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 ] ]

Answer 2

perm = x => x[0] ?  x.reduce((a, n) => (perm(x.filter(m => m!=n)).forEach(y => a.push([n,...y])), a), []): [[]]

Answer 3

#!/usr/bin/env node
"use strict";

function perm(arr) {
    if(arr.length<2) return [arr];
    var res = [];
    arr.forEach(function(x, i) {
        perm(arr.slice(0,i).concat(arr.slice(i+1))).forEach(function(a) {
            res.push([x].concat(a));
        });
    });
    return res;
}

console.log(perm([1,2,3,4]));

Answer 4

Similar in spirit to the Haskell-style solution by @crl, but working with reduce:

function permutations( base ) {
  if (base.length == 0) return [[]]
  return permutations( base.slice(1) ).reduce( function(acc,perm) {
    return acc.concat( base.map( function(e,pos) {
      var new_perm = perm.slice()
      new_perm.splice(pos,0,base[0])
      return new_perm
    }))
  },[])    
}

Answer 5

Functional answer using flatMap:

const getPermutationsFor = (arr, permutation = []) =>
  arr.length === 0
    ? [permutation]
    : arr.flatMap((item, i, arr) =>
        getPermutationsFor(
          arr.filter((_,j) => j !== i),
          [...permutation, item]
        )
      );

Answer 6

Here's a cool solution

const rotations = ([l, ...ls], right=[]) =>
  l ? [[l, ...ls, ...right], ...rotations(ls, [...right, l])] : []

const permutations = ([x, ...xs]) =>
  x ? permutations(xs).flatMap((p) => rotations([x, ...p])) : [[]]
  
console.log(permutations("cat"))