Reputation: 13746
How do I generate all permutations of a list?
How do I generate all the permutations of a list? For example:
permutations([])
[]
permutations([1])
[1]
permutations([1, 2])
[1, 2]
[2, 1]
permutations([1, 2, 3])
[1, 2, 3]
[1, 3, 2]
[2, 1, 3]
[2, 3, 1]
[3, 1, 2]
[3, 2, 1]
Upvotes: 867
Views: 1142134
Answers (30)
Reputation: 273366
Use itertools.permutations from the standard library:
import itertools
list(itertools.permutations([1, 2, 3]))
A demonstration of how itertools.permutations might be implemented:
def permutations(elements):
if len(elements) <= 1:
yield elements
return
for perm in permutations(elements[1:]):
for i in range(len(elements)):
# nb elements[0:1] works in both string and list contexts
yield perm[:i] + elements[0:1] + perm[i:]
A couple of alternative approaches are listed in the documentation of itertools.permutations. Here's one:
def permutations(iterable, r=None):
# permutations('ABCD', 2) --> AB AC AD BA BC BD CA CB CD DA DB DC
# permutations(range(3)) --> 012 021 102 120 201 210
pool = tuple(iterable)
n = len(pool)
r = n if r is None else r
if r > n:
return
indices = range(n)
cycles = range(n, n-r, -1)
yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices[:r])
while n:
for i in reversed(range(r)):
cycles[i] -= 1
if cycles[i] == 0:
indices[i:] = indices[i+1:] + indices[i:i+1]
cycles[i] = n - i
else:
j = cycles[i]
indices[i], indices[-j] = indices[-j], indices[i]
yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices[:r])
break
else:
return
And another, based on itertools.product:
def permutations(iterable, r=None):
pool = tuple(iterable)
n = len(pool)
r = n if r is None else r
for indices in product(range(n), repeat=r):
if len(set(indices)) == r:
yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices)
Upvotes: 776
Reputation: 6490
Alternatively you could also rotate
def perm_rotate(elements):
if len(elements) <= 1:
yield elements
return
for _ in range(len(elements)):
for perm in perm_rotate(elements[1:]):
yield [elements[0]] + perm
elements = rotate(elements)
def rotate(numbers):
return [numbers[-1]] + numbers[: len(numbers)-1]
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 596593
First, import itertools:
import itertools
Permutation (order matters):
print(list(itertools.permutations([1,2,3,4], 2)))
[(1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4),
(2, 1), (2, 3), (2, 4),
(3, 1), (3, 2), (3, 4),
(4, 1), (4, 2), (4, 3)]
Combination (order does NOT matter):
print(list(itertools.combinations('123', 2)))
[('1', '2'), ('1', '3'), ('2', '3')]
Cartesian product (with several iterables):
print(list(itertools.product([1,2,3], [4,5,6])))
[(1, 4), (1, 5), (1, 6),
(2, 4), (2, 5), (2, 6),
(3, 4), (3, 5), (3, 6)]
Cartesian product (with one iterable and itself):
print(list(itertools.product([1,2], repeat=3)))
[(1, 1, 1), (1, 1, 2), (1, 2, 1), (1, 2, 2),
(2, 1, 1), (2, 1, 2), (2, 2, 1), (2, 2, 2)]
Upvotes: 365
Reputation: 5030
Disclaimer: shameless plug by package author. :)
The trotter package is different from most implementations in that it generates pseudo lists that don't actually contain permutations but rather describe mappings between permutations and respective positions in an ordering, making it possible to work with very large 'lists' of permutations, as shown in this demo which performs pretty instantaneous operations and look-ups in a pseudo-list 'containing' all the permutations of the letters in the alphabet, without using more memory or processing than a typical web page.
In any case, to generate a list of permutations, we can do the following.
import trotter
my_permutations = trotter.Permutations(3, [1, 2, 3])
print(my_permutations)
for p in my_permutations:
print(p)
Output:
A pseudo-list containing 6 3-permutations of [1, 2, 3]. [1, 2, 3] [1, 3, 2] [3, 1, 2] [3, 2, 1] [2, 3, 1] [2, 1, 3]
Upvotes: 5
Reputation: 119211
For Python 2.6 onwards:
import itertools
itertools.permutations([1, 2, 3])
This returns as a generator. Use list(permutations(xs)) to return as a list.
