
3. c->[ab](c x Combination of (ab))->{cab,cba}

And then recursively calling each [bc],[ac] & [ab] independently.

Answer 13

Use recursion.

when the input is an empty string the only permutation is an empty string.Try for each of the letters in the string by making it as the first letter and then find all the permutations of the remaining letters using a recursive call.

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

class Permutation {
    private static List<String> permutation(String prefix, String str) {
        List<String> permutations = new ArrayList<>();
        int n = str.length();
        if (n == 0) {
            permutations.add(prefix);
        } else {
            for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
                permutations.addAll(permutation(prefix + str.charAt(i), str.substring(i + 1, n) + str.substring(0, i)));
            }
        }
        return permutations;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<String> perms = permutation("", "abcd");

        String[] array = new String[perms.size()];
        for (int i = 0; i < perms.size(); i++) {
            array[i] = perms.get(i);
        }

        int x = array.length;

        for (final String anArray : array) {
            System.out.println(anArray);
        }
    }
}

Answer 14

this worked for me..

import java.util.Arrays;

public class StringPermutations{
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        String inputString = "ABC";
        permute(inputString.toCharArray(), 0, inputString.length()-1);
    }

    public static void permute(char[] ary, int startIndex, int endIndex) {
        if(startIndex == endIndex){
            System.out.println(String.valueOf(ary));
        }else{
            for(int i=startIndex;i<=endIndex;i++) {
                 swap(ary, startIndex, i );
                 permute(ary, startIndex+1, endIndex);
                 swap(ary, startIndex, i );
            }
        }
    }

    public static void swap(char[] ary, int x, int y) {
        char temp = ary[x];
        ary[x] = ary[y];
        ary[y] = temp;
    }
}

Answer 15

Java implementation without recursion

public Set<String> permutate(String s){
    Queue<String> permutations = new LinkedList<String>();
    Set<String> v = new HashSet<String>();
    permutations.add(s);

    while(permutations.size()!=0){
        String str = permutations.poll();
        if(!v.contains(str)){
            v.add(str);
            for(int i = 0;i<str.length();i++){
                String c = String.valueOf(str.charAt(i));
                permutations.add(str.substring(i+1) + c +  str.substring(0,i));
            }
        }
    }
    return v;
}

Answer 16

Let me try to tackle this problem with Kotlin:

fun <T> List<T>.permutations(): List<List<T>> {
    //escape case
    if (this.isEmpty()) return emptyList()

    if (this.size == 1) return listOf(this)

    if (this.size == 2) return listOf(listOf(this.first(), this.last()), listOf(this.last(), this.first()))

    //recursive case
    return this.flatMap { lastItem ->
        this.minus(lastItem).permutations().map { it.plus(lastItem) }
    }
}

Core concept: Break down long list into smaller list + recursion

Long answer with example list [1, 2, 3, 4]:

Even for a list of 4 it already kinda get's confusing trying to list all the possible permutations in your head, and what we need to do is exactly to avoid that. It is easy for us to understand how to make all permutations of list of size 0, 1, and 2, so all we need to do is break them down to any of those sizes and combine them back up correctly. Imagine a jackpot machine: this algorithm will start spinning from the right to the left, and write down

1. return empty/list of 1 when list size is 0 or 1
2. handle when list size is 2 (e.g. [3, 4]), and generate the 2 permutations ([3, 4] & [4, 3])
3. For each item, mark that as the last in the last, and find all the permutations for the rest of the item in the list. (e.g. put [4] on the table, and throw [1, 2, 3] into permutation again)
4. Now with all permutation it's children, put itself back to the end of the list (e.g.: [1, 2, 3][,4], [1, 3, 2][,4], [2, 3, 1][, 4], ...)

Answer 17

We can use factorial to find how many strings started with particular letter.

Example: take the input abcd. (3!) == 6 strings will start with every letter of abcd.

static public int facts(int x){
    int sum = 1;
    for (int i = 1; i < x; i++) {
        sum *= (i+1);
    }
    return sum;
}

public static void permutation(String str) {
    char[] str2 = str.toCharArray();
    int n = str2.length;
    int permutation = 0;
    if (n == 1) {
        System.out.println(str2[0]);
    } else if (n == 2) {
        System.out.println(str2[0] + "" + str2[1]);
        System.out.println(str2[1] + "" + str2[0]);
    } else {
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            if (true) {
                char[] str3 = str.toCharArray();
                char temp = str3[i];
                str3[i] = str3[0];
                str3[0] = temp;
                str2 = str3;
            }

            for (int j = 1, count = 0; count < facts(n-1); j++, count++) {
                if (j != n-1) {
                    char temp1 = str2[j+1];
                    str2[j+1] = str2[j];
                    str2[j] = temp1;
                } else {
                    char temp1 = str2[n-1];
                    str2[n-1] = str2[1];
                    str2[1] = temp1;
                    j = 1;
                } // end of else block
                permutation++;
                System.out.print("permutation " + permutation + " is   -> ");
                for (int k = 0; k < n; k++) {
                    System.out.print(str2[k]);
                } // end of loop k
                System.out.println();
            } // end of loop j
        } // end of loop i
    }
}

Answer 18

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class hello {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        hello h = new hello();
        h.printcomp();
    }
      int fact=1;
    public void factrec(int a,int k){
        if(a>=k)
        {fact=fact*k;
        k++;
        factrec(a,k);
        }
        else
        {System.out.println("The string  will have "+fact+" permutations");
        }
        }
    public void printcomp(){
        String str;
        int k;
        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.println("enter the string whose permutations has to b found");
        str=in.next();
        k=str.length();
        factrec(k,1);
        String[] arr =new String[fact];
        char[] array = str.toCharArray();
        while(p<fact)
        printcomprec(k,array,arr);
            // if incase u need array containing all the permutation use this
            //for(int d=0;d<fact;d++)         
        //System.out.println(arr[d]);
    }
    int y=1;
    int p = 0;
    int g=1;
    int z = 0;
    public void printcomprec(int k,char array[],String arr[]){
        for (int l = 0; l < k; l++) {
            for (int b=0;b<k-1;b++){
            for (int i=1; i<k-g; i++) {
                char temp;
                String stri = "";
                temp = array[i];
                array[i] = array[i + g];
                array[i + g] = temp;
                for (int j = 0; j < k; j++)
                    stri += array[j];
                arr[z] = stri;
                System.out.println(arr[z] + "   " + p++);
                z++;
            }
            }
            char temp;
            temp=array[0];
            array[0]=array[y];
            array[y]=temp;
            if (y >= k-1)
                y=y-(k-1);
            else
                y++;
        }
        if (g >= k-1)
            g=1;
        else
            g++;
    }

