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

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 2

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 3

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 4

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 5

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 6

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 7

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 8

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 9

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 10

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 11

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 12

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 13

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 14

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 15

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 16

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 17

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 18

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 19

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 20

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 21

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 22

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 23

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 24

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 25

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 26

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 27

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 28

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 29

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 30

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','')