Upvotes: 374
Reputation: 114
In case the user wants to keep all permutations in a list, the following code can be used:
def get_permutations(nums, p_list=[], temp_items=[]):
if not nums:
return
elif len(nums) == 1:
new_items = temp_items+[nums[0]]
p_list.append(new_items)
return
else:
for i in range(len(nums)):
temp_nums = nums[:i]+nums[i+1:]
new_temp_items = temp_items + [nums[i]]
get_permutations(temp_nums, p_list, new_temp_items)
nums = [1,2,3]
p_list = []
get_permutations(nums, p_list)
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 49182
Solving with recursion, iterate through elements, take i'th element, and ask yourself: 'What is the permutation of rest of items` till no more element left.
I explained the solution here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7GE7psS2b4
class Solution:
def permute(self,nums:List[int])->List[List[int]]:
res=[]
def dfs(nums,path):
if len(nums)==0:
res.append(path)
for i in range(len(nums)):
dfs(nums[:i]+nums[i+1:],path+[nums[i]])
dfs(nums,[])
return res
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 534
def permutate(l):
for i, x in enumerate(l):
for y in l[i + 1:]:
yield x, y
if __name__ == '__main__':
print(list(permutate(list('abcd'))))
print(list(permutate([1, 2, 3, 4])))
#[('a', 'b'), ('a', 'c'), ('a', 'd'), ('b', 'c'), ('b', 'd'), ('c', 'd')]
#[(1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 3), (2, 4), (3, 4)]
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 1971
If you don't want to use the builtin methods such as:
import itertools
list(itertools.permutations([1, 2, 3]))
you can implement permute function yourself
from collections.abc import Iterable
def permute(iterable: Iterable[str]) -> set[str]:
perms = set()
if len(iterable) == 1:
return {*iterable}
for index, char in enumerate(iterable):
perms.update([char + perm for perm in permute(iterable[:index] + iterable[index + 1:])])
return perms
if __name__ == '__main__':
print(permute('abc'))
# {'bca', 'abc', 'cab', 'acb', 'cba', 'bac'}
print(permute(['1', '2', '3']))
# {'123', '312', '132', '321', '213', '231'}
Upvotes: 5
Reputation: 371
This is the asymptotically optimal way O(n*n!) of generating permutations after initial sorting.
There are n! permutations at most and hasNextPermutation(..) runs in O(n) time complexity
In 3 steps,
- Find largest j such that a[j] can be increased
- Increase a[j] by smallest feasible amount
- Find lexicogrpahically least way to extend the new a[0..j]
'''
Lexicographic permutation generation
consider example array state of [1,5,6,4,3,2] for sorted [1,2,3,4,5,6]
after 56432(treat as number) ->nothing larger than 6432(using 6,4,3,2) beginning with 5
so 6 is next larger and 2345(least using numbers other than 6)
so [1, 6,2,3,4,5]
'''
def hasNextPermutation(array, len):
' Base Condition '
if(len ==1):
return False
'''
Set j = last-2 and find first j such that a[j] < a[j+1]
If no such j(j==-1) then we have visited all permutations
after this step a[j+1]>=..>=a[len-1] and a[j]<a[j+1]
a[j]=5 or j=1, 6>5>4>3>2
'''
j = len -2
while (j >= 0 and array[j] >= array[j + 1]):
j= j-1
if(j==-1):
return False
# print(f"After step 2 for j {j} {array}")
'''
decrease l (from n-1 to j) repeatedly until a[j]<a[l]
Then swap a[j], a[l]
a[l] is the smallest element > a[j] that can follow a[l]...a[j-1] in permutation
before swap we have a[j+1]>=..>=a[l-1]>=a[l]>a[j]>=a[l+1]>=..>=a[len-1]
after swap -> a[j+1]>=..>=a[l-1]>=a[j]>a[l]>=a[l+1]>=..>=a[len-1]
a[l]=6 or l=2, j=1 just before swap [1, 5, 6, 4, 3, 2]
after swap [1, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2] a[l]=5, a[j]=6
'''
l = len -1
while(array[j] >= array[l]):
l = l-1
# print(f"After step 3 for l={l}, j={j} before swap {array}")
array[j], array[l] = array[l], array[j]
