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

Recursion is not necessary, here is good information about this solution.

var values1 = new[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

foreach (var permutation in values1.GetPermutations())
{
    Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", permutation));
}

var values2 = new[] { 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e' };

foreach (var permutation in values2.GetPermutations())
{
    Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", permutation));
}

Console.ReadLine();

I have been used this algorithm for years, it has O(N) time and space complexity to calculate each permutation.

public static class SomeExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> GetPermutations<T>(this IEnumerable<T> enumerable)
    {
        var array = enumerable as T[] ?? enumerable.ToArray();

        var factorials = Enumerable.Range(0, array.Length + 1)
            .Select(Factorial)
            .ToArray();

        for (var i = 0L; i < factorials[array.Length]; i++)
        {
            var sequence = GenerateSequence(i, array.Length - 1, factorials);

            yield return GeneratePermutation(array, sequence);
        }
    }

    private static IEnumerable<T> GeneratePermutation<T>(T[] array, IReadOnlyList<int> sequence)
    {
        var clone = (T[]) array.Clone();

        for (int i = 0; i < clone.Length - 1; i++)
        {
            Swap(ref clone[i], ref clone[i + sequence[i]]);
        }

        return clone;
    }

    private static int[] GenerateSequence(long number, int size, IReadOnlyList<long> factorials)
    {
        var sequence = new int[size];

        for (var j = 0; j < sequence.Length; j++)
        {
            var facto = factorials[sequence.Length - j];

            sequence[j] = (int)(number / facto);
            number = (int)(number % facto);
        }

        return sequence;
    }

    static void Swap<T>(ref T a, ref T b)
    {
        T temp = a;
        a = b;
        b = temp;
    }

    private static long Factorial(int n)
    {
        long result = n;

        for (int i = 1; i < n; i++)
        {
            result = result * i;
        }

        return result;
    }
}

Answer 2

    /// <summary>
    /// Print All the Permutations.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="inputStr">input string</param>
    /// <param name="strLength">length of the string</param>
    /// <param name="outputStr">output string</param>
    private void PrintAllPermutations(string inputStr, int strLength,string outputStr, int NumberOfChars)
    {
        //Means you have completed a permutation.
        if (outputStr.Length == NumberOfChars)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(outputStr);                
            return;
        }

        //For loop is used to print permutations starting with every character. first print all the permutations starting with a,then b, etc.
        for(int i=0 ; i< strLength; i++)
        {
            // Recursive call : for a string abc = a + perm(bc). b+ perm(ac) etc.
            PrintAllPermutations(inputStr.Remove(i, 1), strLength - 1, outputStr + inputStr.Substring(i, 1), 4);
        }
    }        

Answer 3

The below is my implementation of permutation . Don't mind the variable names, as i was doing it for fun :)

class combinations
{
    static void Main()
    {

        string choice = "y";
        do
        {
            try
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Enter word :");
                string abc = Console.ReadLine().ToString();
                Console.WriteLine("Combinatins for word :");
                List<string> final = comb(abc);
                int count = 1;
                foreach (string s in final)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("{0} --> {1}", count++, s);
                }
                Console.WriteLine("Do you wish to continue(y/n)?");
                choice = Console.ReadLine().ToString();
            }
            catch (Exception exc)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(exc);
            }
        } while (choice == "y" || choice == "Y");
    }

    static string swap(string test)
    {
        return swap(0, 1, test);
    }

    static List<string> comb(string test)
    {
        List<string> sec = new List<string>();
        List<string> first = new List<string>();
        if (test.Length == 1) first.Add(test);
        else if (test.Length == 2) { first.Add(test); first.Add(swap(test)); }
        else if (test.Length > 2)
        {
            sec = generateWords(test);
            foreach (string s in sec)
            {
                string init = s.Substring(0, 1);
                string restOfbody = s.Substring(1, s.Length - 1);

                List<string> third = comb(restOfbody);
                foreach (string s1 in third)
                {
                    if (!first.Contains(init + s1)) first.Add(init + s1);
                }


            }
        }

        return first;
    }

    static string ShiftBack(string abc)
    {
        char[] arr = abc.ToCharArray();
        char temp = arr[0];
        string wrd = string.Empty;
        for (int i = 1; i < arr.Length; i++)
        {
            wrd += arr[i];
        }

        wrd += temp;
        return wrd;
    }

    static List<string> generateWords(string test)
    {
        List<string> final = new List<string>();
        if (test.Length == 1)
            final.Add(test);
        else
        {
            final.Add(test);
            string holdString = test;
            while (final.Count < test.Length)
            {
                holdString = ShiftBack(holdString);
                final.Add(holdString);
            }
        }

        return final;
    }

    static string swap(int currentPosition, int targetPosition, string temp)
    {
        char[] arr = temp.ToCharArray();
        char t = arr[currentPosition];
        arr[currentPosition] = arr[targetPosition];
        arr[targetPosition] = t;
        string word = string.Empty;
        for (int i = 0; i < arr.Length; i++)
        {
            word += arr[i];

        }

        return word;

    }
}

Answer 4

    //Generic C# Method
            private static List<T[]> GetPerms<T>(T[] input, int startIndex = 0)
            {
                var perms = new List<T[]>();

                var l = input.Length - 1;

                if (l == startIndex)
                    perms.Add(input);
                else
                {

                    for (int i = startIndex; i <= l; i++)
                    {
                        var copy = input.ToArray(); //make copy

                        var temp = copy[startIndex];

                        copy[startIndex] = copy[i];
                        copy[i] = temp;

                        perms.AddRange(GetPerms(copy, startIndex + 1));

                    }
                }

                return perms;
            }

            //usages
            char[] charArray = new char[] { 'A', 'B', 'C' };
            var charPerms = GetPerms(charArray);


            string[] stringArray = new string[] { "Orange", "Mango", "Apple" };
            var stringPerms = GetPerms(stringArray);


            int[] intArray = new int[] { 1, 2, 3 };
            var intPerms = GetPerms(intArray);

Answer 5

Here is a simple solution in c# using recursion,

void Main()
{
    string word = "abc";
    WordPermuatation("",word);
}

void WordPermuatation(string prefix, string word)
{
    int n = word.Length;
    if (n == 0) { Console.WriteLine(prefix); }
    else
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
        {
            WordPermuatation(prefix + word[i],word.Substring(0, i) + word.Substring(i + 1, n - (i+1)));
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

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