}

Answer 19

/** Returns an array list containing all
 * permutations of the characters in s. */
public static ArrayList<String> permute(String s) {
    ArrayList<String> perms = new ArrayList<>();
    int slen = s.length();
    if (slen > 0) {
        // Add the first character from s to the perms array list.
        perms.add(Character.toString(s.charAt(0)));

        // Repeat for all additional characters in s.
        for (int i = 1;  i < slen;  ++i) {

            // Get the next character from s.
            char c = s.charAt(i);

            // For each of the strings currently in perms do the following:
            int size = perms.size();
            for (int j = 0;  j < size;  ++j) {

                // 1. remove the string
                String p = perms.remove(0);
                int plen = p.length();

                // 2. Add plen + 1 new strings to perms.  Each new string
                //    consists of the removed string with the character c
                //    inserted into it at a unique location.
                for (int k = 0;  k <= plen;  ++k) {
                    perms.add(p.substring(0, k) + c + p.substring(k));
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return perms;
}

Answer 20

Here is a straightforward minimalist recursive solution in Java:

public static ArrayList<String> permutations(String s) {
    ArrayList<String> out = new ArrayList<String>();
    if (s.length() == 1) {
        out.add(s);
        return out;
    }
    char first = s.charAt(0);
    String rest = s.substring(1);
    for (String permutation : permutations(rest)) {
        out.addAll(insertAtAllPositions(first, permutation));
    }
    return out;
}
public static ArrayList<String> insertAtAllPositions(char ch, String s) {
    ArrayList<String> out = new ArrayList<String>();
    for (int i = 0; i <= s.length(); ++i) {
        String inserted = s.substring(0, i) + ch + s.substring(i);
        out.add(inserted);
    }
    return out;
}

Answer 21

//insert each character into an arraylist

static ArrayList al = new ArrayList();

private static void findPermutation (String str){
    for (int k = 0; k < str.length(); k++) {
        addOneChar(str.charAt(k));
    }
}

//insert one char into ArrayList
private static void addOneChar(char ch){
    String lastPerStr;
    String tempStr;
    ArrayList locAl = new ArrayList();
    for (int i = 0; i < al.size(); i ++ ){
        lastPerStr = al.get(i).toString();
        //System.out.println("lastPerStr: " + lastPerStr);
        for (int j = 0; j <= lastPerStr.length(); j++) {
            tempStr = lastPerStr.substring(0,j) + ch + 
                    lastPerStr.substring(j, lastPerStr.length());
            locAl.add(tempStr);
            //System.out.println("tempStr: " + tempStr);
        }
    }
    if(al.isEmpty()){
        al.add(ch);
    } else {
        al.clear();
        al = locAl;
    }
}

private static void printArrayList(ArrayList al){
    for (int i = 0; i < al.size(); i++) {
        System.out.print(al.get(i) + "  ");
    }
}

Answer 22

//Rotate and create words beginning with all letter possible and push to stack 1

//Read from stack1 and for each word create words with other letters at the next location by rotation and so on 

/*  eg : man

    1. push1 - man, anm, nma
    2. pop1 - nma ,  push2 - nam,nma
       pop1 - anm ,  push2 - amn,anm
       pop1 - man ,  push2 - mna,man
*/

public class StringPermute {

    static String str;
    static String word;
    static int top1 = -1;
    static int top2 = -1;
    static String[] stringArray1;
    static String[] stringArray2;
    static int strlength = 0;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        System.out.println("Enter String : ");
        InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
        BufferedReader bfr = new BufferedReader(isr);
        str = bfr.readLine();
        word = str;
        strlength = str.length();
        int n = 1;
        for (int i = 1; i <= strlength; i++) {
            n = n * i;
        }
        stringArray1 = new String[n];
        stringArray2 = new String[n];
        push(word, 1);
        doPermute();
        display();
    }

    public static void push(String word, int x) {
        if (x == 1)
            stringArray1[++top1] = word;
        else
            stringArray2[++top2] = word;
    }

    public static String pop(int x) {
        if (x == 1)
            return stringArray1[top1--];
        else
            return stringArray2[top2--];
    }

    public static void doPermute() {

        for (int j = strlength; j >= 2; j--)
            popper(j);

    }

    public static void popper(int length) {
        // pop from stack1 , rotate each word n times and push to stack 2
        if (top1 > -1) {
            while (top1 > -1) {
                word = pop(1);
                for (int j = 0; j < length; j++) {
                    rotate(length);
                    push(word, 2);
                }
            }
        }
        // pop from stack2 , rotate each word n times w.r.t position and push to
        // stack 1
        else {
            while (top2 > -1) {
                word = pop(2);
                for (int j = 0; j < length; j++) {
                    rotate(length);
                    push(word, 1);
                }
            }
        }

    }

    public static void rotate(int position) {
        char[] charstring = new char[100];
        for (int j = 0; j < word.length(); j++)
            charstring[j] = word.charAt(j);

        int startpos = strlength - position;
        char temp = charstring[startpos];
        for (int i = startpos; i < strlength - 1; i++) {
            charstring[i] = charstring[i + 1];
        }
        charstring[strlength - 1] = temp;
        word = new String(charstring).trim();
    }

    public static void display() {
        int top;
        if (top1 > -1) {
            while (top1 > -1)
                System.out.println(stringArray1[top1--]);
        } else {
            while (top2 > -1)
                System.out.println(stringArray2[top2--]);
        }
    }
}

Answer 23

Another simple way is to loop through the string, pick the character that is not used yet and put it to a buffer, continue the loop till the buffer size equals to the string length. I like this back tracking solution better because:

1. Easy to understand
2. Easy to avoid duplication
3. The output is sorted

Here is the java code:

List<String> permute(String str) {
  if (str == null) {
    return null;
  }

  char[] chars = str.toCharArray();
  boolean[] used = new boolean[chars.length];

  List<String> res = new ArrayList<String>();
  StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

  Arrays.sort(chars);

  helper(chars, used, sb, res);

  return res;
}

void helper(char[] chars, boolean[] used, StringBuilder sb, List<String> res) {
  if (sb.length() == chars.length) {
    res.add(sb.toString());
    return;
  }

  for (int i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
    // avoid duplicates
    if (i > 0 && chars[i] == chars[i - 1] && !used[i - 1]) {
      continue;
    }

    // pick the character that has not used yet
    if (!used[i]) {
      used[i] = true;
      sb.append(chars[i]);

      helper(chars, used, sb, res);

      // back tracking
      sb.deleteCharAt(sb.length() - 1);
      used[i] = false;
    }
  }
}

Input str: 1231

Output list: {1123, 1132, 1213, 1231, 1312, 1321, 2113, 2131, 2311, 3112, 3121, 3211}

Noticed that the output is sorted, and there is no duplicate result.

Answer 24

Recursion is not necessary, even you can calculate any permutation directly, this solution uses generics to permute any array.

Here is a good information about this algorihtm.

For C# developers here is more useful implementation.

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String word = "12345";

    Character[] array = ArrayUtils.toObject(word.toCharArray());
    long[] factorials = Permutation.getFactorials(array.length + 1);

    for (long i = 0; i < factorials[array.length]; i++) {
        Character[] permutation = Permutation.<Character>getPermutation(i, array, factorials);
        printPermutation(permutation);
    }
}

private static void printPermutation(Character[] permutation) {
    for (int i = 0; i < permutation.length; i++) {
        System.out.print(permutation[i]);
    }
    System.out.println();
}

This algorithm has O(N) time and space complexity to calculate each permutation.

public class Permutation {
    public static <T> T[] getPermutation(long permutationNumber, T[] array, long[] factorials) {
        int[] sequence = generateSequence(permutationNumber, array.length - 1, factorials);
        T[] permutation = generatePermutation(array, sequence);

        return permutation;
    }

    public static <T> T[] generatePermutation(T[] array, int[] sequence) {
        T[] clone = array.clone();

        for (int i = 0; i < clone.length - 1; i++) {
            swap(clone, i, i + sequence[i]);
        }

        return clone;
    }

    private static int[] generateSequence(long permutationNumber, int size, long[] factorials) {
        int[] sequence = new int[size];

        for (int j = 0; j < sequence.length; j++) {
            long factorial = factorials[sequence.length - j];
            sequence[j] = (int) (permutationNumber / factorial);
            permutationNumber = (int) (permutationNumber % factorial);
        }

        return sequence;
    }

    private static <T> void swap(T[] array, int i, int j) {
        T t = array[i];
        array[i] = array[j];
        array[j] = t;
    }

    public static long[] getFactorials(int length) {
        long[] factorials = new long[length];
        long factor = 1;

        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            factor *= i <= 1 ? 1 : i;
            factorials[i] = factor;
        }

        return factorials;
    }
}

Answer 25

My implementation based on Mark Byers's description above:

    static Set<String> permutations(String str){
        if (str.isEmpty()){
            return Collections.singleton(str);
        }else{
            Set <String> set = new HashSet<>();
            for (int i=0; i<str.length(); i++)
                for (String s : permutations(str.substring(0, i) + str.substring(i+1)))
                    set.add(str.charAt(i) + s);
            return set;
        }
    }

Answer 26

Permutation of String:

public static void main(String args[]) {
    permu(0,"ABCD");
}

static void permu(int fixed,String s) {
    char[] chr=s.toCharArray();
    if(fixed==s.length())
        System.out.println(s);
    for(int i=fixed;i<s.length();i++) {
        char c=chr[i];
        chr[i]=chr[fixed];
        chr[fixed]=c;
        permu(fixed+1,new String(chr));
    }   
}

Answer 27

Here is another simpler method of doing Permutation of a string.

public class Solution4 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
    String  a = "Protijayi";
  per(a, 0);

}

static void per(String a  , int start ) {
      //bse case;
    if(a.length() == start) {System.out.println(a);}
    char[] ca = a.toCharArray();
    //swap 
    for (int i = start; i < ca.length; i++) {
        char t = ca[i];
        ca[i] = ca[start];
        ca[start] = t;
        per(new String(ca),start+1);
    }

}//per

}

Answer 28

A java implementation to print all the permutations of a given string considering duplicate characters and prints only unique characters is as follow:

import java.util.Set;
import java.util.HashSet;

public class PrintAllPermutations2
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        String str = "AAC";

    PrintAllPermutations2 permutation = new PrintAllPermutations2();

    Set<String> uniqueStrings = new HashSet<>();

    permutation.permute("", str, uniqueStrings);
}

void permute(String prefixString, String s, Set<String> set)
{
    int n = s.length();

    if(n == 0)
    {
        if(!set.contains(prefixString))
        {
            System.out.println(prefixString);
            set.add(prefixString);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        for(int i=0; i<n; i++)
        {
            permute(prefixString + s.charAt(i), s.substring(0,i) + s.substring(i+1,n), set);
        }
    }
}
}

Answer 29

String permutaions using Es6

Using reduce() method

const permutations = str => {
  if (str.length <= 2) 
  return str.length === 2 ? [str, str[1] + str[0]] : [str];
  
  return str
    .split('')
    .reduce(
      (acc, letter, index) =>
        acc.concat(permutations(str.slice(0, index) + str.slice(index + 1)).map(val => letter + val)),
      [] 
    );
};

console.log(permutations('STR'));

Answer 30

In case anyone wants to generate the permutations to do something with them, instead of just printing them via a void method:

static List<int[]> permutations(int n) {

    class Perm {
        private final List<int[]> permutations = new ArrayList<>();

        private void perm(int[] array, int step) {
            if (step == 1) permutations.add(array.clone());
            else for (int i = 0; i < step; i++) {
                perm(array, step - 1);
                int j = (step % 2 == 0) ? i : 0;
                swap(array, step - 1, j);
            }
        }

        private void swap(int[] array, int i, int j) {
            int buffer = array[i];
            array[i] = array[j];
            array[j] = buffer;
        }