# print(f"After step 3 for l={l} j={j} after swap {array}")
'''
Reverse a[j+1...len-1](both inclusive)
after reversing [1, 6, 2, 3, 4, 5]
'''
array[j+1:len] = reversed(array[j+1:len])
# print(f"After step 4 reversing {array}")
return True
array = [1,2,4,4,5]
array.sort()
len = len(array)
count =1
print(array)
'''
The algorithm visits every permutation in lexicographic order
generating one by one
'''
while(hasNextPermutation(array, len)):
print(array)
count = count +1
# The number of permutations will be n! if no duplicates are present, else less than that
# [1,4,3,3,2] -> 5!/2!=60
print(f"Number of permutations: {count}")
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 3005
in case anyone fancies this ugly one-liner (works only for strings though):
def p(a):
return a if len(a) == 1 else [[a[i], *j] for i in range(len(a)) for j in p(a[:i] + a[i + 1:])]
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 21
from typing import List
import time, random
def measure_time(func):
def wrapper_time(*args, **kwargs):
start_time = time.perf_counter()
res = func(*args, **kwargs)
end_time = time.perf_counter()
return res, end_time - start_time
return wrapper_time
class Solution:
def permute(self, nums: List[int], method: int = 1) -> List[List[int]]:
perms = []
perm = []
if method == 1:
_, time_perm = self._permute_recur(nums, 0, len(nums) - 1, perms)
elif method == 2:
_, time_perm = self._permute_recur_agian(nums, perm, perms)
print(perm)
return perms, time_perm
@measure_time
def _permute_recur(self, nums: List[int], l: int, r: int, perms: List[List[int]]):
# base case
if l == r:
perms.append(nums.copy())
for i in range(l, r + 1):
nums[l], nums[i] = nums[i], nums[l]
self._permute_recur(nums, l + 1, r , perms)
nums[l], nums[i] = nums[i], nums[l]
@measure_time
def _permute_recur_agian(self, nums: List[int], perm: List[int], perms_list: List[List[int]]):
"""
The idea is similar to nestedForLoops visualized as a recursion tree.
"""
if nums:
for i in range(len(nums)):
# perm.append(nums[i]) mistake, perm will be filled with all nums's elements.
# Method1 perm_copy = copy.deepcopy(perm)
# Method2 add in the parameter list using + (not in place)
# caveat: list.append is in-place , which is useful for operating on global element perms_list
# Note that:
# perms_list pass by reference. shallow copy
# perm + [nums[i]] pass by value instead of reference.
self._permute_recur_agian(nums[:i] + nums[i+1:], perm + [nums[i]], perms_list)
else:
# Arrive at the last loop, i.e. leaf of the recursion tree.
perms_list.append(perm)
if __name__ == "__main__":
array = [random.randint(-10, 10) for _ in range(3)]
sol = Solution()
# perms, time_perm = sol.permute(array, 1)
perms2, time_perm2 = sol.permute(array, 2)
print(perms2)
# print(perms, perms2)
# print(time_perm, time_perm2)
```
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 705
def permutations(head, tail=''):
if len(head) == 0:
print(tail)
else:
for i in range(len(head)):
permutations(head[:i] + head[i+1:], tail + head[i])
called as:
permutations('abc')
Upvotes: 67
Reputation:
Anyway we could use sympy library , also support for multiset permutations
import sympy
from sympy.utilities.iterables import multiset_permutations
t = [1,2,3]
p = list(multiset_permutations(t))
print(p)
# [[1, 2, 3], [1, 3, 2], [2, 1, 3], [2, 3, 1], [3, 1, 2], [3, 2, 1]]
Answer is highly inspired by Get all permutations of a numpy array
Upvotes: 2
Reputation: 11
def permuteArray (arr):
arraySize = len(arr)
permutedList = []
if arraySize == 1:
return [arr]
i = 0
for item in arr:
for elem in permuteArray(arr[:i] + arr[i + 1:]):
permutedList.append([item] + elem)
i = i + 1
return permutedList
I intended to not exhaust every possibility in a new line to make it somewhat unique.
