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

The following very efficient algorithm uses Heap's method to generate all permutations of N elements with runtime complexity in O(N!):

function permute(permutation) {
  var length = permutation.length,
      result = [permutation.slice()],
      c = new Array(length).fill(0),
      i = 1, k, p;

  while (i < length) {
    if (c[i] < i) {
      k = i % 2 && c[i];
      p = permutation[i];
      permutation[i] = permutation[k];
      permutation[k] = p;
      ++c[i];
      i = 1;
      result.push(permutation.slice());
    } else {
      c[i] = 0;
      ++i;
    }
  }
  return result;
}

console.log(permute([1, 2, 3]));

The same algorithm implemented as a generator with space complexity in O(N):

function* permute(permutation) {
  var length = permutation.length,
      c = Array(length).fill(0),
      i = 1, k, p;

  yield permutation.slice();
  while (i < length) {
    if (c[i] < i) {
      k = i % 2 && c[i];
      p = permutation[i];
      permutation[i] = permutation[k];
      permutation[k] = p;
      ++c[i];
      i = 1;
      yield permutation.slice();
    } else {
      c[i] = 0;
      ++i;
    }
  }
}

// Memory efficient iteration through permutations:
for (var permutation of permute([1, 2, 3])) console.log(permutation);

// Simple array conversion:
var permutations = [...permute([1, 2, 3])];

Performance comparison

Feel free to add your implementation to the following benchmark.js test suite:

function permute_SiGanteng(input) {
  var permArr = [],
    usedChars = [];

  function permute(input) {
    var i, ch;
    for (i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
      ch = input.splice(i, 1)[0];
      usedChars.push(ch);
      if (input.length == 0) {
        permArr.push(usedChars.slice());
      }
      permute(input);
      input.splice(i, 0, ch);
      usedChars.pop();
    }
    return permArr
  }
  return permute(input);
}

function permute_delimited(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);
}

function permute_monkey(inputArray) {
  return inputArray.reduce(function permute(res, item, key, arr) {
    return res.concat(arr.length > 1 && arr.slice(0, key).concat(arr.slice(key + 1)).reduce(permute, []).map(function(perm) {
      return [item].concat(perm);
    }) || item);
  }, []);
}

function permute_Oriol(input) {
  var permArr = [],
    usedChars = [];
  return (function main() {
    for (var i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
      var ch = input.splice(i, 1)[0];
      usedChars.push(ch);
      if (input.length == 0) {
        permArr.push(usedChars.slice());
      }
      main();
      input.splice(i, 0, ch);
      usedChars.pop();
    }
    return permArr;
  })();
}

function permute_MarkusT(input) {
  function permutate(array, callback) {
      function p(array, index, callback) {
          function swap(a, i1, i2) {
              var t = a[i1];
              a[i1] = a[i2];
              a[i2] = t;
          }
          if (index == array.length - 1) {
              callback(array);
              return 1;
          } else {
              var count = p(array, index + 1, callback);
              for (var i = index + 1; i < array.length; i++) {
                  swap(array, i, index);
                  count += p(array, index + 1, callback);
                  swap(array, i, index);
              }
              return count;
          }
      }
      if (!array || array.length == 0) {
          return 0;
      }
      return p(array, 0, callback);
  }
  var result = [];
  permutate(input, function(a) {
      result.push(a.slice(0));
  });
  return result;
}

function permute_le_m(permutation) {
  var length = permutation.length,
  		result = [permutation.slice()],
      c = new Array(length).fill(0),
      i = 1, k, p;
  
  while (i < length) {
    if (c[i] < i) {
      k = i % 2 && c[i],
      p = permutation[i];
      permutation[i] = permutation[k];
      permutation[k] = p;
      ++c[i];
      i = 1;
      result.push(permutation.slice());
    } else {
      c[i] = 0;
      ++i;
    }
  }
  return result;
}

function permute_Urielzen(arr) {
    var finalArr = [];
    var iterator = function (arrayTaken, tree) {
        for (var i = 0; i < tree; i++) {
            var temp = arrayTaken.slice();
            temp.splice(tree - 1 - i, 0, temp.splice(tree - 1, 1)[0]);
            if (tree >= arr.length) {
                finalArr.push(temp);
            } else { iterator(temp, tree + 1); }
        }
    }
    iterator(arr, 1); return finalArr;
}

function permute_Taylor_Hakes(arr) {
  var permutations = [];
  if (arr.length === 1) {
    return [ arr ];
  }