    }

    int[] nVector  = new int[n];
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) nVector [i] = i;

    Perm perm = new Perm();
    perm.perm(nVector, n);
    return perm.permutations;

}

Answer 31

public class StringPermutation {

// Function to print all the permutations of str
static void printPermutn(String str, String ans) {

    // If string is empty
    if (str.length() == 0) {
        System.out.print(ans + " ");
        return;
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {

        // ith character of str
        char ch = str.charAt(i);

        // Rest of the string after excluding
        // the ith character
        String ros = str.substring(0, i) + str.substring(i + 1);

        // Recurvise call
        printPermutn(ros, ans + ch);
    }
}


public static void main(String[] args) {
    String s = "ABC";
    printPermutn(s, "");
}

}

Answer 32

This can be done iteratively by simply inserting each letter of the string in turn in all locations of the previous partial results.

We start with [A], which with B becomes [BA, AB], and with C, [CBA, BCA, BAC, CAB, etc].

The running time would be O(n!), which, for the test case ABCD, is 1 x 2 x 3 x 4.

In the above product, the 1 is for A, the 2 is for B, etc.

Dart sample:

void main() {

  String insertAt(String a, String b, int index)
  {
    return a.substring(0, index) + b + a.substring(index);
  }

  List<String> Permute(String word) {

    var letters = word.split('');

    var p_list = [ letters.first ];

    for (var c in letters.sublist(1)) {

      var new_list = [ ];

      for (var p in p_list)
        for (int i = 0; i <= p.length; i++)
          new_list.add(insertAt(p, c, i));

      p_list = new_list;
    }

    return p_list;
  }

  print(Permute("ABCD"));

}

Answer 33

/*
     * eg: abc =>{a,bc},{b,ac},{c,ab}
     * =>{ca,b},{cb,a}
     * =>cba,cab
     * =>{ba,c},{bc,a}
     * =>bca,bac
     * =>{ab,c},{ac,b}
     * =>acb,abc
     */
    public void nonRecpermute(String prefix, String word)
    {
        String[] currentstr ={prefix,word};
        Stack<String[]> stack = new Stack<String[]>();
        stack.add(currentstr);
        while(!stack.isEmpty())
        {
            currentstr = stack.pop();
            String currentPrefix = currentstr[0];
            String currentWord = currentstr[1];
            if(currentWord.equals(""))
            {
                System.out.println("Word ="+currentPrefix);
            }
            for(int i=0;i<currentWord.length();i++)
            {
                String[] newstr = new String[2];
                newstr[0]=currentPrefix + String.valueOf(currentWord.charAt(i));
                newstr[1] = currentWord.substring(0, i);
                if(i<currentWord.length()-1)
                {
                    newstr[1] = newstr[1]+currentWord.substring(i+1);
                }
                stack.push(newstr);
            }

        }

    }

Answer 34

Here is a java implementation:

/* All Permutations of a String */

import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;
import java.io.*;

/* Complexity O(n*n!) */
class Ideone
{
     public static ArrayList<String> strPerm(String str, ArrayList<String> list)
     {
        int len = str.length();
        if(len==1){
            list.add(str);
            return list;
        }

        list = strPerm(str.substring(0,len-1),list);
        int ls = list.size();
        char ap = str.charAt(len-1);
        for(int i=0;i<ls;i++){
            String temp = list.get(i);
            int tl = temp.length();
            for(int j=0;j<=tl;j++){
                list.add(temp.substring(0,j)+ap+temp.substring(j,tl));  
            }
        }

        while(true){
            String temp = list.get(0);
            if(temp.length()<len)
                list.remove(temp);
            else
                break;
        }

        return list;
    }

    public static void main (String[] args) throws java.lang.Exception
    {
        String str = "abc";
        ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>();

        list = strPerm(str,list);
        System.out.println("Total Permutations : "+list.size());
        for(int i=0;i<list.size();i++)
            System.out.println(list.get(i));

    }
}

http://ideone.com/nWPb3k

Answer 35

This is a C solution:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdlib.h>


char* addLetter(char* string, char *c) {
    char* result = malloc(sizeof(string) + 2);
    strcpy(result, string);
    strncat(result, c, 1);
    return result;
}

char* removeLetter(char* string, char *c) {
    char* result = malloc(sizeof(string));
    int j = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < strlen(string); i++) {
        if (string[i] != *c) {
            result[j++] = string[i];
        }
    }
    result[j] = '\0';

    return result;
}

void makeAnagram(char *anagram, char *letters) {

    if (*letters == '\0') {
        printf("%s\n", anagram);
        return;
    }

    char *c = letters;
    while (*c != '\0') {
        makeAnagram(addLetter(anagram, c),
                    removeLetter(letters, c));
        c++;
    }

}

int main() {

    makeAnagram("", "computer");

    return 0;
}

Answer 36

In python anyway

def perms(in_str, prefix=""):
if not len(in_str) :
    print(prefix)
else:        
    for i in range(0, len(in_str)):
        perms(in_str[:i] + in_str[i + 1:], prefix + in_str[i])

perms('ASD')

Answer 37

Here is algorithm with O(n!) time complexity with pure recursion and intuitive .

public class words {
static String combinations;
public static List<String> arrlist=new ArrayList<>();
public static void main(String[] args) {
    words obj = new words();

    String str="premandl";
    obj.getcombination(str, str.length()-1, "");
    System.out.println(arrlist);

}


public void getcombination(String str, int charIndex, String output) {

    if (str.length() == 0) {
        arrlist.add(output);
        return ;
    }

    if (charIndex == -1) {
        return ;
    }

    String character = str.toCharArray()[charIndex] + "";
    getcombination(str, --charIndex, output);

    String remaining = "";

    output = output + character;

    remaining = str.substring(0, charIndex + 1) + str.substring(charIndex + 2);

    getcombination(remaining, remaining.length() - 1, output);

