Permutations in JavaScript?

Question

I\'m trying to write a function that does the following:

• takes an array of integers as an argument (e.g. [1,2,3,4])
• creates an array of all the possib

Answer 1

Little late, but like to add a slightly more elegant version here. Can be any array...

function permutator(inputArr) {
  var results = [];

  function permute(arr, memo) {
    var cur, memo = memo || [];

    for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
      cur = arr.splice(i, 1);
      if (arr.length === 0) {
        results.push(memo.concat(cur));
      }
      permute(arr.slice(), memo.concat(cur));
      arr.splice(i, 0, cur[0]);
    }

    return results;
  }

  return permute(inputArr);
}

Adding an ES6 (2015) version. Also does not mutate the original input array. Works in the console in Chrome...

const permutator = (inputArr) => {
  let result = [];

  const permute = (arr, m = []) => {
    if (arr.length === 0) {
      result.push(m)
    } else {
      for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        let curr = arr.slice();
        let next = curr.splice(i, 1);
        permute(curr.slice(), m.concat(next))
     }
   }
 }

 permute(inputArr)

 return result;
}

So...

permutator(['c','a','t']);

Yields...

[ [ 'c', 'a', 't' ],
  [ 'c', 't', 'a' ],
  [ 'a', 'c', 't' ],
  [ 'a', 't', 'c' ],
  [ 't', 'c', 'a' ],
  [ 't', 'a', 'c' ] ]

And...

permutator([1,2,3]);

Yields...

[ [ 1, 2, 3 ],
  [ 1, 3, 2 ],
  [ 2, 1, 3 ],
  [ 2, 3, 1 ],
  [ 3, 1, 2 ],
  [ 3, 2, 1 ] ]