  for (var i = 0; i <  arr.length; i++) { 
    var subPerms = permute_Taylor_Hakes(arr.slice(0, i).concat(arr.slice(i + 1)));
    for (var j = 0; j < subPerms.length; j++) {
      subPerms[j].unshift(arr[i]);
      permutations.push(subPerms[j]);
    }
  }
  return permutations;
}

var Combinatorics = (function () {
    'use strict';
    var version = "0.5.2";
    /* combinatory arithmetics */
    var P = function(m, n) {
        var p = 1;
        while (n--) p *= m--;
        return p;
    };
    var C = function(m, n) {
        if (n > m) {
            return 0;
        }
        return P(m, n) / P(n, n);
    };
    var factorial = function(n) {
        return P(n, n);
    };
    var factoradic = function(n, d) {
        var f = 1;
        if (!d) {
            for (d = 1; f < n; f *= ++d);
            if (f > n) f /= d--;
        } else {
            f = factorial(d);
        }
        var result = [0];
        for (; d; f /= d--) {
            result[d] = Math.floor(n / f);
            n %= f;
        }
        return result;
    };
    /* common methods */
    var addProperties = function(dst, src) {
        Object.keys(src).forEach(function(p) {
            Object.defineProperty(dst, p, {
                value: src[p],
                configurable: p == 'next'
            });
        });
    };
    var hideProperty = function(o, p) {
        Object.defineProperty(o, p, {
            writable: true
        });
    };
    var toArray = function(f) {
        var e, result = [];
        this.init();
        while (e = this.next()) result.push(f ? f(e) : e);
        this.init();
        return result;
    };
    var common = {
        toArray: toArray,
        map: toArray,
        forEach: function(f) {
            var e;
            this.init();
            while (e = this.next()) f(e);
            this.init();
        },
        filter: function(f) {
            var e, result = [];
            this.init();
            while (e = this.next()) if (f(e)) result.push(e);
            this.init();
            return result;
        },
        lazyMap: function(f) {
            this._lazyMap = f;
            return this;
        },
        lazyFilter: function(f) {
            Object.defineProperty(this, 'next', {
                writable: true
            });
            if (typeof f !== 'function') {
                this.next = this._next;
            } else {
                if (typeof (this._next) !== 'function') {
                    this._next = this.next;
                }
                var _next = this._next.bind(this);
                this.next = (function() {
                    var e;
                    while (e = _next()) {
                        if (f(e))
                            return e;
                    }
                    return e;
                }).bind(this);
            }
            Object.defineProperty(this, 'next', {
                writable: false
            });
            return this;
        }

    };
    /* power set */
    var power = function(ary, fun) {
        var size = 1 << ary.length,
            sizeOf = function() {
                return size;
            },
            that = Object.create(ary.slice(), {
                length: {
                    get: sizeOf
                }
            });
        hideProperty(that, 'index');
        addProperties(that, {
            valueOf: sizeOf,
            init: function() {
                that.index = 0;
            },
            nth: function(n) {
                if (n >= size) return;
                var i = 0,
                    result = [];
                for (; n; n >>>= 1, i++) if (n & 1) result.push(this[i]);
                return (typeof (that._lazyMap) === 'function')?that._lazyMap(result):result;
            },
            next: function() {
                return this.nth(this.index++);
            }
        });
        addProperties(that, common);
        that.init();
        return (typeof (fun) === 'function') ? that.map(fun) : that;
    };
    /* combination */
    var nextIndex = function(n) {
        var smallest = n & -n,
            ripple = n + smallest,
            new_smallest = ripple & -ripple,
            ones = ((new_smallest / smallest) >> 1) - 1;
        return ripple | ones;
    };
    var combination = function(ary, nelem, fun) {
        if (!nelem) nelem = ary.length;
        if (nelem < 1) throw new RangeError;
        if (nelem > ary.length) throw new RangeError;
        var first = (1 << nelem) - 1,
            size = C(ary.length, nelem),
            maxIndex = 1 << ary.length,
            sizeOf = function() {
                return size;
            },
            that = Object.create(ary.slice(), {
                length: {
                    get: sizeOf
                }
            });
        hideProperty(that, 'index');
        addProperties(that, {
            valueOf: sizeOf,
            init: function() {
                this.index = first;
            },
            next: function() {
                if (this.index >= maxIndex) return;
                var i = 0,
                    n = this.index,
                    result = [];
                for (; n; n >>>= 1, i++) {
                    if (n & 1) result[result.length] = this[i];
                }