}

}

Answer 38

Using Set operations to model "selections depending on other selections" is much easier to understand dependent permutations
With dependent permutation, available selections reduce as positions are filled with selected characters from left to right. Terminal condition for recursive calls is to test if the set of available selections is empty. When terminal condition is met, a permutation is complete and it is stored to 'results' List.

public static List<String> stringPermutation(String s) {
    List<String> results = new ArrayList<>();
    Set<Character> charSet = s.chars().mapToObj(m -> (char) m).collect(Collectors.toSet());
    stringPermutation(charSet, "", results);
    return results;
}

private static void stringPermutation(Set<Character> charSet, 
        String prefix, List<String> results) {
    if (charSet.isEmpty()) {
        results.add(prefix);
        return;
    }
    for (Character c : charSet) {
        Set<Character> newSet = new HashSet<>(charSet);
        newSet.remove(c);
        stringPermutation(newSet, prefix + c, results);
    }
} 

The code can be generalized to find permutations for a set of objects. In this case, I use a set of colors.

public enum Color{
    ORANGE,RED,BULE,GREEN,YELLOW;
}

public static List<List<Color>> colorPermutation(Set<Color> colors) {
    List<List<Color>> results = new ArrayList<>();
    List<Color> prefix = new ArrayList<>();
    permutation(colors, prefix, results);
    return results;
}

private static <T> void permutation(Set<T> set, List<T> prefix, List<List<T>> results) {
    if (set.isEmpty()) {
        results.add(prefix);
        return;
    }
    for (T t : set) {
        Set<T> newSet = new HashSet<>(set);
        List<T> newPrefix = new ArrayList<>(prefix);
        newSet.remove(t);
        newPrefix.add(t);
        permutation(newSet, newPrefix, results);
    }
} 

Code for tests.

public static void main(String[] args) {
    List<String> stringPerm = stringPermutation("abcde");
    System.out.println("# of permutations:" + stringPerm.size());
    stringPerm.stream().forEach(e -> System.out.println(e));

    Set<Color> colorSet = Arrays.stream(Color.values()).collect(Collectors.toSet());
    List<List<Color>> colorPerm = colorPermutation(colorSet);
    System.out.println("# of permutations:" + colorPerm.size());
    colorPerm.stream().forEach(e -> System.out.println(e));
}

Answer 39

Adding a more detailed NcK/NcR for both permutations and combinations

public static void combinationNcK(List<String> inputList, String prefix, int chooseCount, List<String> resultList) {
    if (chooseCount == 0)
        resultList.add(prefix);
    else {
        for (int i = 0; i < inputList.size(); i++)
            combinationNcK(inputList.subList(i + 1, inputList.size()), prefix + "," + inputList.get(i), chooseCount - 1, resultList);

        // Finally print once all combinations are done
        if (prefix.equalsIgnoreCase("")) {
            resultList.stream().map(str -> str.substring(1)).forEach(System.out::println);
        }
    }
}

public static void permNcK(List<String> inputList, int chooseCount, List<String> resultList) {
    for (int count = 0; count < inputList.size(); count++) {
        permNcK(inputList, "", chooseCount, resultList);
        resultList = new ArrayList<String>();
        Collections.rotate(inputList, 1);
        System.out.println("-------------------------");
    }

}

public static void permNcK(List<String> inputList, String prefix, int chooseCount, List<String> resultList) {
    if (chooseCount == 0)
        resultList.add(prefix);
    else {
        for (int i = 0; i < inputList.size(); i++)
            combinationNcK(inputList.subList(i + 1, inputList.size()), prefix + "," + inputList.get(i), chooseCount - 1, resultList);

        // Finally print once all combinations are done
        if (prefix.equalsIgnoreCase("")) {
            resultList.stream().map(str -> str.substring(1)).forEach(System.out::println);
        }
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    List<String> positions = Arrays.asList(new String[] { "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8" });
    List<String> resultList = new ArrayList<String>();
    //combinationNcK(positions, "", 3, resultList);

    permNcK(positions, 3, resultList);

}

Answer 40

This is can be easily done using bit manipulation. "As we all know there are 2N possible subsets of any given set with N elements. What if we represent each element in a subset with a bit. A bit can be either 0 or 1, thus we can use this to denote whether the corresponding element belongs to this given subset or not. So each bit pattern will represent a subset." [Copied text]

private void getPermutation(String str)
        {
            if(str==null)
                return;
            Set<String> StrList = new HashSet<String>();
            StringBuilder strB= new StringBuilder();
            for(int i = 0;i < (1 << str.length()); ++i)
            {
                strB.setLength(0); //clear the StringBuilder
                for(int j = 0;j < str.length() ;++j){
                    if((i & (1 << j))>0){  // to check whether jth bit is set
                        strB.append(str.charAt(j));
                    }
                }
                if(!strB.toString().isEmpty())
                    StrList.add(strB.toString());
            }
            System.out.println(Arrays.toString(StrList.toArray()));
        }

Answer 41

This is a faster solution as it doesn't suffer for string concatenation computation complexity O(n^2). On the other hand its loop free, fully recursive

public static void main(String[] args) {
    permutation("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ");
}

private static void permutation(String str) {
    char[] stringArray = str.toCharArray();
    printPermutation(stringArray, 0, stringArray.length, 0, 1);
}

private static void printPermutation(char[] string, int loopCounter, int length, int indexFrom, int indexTo) {
    // Stop condition
    if (loopCounter == length)
        return;

    /* 
     When reaching the end of the array:
     1- Reset loop indices.
     2- Increase length counter. 
    */ 
    if (indexTo == length) {
        indexFrom = 0;
        indexTo = 1;
        ++loopCounter;
    }

    // Print.
    System.out.println(string);

    // Swap from / to indices.
    char temp = string[indexFrom];
    string[indexFrom] = string[indexTo];
    string[indexTo] = temp;

    // Go for next iteration.
    printPermutation(string, loopCounter, length, ++indexFrom, ++indexTo);
}

Answer 42

Simple python solution using recursion.

def get_permutations(string):

    # base case
    if len(string) <= 1:
        return set([string])

    all_chars_except_last = string[:-1]
    last_char = string[-1]

    # recursive call: get all possible permutations for all chars except last
    permutations_of_all_chars_except_last = get_permutations(all_chars_except_last)

