Listing all permutations of a string/integer

Question

A common task in programming interviews (not from my experience of interviews though) is to take a string or an integer and list every possible permutation.

Is there

Answer 1

Here is a C# answer which is a little simplified.

public static void StringPermutationsDemo()
{
    strBldr = new StringBuilder();

    string result = Permute("ABCD".ToCharArray(), 0);
    MessageBox.Show(result);
}     

static string Permute(char[] elementsList, int startIndex)
{
    if (startIndex == elementsList.Length)
    {
        foreach (char element in elementsList)
        {
            strBldr.Append(" " + element);
        }
        strBldr.AppendLine("");
    }
    else
    {
        for (int tempIndex = startIndex; tempIndex <= elementsList.Length - 1; tempIndex++)
        {
            Swap(ref elementsList[startIndex], ref elementsList[tempIndex]);

            Permute(elementsList, (startIndex + 1));

            Swap(ref elementsList[startIndex], ref elementsList[tempIndex]);
        }
    }

    return strBldr.ToString();
}

static void Swap(ref char Char1, ref char Char2)
{
    char tempElement = Char1;
    Char1 = Char2;
    Char2 = tempElement;
}

Output:

1 2 3
1 3 2

2 1 3
2 3 1

3 2 1
3 1 2