                this.index = nextIndex(this.index);
                return (typeof (that._lazyMap) === 'function')?that._lazyMap(result):result;
            }
        });
        addProperties(that, common);
        that.init();
        return (typeof (fun) === 'function') ? that.map(fun) : that;
    };
    /* permutation */
    var _permutation = function(ary) {
        var that = ary.slice(),
            size = factorial(that.length);
        that.index = 0;
        that.next = function() {
            if (this.index >= size) return;
            var copy = this.slice(),
                digits = factoradic(this.index, this.length),
                result = [],
                i = this.length - 1;
            for (; i >= 0; --i) result.push(copy.splice(digits[i], 1)[0]);
            this.index++;
            return (typeof (that._lazyMap) === 'function')?that._lazyMap(result):result;
        };
        return that;
    };
    // which is really a permutation of combination
    var permutation = function(ary, nelem, fun) {
        if (!nelem) nelem = ary.length;
        if (nelem < 1) throw new RangeError;
        if (nelem > ary.length) throw new RangeError;
        var size = P(ary.length, nelem),
            sizeOf = function() {
                return size;
            },
            that = Object.create(ary.slice(), {
                length: {
                    get: sizeOf
                }
            });
        hideProperty(that, 'cmb');
        hideProperty(that, 'per');
        addProperties(that, {
            valueOf: function() {
                return size;
            },
            init: function() {
                this.cmb = combination(ary, nelem);
                this.per = _permutation(this.cmb.next());
            },
            next: function() {
                var result = this.per.next();
                if (!result) {
                    var cmb = this.cmb.next();
                    if (!cmb) return;
                    this.per = _permutation(cmb);
                    return this.next();
                }
                return (typeof (that._lazyMap) === 'function')?that._lazyMap(result):result;
            }
        });
        addProperties(that, common);
        that.init();
        return (typeof (fun) === 'function') ? that.map(fun) : that;
    };

    /* export */
    var Combinatorics = Object.create(null);
    addProperties(Combinatorics, {
        C: C,
        P: P,
        factorial: factorial,
        factoradic: factoradic,
        permutation: permutation,
    });
    return Combinatorics;
})();

function permute_Technicalbloke(inputArray) {
  if (inputArray.length === 1) return inputArray;
  return inputArray.reduce( function(accumulator,_,index){
    permute_Technicalbloke([...inputArray.slice(0,index),...inputArray.slice(index+1)])
    .map(value=>accumulator.push([inputArray[index],value]));
    return accumulator;
  },[]);
}

var suite = new Benchmark.Suite;
var input = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4];

suite.add('permute_SiGanteng', function() {
    permute_SiGanteng(input);
  })
  .add('permute_delimited', function() {
    permute_delimited(input);
  })
  .add('permute_monkey', function() {
    permute_monkey(input);
  })
  .add('permute_Oriol', function() {
    permute_Oriol(input);
  })
  .add('permute_MarkusT', function() {
    permute_MarkusT(input);
  })
  .add('permute_le_m', function() {
    permute_le_m(input);
  })
  .add('permute_Urielzen', function() {
    permute_Urielzen(input);
  })
  .add('permute_Taylor_Hakes', function() {
    permute_Taylor_Hakes(input);
  })
  .add('permute_Combinatorics', function() {
    Combinatorics.permutation(input).toArray();
  })
  .add('permute_Technicalbloke', function() {
    permute_Technicalbloke(input);
  })
  .on('cycle', function(event) {
    console.log(String(event.target));
  })
  .on('complete', function() {
    console.log('Fastest is ' + this.filter('fastest').map('name'));
  })
  .run({async: true});

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/platform/1.3.4/platform.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/benchmark/2.1.4/benchmark.min.js"></script>

Run-time results for Chrome 48:

•   99.152ms This algorithm
•  153.115ms MarkusT
•  401.255ms js-combinatorics
•  497.037ms Urielzen
•  925.669ms Oriol
• 1026.571ms SiGanteng
• 2529.841ms delimited
• 3992.622ms monkey
• 4514.665ms Oriol

Answer 2

I have improved SiGanteng's answer.