    # put the last char in all possible positions for each of the above permutations
    permutations = set()
    for permutation_of_all_chars_except_last in permutations_of_all_chars_except_last:
        for position in range(len(all_chars_except_last) + 1):
            permutation = permutation_of_all_chars_except_last[:position] + last_char + permutation_of_all_chars_except_last[position:]
            permutations.add(permutation)

    return permutations

Answer 43

Based on the answer of Mark Byers, my python implementation:

def permutations(string):
    if len(string) == 1:
        return [string]
    permutations=[]
    for i in range(len(string)):
        for perm in permutations(string[:i]+string[i+1:]):
            permutations.append(string[i] + perm)
    return permutations

Answer 44

Recursive Python solution

def permute(input_str):
    _permute("", input_str)

def _permute(prefix, str_to_permute):
    if str_to_permute == '':
        print(prefix)

    else:
        for i in range(len(str_to_permute)): 
            _permute(prefix+str_to_permute[i], str_to_permute[0:i] + str_to_permute[i+1:])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    permute('foobar')

Answer 45

A generic implementation of the Countdown Quickperm algorithm, representation #1 (scalable, non-recursive).

/**
 * Generate permutations based on the
 * Countdown <a href="http://quickperm.org/">Quickperm algorithm</>.
 */
public static <T> List<List<T>> generatePermutations(List<T> list) {
    List<T> in = new ArrayList<>(list);
    List<List<T>> out = new ArrayList<>(factorial(list.size()));

    int n = list.size();
    int[] p = new int[n +1];
    for (int i = 0; i < p.length; i ++) {
        p[i] = i;
    }
    int i = 0;
    while (i < n) {
        p[i]--;
        int j = 0;
        if (i % 2 != 0) { // odd?
            j = p[i];
        }
        // swap
        T iTmp = in.get(i);
        in.set(i, in.get(j));
        in.set(j, iTmp);

        i = 1;
        while (p[i] == 0){
            p[i] = i;
            i++;
        }
        out.add(new ArrayList<>(in));
    }
    return out;
}

private static int factorial(int num) {
    int count = num;
    while (num != 1) {
        count *= --num;
    }
    return count;
}

It needs Lists since generics don't play well with arrays.

Answer 46

A simple recursive C++ implementation would look like this:

#include <iostream>

void generatePermutations(std::string &sequence, int index){
    if(index == sequence.size()){
        std::cout << sequence << "\n";
    } else{
        generatePermutations(sequence, index + 1);
        for(int i = index + 1 ; i < sequence.size() ; ++i){
            std::swap(sequence[index], sequence[i]);
            generatePermutations(sequence, index + 1);
            std::swap(sequence[index], sequence[i]);            
        }
    }
}

int main(int argc, char const *argv[])
{
    std::string str = "abc";
    generatePermutations(str, 0);
    return 0;
}

Output:

abc
acb
bac
bca
cba
cab

UPDATE

If you want to store the results, you can pass a vector as the third argument to the function call. Furthermore, if you only want the unique permutations, you can use a set.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <set>

void generatePermutations(std::string &sequence, int index, std::vector <std::string> &v){
    if(index == sequence.size()){
        //std::cout << sequence << "\n";
        v.push_back(sequence);
    } else{
        generatePermutations(sequence, index + 1, v);
        for(int i = index + 1 ; i < sequence.size() ; ++i){
            std::swap(sequence[index], sequence[i]);
            generatePermutations(sequence, index + 1, v);
            std::swap(sequence[index], sequence[i]);            
        }
    }
}

int main(int argc, char const *argv[])
{
    std::string str = "112";
    std::vector <std::string> permutations;
    generatePermutations(str, 0, permutations);
    std::cout << "Number of permutations " << permutations.size() << "\n";
    for(const std::string &s : permutations){
        std::cout << s << "\n";
    }
    std::set <std::string> uniquePermutations(permutations.begin(), permutations.end());
    std::cout << "Number of unique permutations " << uniquePermutations.size() << "\n";
    for(const std::string &s : uniquePermutations){
        std::cout << s << "\n";
    }
    return 0;
}

Output:

Number of permutations 6
112
121
112
121
211
211
Number of unique permutations 3
112
121
211

Answer 47

public class Permutation 
{ 
public static void main(String[] args) 
{ 
    String str = "ABC"; 
    int n = str.length(); 
    Permutation permutation = new Permutation(); 
    permutation.permute(str, 0, n-1); 
} 

/** 
* permutation function 
* @param str string to calculate permutation for 
* @param l starting index 
* @param r end index 
*/
private void permute(String str, int l, int r) 
{ 
    if (l == r) 
        System.out.println(str); 
    else
    { 
        for (int i = l; i <= r; i++) 
        { 
            str = swap(str,l,i); 
            permute(str, l+1, r); 
            str = swap(str,l,i); 
        } 
    } 
} 

/** 
* Swap Characters at position 
* @param a string value 
* @param i position 1 
* @param j position 2 
* @return swapped string 
*/
public String swap(String a, int i, int j) 
{ 
    char temp; 
    char[] charArray = a.toCharArray(); 
    temp = charArray[i] ; 
    charArray[i] = charArray[j]; 
    charArray[j] = temp; 
    return String.valueOf(charArray); 
} 

} 

Answer 48

simple solution utilizing feature of swift language that array is value type.

func permutation(chrs: [String], arr: [String], result: inout [[String]]) {
   if arr.count == chrs.count {
       result.append(arr)
       return
   }

   for chr in chrs {
       var arr = arr
       if !arr.contains(chr) {
           arr.append(chr)
           permutation(chrs: chrs, arr: arr, result: &result)
       }
   }
}

func test() {
   var result = [[String]]()
   let chrs = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
   permutation(chrs: chrs, arr: [], result: &result)
}

complexity O(n * n!)