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 94475
One can indeed iterate over the first element of each permutation, as in tzwenn's answer. It is however more efficient to write this solution this way:
def all_perms(elements):
if len(elements) <= 1:
yield elements # Only permutation possible = no permutation
else:
# Iteration over the first element in the result permutation:
for (index, first_elmt) in enumerate(elements):
other_elmts = elements[:index]+elements[index+1:]
for permutation in all_perms(other_elmts):
yield [first_elmt] + permutation
This solution is about 30 % faster, apparently thanks to the recursion ending at len(elements) <= 1 instead of 0.
It is also much more memory-efficient, as it uses a generator function (through yield), like in Riccardo Reyes's solution.
Upvotes: 8
Reputation: 6404
Regular implementation (no yield - will do everything in memory):
def getPermutations(array):
if len(array) == 1:
return [array]
permutations = []
for i in range(len(array)):
# get all perm's of subarray w/o current item
perms = getPermutations(array[:i] + array[i+1:])
for p in perms:
permutations.append([array[i], *p])
return permutations
Yield implementation:
def getPermutations(array):
if len(array) == 1:
yield array
else:
for i in range(len(array)):
perms = getPermutations(array[:i] + array[i+1:])
for p in perms:
yield [array[i], *p]
The basic idea is to go over all the elements in the array for the 1st position, and then in 2nd position go over all the rest of the elements without the chosen element for the 1st, etc. You can do this with recursion, where the stop criteria is getting to an array of 1 element - in which case you return that array.
Upvotes: 23
Reputation: 1891
ANOTHER APPROACH (without libs)
def permutation(input):
if len(input) == 1:
return input if isinstance(input, list) else [input]
result = []
for i in range(len(input)):
first = input[i]
rest = input[:i] + input[i + 1:]
rest_permutation = permutation(rest)
for p in rest_permutation:
result.append(first + p)
return result
Input can be a string or a list
print(permutation('abcd'))
print(permutation(['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']))
Upvotes: 4
Reputation: 740
Using Counter
from collections import Counter
def permutations(nums):
ans = [[]]
cache = Counter(nums)
for idx, x in enumerate(nums):
result = []
for items in ans:
cache1 = Counter(items)
for id, n in enumerate(nums):
if cache[n] != cache1[n] and items + [n] not in result:
result.append(items + [n])
ans = result
return ans
permutations([1, 2, 2])
> [[1, 2, 2], [2, 1, 2], [2, 2, 1]]
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 2400
To save you folks possible hours of searching and experimenting, here's the non-recursive permutaions solution in Python which also works with Numba (as of v. 0.41):
@numba.njit()
def permutations(A, k):
r = [[i for i in range(0)]]
for i in range(k):
r = [[a] + b for a in A for b in r if (a in b)==False]
return r
permutations([1,2,3],3)
[[1, 2, 3], [1, 3, 2], [2, 1, 3], [2, 3, 1], [3, 1, 2], [3, 2, 1]]
To give an impression about performance:
%timeit permutations(np.arange(5),5)
243 µs ± 11.1 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)
time: 406 ms
%timeit list(itertools.permutations(np.arange(5),5))
15.9 µs ± 8.61 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)
time: 12.9 s
So use this version only if you have to call it from njitted function, otherwise prefer itertools implementation.
Upvotes: 2
Reputation: 95
def permutation(word, first_char=None):
if word == None or len(word) == 0: return []
if len(word) == 1: return [word]
result = []
first_char = word[0]
for sub_word in permutation(word[1:], first_char):
result += insert(first_char, sub_word)
return sorted(result)
def insert(ch, sub_word):
arr = [ch + sub_word]
for i in range(len(sub_word)):
arr.append(sub_word[i:] + ch + sub_word[:i])
return arr
assert permutation(None) == []
assert permutation('') == []
assert permutation('1') == ['1']
assert permutation('12') == ['12', '21']
print permutation('abc')
Output: ['abc', 'acb', 'bac', 'bca', 'cab', 'cba']
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 491
#!/usr/bin/env python
def perm(a, k=0):
if k == len(a):
print a
else:
for i in xrange(k, len(a)):
a[k], a[i] = a[i] ,a[k]
perm(a, k+1)
a[k], a[i] = a[i], a[k]
perm([1,2,3])
Output:
[1, 2, 3]
[1, 3, 2]
[2, 1, 3]
[2, 3, 1]
[3, 2, 1]
[3, 1, 2]
As I'm swapping the content of the list it's required a mutable sequence type as input. E.g. perm(list("ball")) will work and perm("ball") won't because you can't change a string.