Now it is possible to call permute more than once, because permArr and usedChars are cleared each time.

function permute(input) {
    var permArr = [],
        usedChars = [];
    return (function main() {
        for (var i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
            var ch = input.splice(i, 1)[0];
            usedChars.push(ch);
            if (input.length == 0) {
                permArr.push(usedChars.slice());
            }
            main();
            input.splice(i, 0, ch);
            usedChars.pop();
        }
        return permArr;
    })();
}

function permute(input) {
  var permArr = [],
      usedChars = [];
  return (function main() {
    for (var i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
      var ch = input.splice(i, 1)[0];
      usedChars.push(ch);
      if (input.length == 0) {
        permArr.push(usedChars.slice());
      }
      main();
      input.splice(i, 0, ch);
      usedChars.pop();
    }
    return permArr;
  })();
}
document.write(JSON.stringify(permute([5, 3, 7, 1])));

Answer 3

Answer without the need for a exterior array or additional function

function permutator (arr) {
  var permutations = [];
  if (arr.length === 1) {
    return [ arr ];
  }

  for (var i = 0; i <  arr.length; i++) { 
    var subPerms = permutator(arr.slice(0, i).concat(arr.slice(i + 1)));
    for (var j = 0; j < subPerms.length; j++) {
      subPerms[j].unshift(arr[i]);
      permutations.push(subPerms[j]);
    }
  }
  return permutations;
}

Answer 4

"use strict";
function getPermutations(arrP) {
    var results = [];
    var arr = arrP;
    arr.unshift(null);
    var length = arr.length;

    while (arr[0] === null) {

        results.push(arr.slice(1).join(''));

        let less = null;
        let lessIndex = null;

        for (let i = length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
            if(arr[i - 1] < arr[i]){
                less = arr[i - 1];
                lessIndex = i - 1;
                break;
            }
        }

        for (let i = length - 1; i > lessIndex; i--) {
            if(arr[i] > less){
                arr[lessIndex] = arr[i];
                arr[i] = less;
                break;
            }
        }

        for(let i = lessIndex + 1; i<length; i++){
           for(let j = i + 1; j < length; j++){
               if(arr[i] > arr[j] ){
                   arr[i] = arr[i] + arr[j];
                   arr[j] = arr[i] - arr[j];
                   arr[i] = arr[i] - arr[j];
               }
           }
        }
    }

    return results;
}

var res = getPermutations([1,2,3,4,5]);
var out = document.getElementById('myTxtArr');
res.forEach(function(i){ out.value+=i+', '});

textarea{
   height:500px;
  width:500px;
}

<textarea id='myTxtArr'></textarea>

Outputs lexicographically ordered permutations. Works only with numbers. In other case, you have to change the swap method on line 34.

Answer 5

Here is a minimal ES6 version. The flatten and without functions can be pulled from Lodash.

const flatten = xs =>
    xs.reduce((cum, next) => [...cum, ...next], []);

const without = (xs, x) =>
    xs.filter(y => y !== x);

const permutations = xs =>
    flatten(xs.map(x =>
        xs.length < 2
            ? [xs]
            : permutations(without(xs, x)).map(perm => [x, ...perm])
    ));

Result:

permutations([1,2,3])
// [[1, 2, 3], [1, 3, 2], [2, 1, 3], [2, 3, 1], [3, 1, 2], [3, 2, 1]]

Answer 6

I wrote a post to demonstrate how to permute an array in JavaScript. Here is the code which does this.

var count=0;
function permute(pre,cur){ 
    var len=cur.length;
    for(var i=0;i<len;i++){
        var p=clone(pre);
        var c=clone(cur);
        p.push(cur[i]);
        remove(c,cur[i]);
        if(len>1){
            permute(p,c);
        }else{
            print(p);
            count++;
        }
    }
}
function print(arr){
    var len=arr.length;
    for(var i=0;i<len;i++){
        document.write(arr[i]+" ");
    }
    document.write("<br />");
}
function remove(arr,item){
    if(contains(arr,item)){
        var len=arr.length;
        for(var i = len-1; i >= 0; i--){ // STEP 1
            if(arr[i] == item){             // STEP 2
                arr.splice(i,1);              // STEP 3
            }
        }
    }
}
function contains(arr,value){
    for(var i=0;i<arr.length;i++){
        if(arr[i]==value){
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}
function clone(arr){
    var a=new Array();
    var len=arr.length;
    for(var i=0;i<len;i++){
        a.push(arr[i]);
    }
    return a;
}

Just call

permute([], [1,2,3,4])

will work. For details on how this works, please refer to the explanation in that post.