Answer 49

I am defining two strings left and right. In the beginning, the left is input string and he right is “”. I recursively choose all possible chars from left and add it to the end of the right. Then, I call the recursive function on left-charAt(i) and right+charAt(i). I am defining a class to keep track of the generated permutations.

import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;

public class FindPermutations {

    static class Permutations {
        Set<String> permutations = new HashSet<>();
    }

    /**
     * Building all the permutations by adding chars of left to right one by one.
     *
     * @param left         The left string
     * @param right        The right string
     * @param permutations The permutations
     */
    private void findPermutations(String left, String right, Permutations permutations) {
        int n = left.length();
        if (n == 0) {
            permutations.permutations.add(right);
        }
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            findPermutations(left.substring(0, i) + left.substring(i + 1, n), right + left.charAt(i), permutations);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Gets all the permutations of a string s.
     *
     * @param s The input string
     * @return all the permutations of a string s
     */
    public Permutations getPermutations(String s) {
        Permutations permutations = new Permutations();
        findPermutations(s, "", permutations);
        return permutations;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FindPermutations findPermutations = new FindPermutations();
        String s = "ABC";
        Permutations permutations = findPermutations.getPermutations(s);
        printPermutations(permutations);
    }

    private static void printPermutations(Permutations permutations) {
        for (String p : permutations.permutations) {
            System.out.println(p);
        }
    }

}

I hope it helps.

Answer 50

As a Python generator, with modern type hints:

from typing import Iterator


def permutations(string: str, prefix: str = '') -> Iterator[str]:
    if len(string) == 0:
        yield prefix
    for i, character in enumerate(string):
        yield from permutations(string[:i] + string[i + 1:], prefix + character)


for p in permutations('abcd'):
    print(p)

Answer 51

Based on Mark Byers' answer i came up with this solution:

JAVA

public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        myPerm("ABCD", 0);
    }

    private static void myPerm(String str, int index)
    {
        if (index == str.length()) System.out.println(str);

        for (int i = index; i < str.length(); i++)
        {
            char prefix = str.charAt(i);
            String suffix = str.substring(0,i) + str.substring(i+1);

            myPerm(prefix + suffix, index + 1);
        }
    }
}

---

C#

I also wrote the function in C# using the new C# 8.0 range operator

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            myPerm("ABCD", 0);
        }

        private static void myPerm(string str, int index)
        {
            if (index == str.Length) Console.WriteLine(str);

            for (int i = index; i < str.Length; i++)
            {
                char prefix = str[i];
                string suffix = str[0..i] + str[(i + 1)..];

                myPerm(prefix + suffix, index + 1);
            }
        }
    

---

We just put every letter at the beginning and then permute.
The first iteration looks like this:

/*
myPerm("ABCD",0)  
  prefix = "A"  
  suffix = "BCD"  
  myPerm("ABCD",1)  
    prefix = "B"  
    suffix = "ACD"  
    myPerm("BACD",2)  
      prefix = "C"  
      suffix = "BAD"  
      myPerm("CBAD",3)  
        prefix = "D"  
        suffix = "CBA"  
        myPerm("DCBA",4)  
          Console.WriteLine("DCBA")
*/

Answer 52

I have been learning to think recursively and the first natural solution that struck me is as follows. A problem one step simpler would be to find permutations of a string that is one letter shorter. I will assume, and believe with every fiber of my being, that my function can correctly find permutations of a string that is one letter shorter than the one I am currently trying to.

Given a string say 'abc', break it into a subproblem of finding permutations of a string one character less which is 'bc'. Once we have permutations of 'bc' we need to know how to combine it with 'a' to get the permutations for 'abc'. This is the core of recursion. Use the solution of a subproblem to solve the current problem. By observation, we can see that inserting 'a' in all the positions of each of the permutations of 'bc' which are 'bc' and 'cb' will give us all the permutations of 'abc'. We have to insert 'a' between adjacent letters and at the front and end of each permutation. For example

For 'bc' we have

'a'+'bc' = 'abc'

'b'+'a'+'c' = 'bac'

'bc'+'a' = 'bca'

For 'cb' we have

'a'+'cb' = 'acb'

'c'+'a'+'b' = 'cab'

'cb'+'a' = 'cba'

The following code snippet will clarify this. Here is the working link for the snippet.

def main():
    result = []
    for permutation in ['bc', 'cb']:
        for i in range(len(permutation) + 1):
            result.append(permutation[:i] + 'a' + permutation[i:])
    return result


if __name__ == '__main__':
    print(main())

The complete recursive solution will be. Here is the working link for the complete code.

def permutations(s):
    if len(s) == 1 or len(s) == 0:
        return s
    _permutations = []
    for permutation in permutations(s[1:]):
        for i in range(len(permutation) + 1):
            _permutations.append(permutation[:i] + s[0] + permutation[i:])
    return _permutations


def main(s):
    print(permutations(s))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main('abc')

Answer 53

My Implementation based on Heap's algorithm :

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class PermutationString {
public static List<String> permute(char[] str, int n) {
    List<String> permutations = new ArrayList<>();
    if (n == 1) {
        permutations.add(new String(str));
    }
    else {
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            permutations.addAll(permute(str, n-1));
            if (n % 2 == 0) {
                swap(str, i, n-1);
            }
            else {
                swap(str, 0, n-1);
            }
        }
    }
    return permutations;
}


public static void swap(char[] str, int i, int j) {
    char temp = str[i];
    str[i] = str[j];
    str[j] = temp;
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

    List<String> permutations = permute("abcdefgh".toCharArray(), 8);

    System.out.println(permutations);

}
}

Time Complexity would be O(n! * n) with O(n) as space complexity.