This Python implementation is inspired by the algorithm presented in the book Computer Algorithms by Horowitz, Sahni and Rajasekeran.
Upvotes: 41
Reputation: 64672
My Python Solution:
def permutes(input,offset):
if( len(input) == offset ):
return [''.join(input)]
result=[]
for i in range( offset, len(input) ):
input[offset], input[i] = input[i], input[offset]
result = result + permutes(input,offset+1)
input[offset], input[i] = input[i], input[offset]
return result
# input is a "string"
# return value is a list of strings
def permutations(input):
return permutes( list(input), 0 )
# Main Program
print( permutations("wxyz") )
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 4587
Another solution:
def permutation(flag, k =1 ):
N = len(flag)
for i in xrange(0, N):
if flag[i] != 0:
continue
flag[i] = k
if k == N:
print flag
permutation(flag, k+1)
flag[i] = 0
permutation([0, 0, 0])
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 308
I see a lot of iteration going on inside these recursive functions, not exactly pure recursion...
so for those of you who cannot abide by even a single loop, here's a gross, totally unnecessary fully recursive solution
def all_insert(x, e, i=0):
return [x[0:i]+[e]+x[i:]] + all_insert(x,e,i+1) if i<len(x)+1 else []
def for_each(X, e):
return all_insert(X[0], e) + for_each(X[1:],e) if X else []
def permute(x):
return [x] if len(x) < 2 else for_each( permute(x[1:]) , x[0])
perms = permute([1,2,3])
Upvotes: 2
Reputation: 123
Generate all possible permutations
I'm using python3.4:
def calcperm(arr, size):
result = set([()])
for dummy_idx in range(size):
temp = set()
for dummy_lst in result:
for dummy_outcome in arr:
if dummy_outcome not in dummy_lst:
new_seq = list(dummy_lst)
new_seq.append(dummy_outcome)
temp.add(tuple(new_seq))
result = temp
return result
Test Cases:
lst = [1, 2, 3, 4]
#lst = ["yellow", "magenta", "white", "blue"]
seq = 2
final = calcperm(lst, seq)
print(len(final))
print(final)
Upvotes: 3
Reputation: 209
In a functional style
def addperm(x,l):
return [ l[0:i] + [x] + l[i:] for i in range(len(l)+1) ]
def perm(l):
if len(l) == 0:
return [[]]
return [x for y in perm(l[1:]) for x in addperm(l[0],y) ]
print perm([ i for i in range(3)])
The result:
[[0, 1, 2], [1, 0, 2], [1, 2, 0], [0, 2, 1], [2, 0, 1], [2, 1, 0]]
Upvotes: 20
Reputation: 18628
For performance, a numpy solution inspired by Knuth, (p22) :
from numpy import empty, uint8
from math import factorial
def perms(n):
f = 1
p = empty((2*n-1, factorial(n)), uint8)
for i in range(n):
p[i, :f] = i
p[i+1:2*i+1, :f] = p[:i, :f] # constitution de blocs
for j in range(i):
p[:i+1, f*(j+1):f*(j+2)] = p[j+1:j+i+2, :f] # copie de blocs
f = f*(i+1)
return p[:n, :]
Copying large blocs of memory saves time -
it's 20x faster than list(itertools.permutations(range(n)) :
In [1]: %timeit -n10 list(permutations(range(10)))
10 loops, best of 3: 815 ms per loop
In [2]: %timeit -n100 perms(10)
100 loops, best of 3: 40 ms per loop
Upvotes: 7
Reputation: 861
for Python we can use itertools and import both permutations and combinations to solve your problem
from itertools import product, permutations
A = ([1,2,3])
print (list(permutations(sorted(A),2)))
Upvotes: -3
Reputation: 31
def pzip(c, seq):
result = []
for item in seq:
for i in range(len(item)+1):
result.append(item[i:]+c+item[:i])
return result
def perm(line):
seq = [c for c in line]
if len(seq) <=1 :
return seq
else:
return pzip(seq[0], perm(seq[1:]))
Upvotes: 3
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