Answer 54

//Loop thro' the entire character array and keep 'i' as the basis of your permutation and keep finding the combination like you swap [ab, ba]

public class Permutation {
    //Act as a queue
    private List<Character> list;
    //To remove the duplicates
    private Set<String> set = new HashSet<String>();

    public Permutation(String s) {
        list = new LinkedList<Character>();
        int len = s.length();
        for(int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
            list.add(s.charAt(i));
        }
    }

    public List<String> getStack(Character c, List<Character> list) {
        LinkedList<String> stack = new LinkedList<String>();
        stack.add(""+c);
        for(Character ch: list) {
            stack.add(""+ch);
        }

        return stack;
    }

    public String printCombination(String s1, String s2) {
        //S1 will be a single character
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        String[] strArr = s2.split(",");
        for(String s: strArr) {
            sb.append(s).append(s1);
            sb.append(",");
        }       
        for(String s: strArr) {
            sb.append(s1).append(s);
            sb.append(",");
        }

        return sb.toString();
    }

    public void printPerumtation() {
        int cnt = list.size();

        for(int i = 0; i < cnt; i++) {
            Character c = list.get(0);
            list.remove(0);
            List<String> stack = getStack(c, list);

            while(stack.size() > 1) {
                //Remove the top two elements
                String s2 = stack.remove(stack.size() - 1);
                String s1 = stack.remove(stack.size() - 1);
                String comS = printCombination(s1, s2);
                stack.add(comS);
            }

            String[] perms = (stack.remove(0)).split(",");
            for(String perm: perms) {
                set.add(perm);
            }

            list.add(c);
        }

        for(String s: set) {
            System.out.println(s);
        }
    }
}

Answer 55

Improved Code for the same

    static String permutationStr[];
    static int indexStr = 0;

    static int factorial (int i) {
        if (i == 1)
            return 1;
        else
            return i * factorial(i-1);
    }

    public static void permutation(String str) {
        char strArr[] = str.toLowerCase().toCharArray();
        java.util.Arrays.sort(strArr);

        int count = 1, dr = 1;
        for (int i = 0; i < strArr.length-1; i++){
            if ( strArr[i] == strArr[i+1]) {
                count++;
            } else {
                dr *= factorial(count);
                count = 1;
            }       
        }
        dr *= factorial(count);

        count = factorial(strArr.length) / dr;

        permutationStr = new String[count];

        permutation("", str);

        for (String oneStr : permutationStr){
            System.out.println(oneStr);
        }
    }

    private static void permutation(String prefix, String str) {
        int n = str.length();
        if (n == 0) {
            for (int i = 0; i < indexStr; i++){
                if(permutationStr[i].equals(prefix))
                    return;
            }        
            permutationStr[indexStr++] = prefix;
        } else {
            for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
                permutation(prefix + str.charAt(i), str.substring(0, i) + str.substring(i + 1, n));
            }
        }
    }

Answer 56

import java.io.*;
public class Anagram {

public static void main(String[] args) {
      java.util.Scanner sc=new java.util.Scanner(System.in);
            PrintWriter p=new PrintWriter(System.out,true);
            p.println("Enter Word");
            String a[],s="",st;boolean flag=true;
            int in[],n,nf=1,i,j=0,k,m=0;
            char l[];
            st=sc.next();
            p.println("Anagrams");
            p.println("1 . "+st);
            l=st.toCharArray();
            n=st.length();
            for(i=1;i<=n;i++){
                nf*=i;
            }

            i=1;
            a=new String[nf];
            in=new int[n];
            a[0]=st;
            while(i<nf){
                for(m=0;m<n;m++){
                    in[m]=n;
                }j=0;
                while(j<n){
                    k=(int)(n*Math.random());

                    for(m=0;m<=j;m++){
                        if(k==in[m]){
                            flag=false;
                            break;          
                        }
                    }
                    if(flag==true){
                        in[j++]=k;
                    }flag=true;
                }s="";
                for(j=0;j<n;j++){
                    s+=l[in[j]];
                }

                //Removing same words
                for(m=0;m<=i;m++){
                        if(s.equalsIgnoreCase(a[m])){
                            flag=false;
                            break;          
                        }
                    }
                    if(flag==true){
                        a[i++]=s;
                        p.println(i+" . "+a[i-1]);
                    }flag=true;

            }

    }
}

Answer 57

Here are two c# versions (just for reference): 1. Prints all permuations 2. returns all permutations

Basic gist of the algorithm is (probably below code is more intuitive - nevertheless, here is some explanation of what below code does): - from the current index to for the rest of the collection, swap the element at current index - get the permutations for the remaining elements from next index recursively - restore the order, by re-swapping

Note: the above recursive function will be invoked from the start index.

private void PrintAllPermutations(int[] a, int index, ref int count)
        {
            if (index == (a.Length - 1))
            {
                count++;
                var s = string.Format("{0}: {1}", count, string.Join(",", a));
                Debug.WriteLine(s);
            }
            for (int i = index; i < a.Length; i++)
            {
                Utilities.swap(ref a[i], ref a[index]);
                this.PrintAllPermutations(a, index + 1, ref count);
                Utilities.swap(ref a[i], ref a[index]);
            }
        }
        private int PrintAllPermutations(int[] a)
        {
            a.ThrowIfNull("a");
            int count = 0;
            this.PrintAllPermutations(a, index:0, count: ref count);
            return count;
        }

version 2 (same as above - but returns the permutations in lieu of printing)

private int[][] GetAllPermutations(int[] a, int index)
        {
            List<int[]> permutations = new List<int[]>();
            if (index == (a.Length - 1))
            {
                permutations.Add(a.ToArray());
            }

            for (int i = index; i < a.Length; i++)
            {
                Utilities.swap(ref a[i], ref a[index]);
                var r = this.GetAllPermutations(a, index + 1);
                permutations.AddRange(r);
                Utilities.swap(ref a[i], ref a[index]);
            }
            return permutations.ToArray();
        }
        private int[][] GetAllPermutations(int[] p)
        {
            p.ThrowIfNull("p");
            return this.GetAllPermutations(p, 0);
        }

Unit Tests

[TestMethod]
        public void PermutationsTests()
        {
            List<int> input = new List<int>();
            int[] output = { 0, 1, 2, 6, 24, 120 };
            for (int i = 0; i <= 5; i++)
            {
                if (i != 0)
                {
                    input.Add(i);
                }
                Debug.WriteLine("================PrintAllPermutations===================");
                int count = this.PrintAllPermutations(input.ToArray());
                Assert.IsTrue(count == output[i]);
                Debug.WriteLine("=====================GetAllPermutations=================");
                var r = this.GetAllPermutations(input.ToArray());
                Assert.IsTrue(count == r.Length);
                for (int j = 1; j <= r.Length;j++ )
                {
                    string s = string.Format("{0}: {1}", j,
                        string.Join(",", r[j - 1]));
                    Debug.WriteLine(s);
                }
                Debug.WriteLine("No.OfElements: {0}, TotalPerms: {1}", i, count);
            }
        }