我的实现基于Mark Byers上面的描述:

    static Set<String> permutations(String str){
        if (str.isEmpty()){
            return Collections.singleton(str);
        }else{
            Set <String> set = new HashSet<>();
            for (int i=0; i<str.length(); i++)
                for (String s : permutations(str.substring(0, i) + str.substring(i+1)))
                    set.add(str.charAt(i) + s);
            return set;
        }
    }

简单的解决方案，利用swift语言的特点，数组是值类型。

func permutation(chrs: [String], arr: [String], result: inout [[String]]) {
   if arr.count == chrs.count {
       result.append(arr)
       return
   }

   for chr in chrs {
       var arr = arr
       if !arr.contains(chr) {
           arr.append(chr)
           permutation(chrs: chrs, arr: arr, result: &result)
       }
   }
}

func test() {
   var result = [[String]]()
   let chrs = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
   permutation(chrs: chrs, arr: [], result: &result)
}

复杂度O(n * n!)

让我们以输入abc为例。

从集合(["c"])中的最后一个元素(c)开始，然后将最后第二个元素(b)添加到它的前面，末尾和中间的每个可能位置，使其["bc"， "cb"]，然后以同样的方式将后面的下一个元素(a)添加到集合中的每个字符串中，使其:

"a" + "bc" = ["abc", "bac", "bca"]  and  "a" + "cb" = ["acb" ,"cab", "cba"] 

因此整个排列:

["abc", "bac", "bca","acb" ,"cab", "cba"]

代码:

public class Test 
{
    static Set<String> permutations;
    static Set<String> result = new HashSet<String>();

    public static Set<String> permutation(String string) {
        permutations = new HashSet<String>();

        int n = string.length();
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--) 
        {
            shuffle(string.charAt(i));
        }
        return permutations;
    }

    private static void shuffle(char c) {
        if (permutations.size() == 0) {
            permutations.add(String.valueOf(c));
        } else {
            Iterator<String> it = permutations.iterator();
            for (int i = 0; i < permutations.size(); i++) {

                String temp1;
                for (; it.hasNext();) {
                    temp1 = it.next();
                    for (int k = 0; k < temp1.length() + 1; k += 1) {
                        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(temp1);

                        sb.insert(k, c);

                        result.add(sb.toString());
                    }
                }
            }
            permutations = result;
            //'result' has to be refreshed so that in next run it doesn't contain stale values.
            result = new HashSet<String>();
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Set<String> result = permutation("abc");

        System.out.println("\nThere are total of " + result.size() + " permutations:");
        Iterator<String> it = result.iterator();
        while (it.hasNext()) {
            System.out.println(it.next());
        }
    }
}

下面是一个简单的Java递归解决方案:

public static ArrayList<String> permutations(String s) {
    ArrayList<String> out = new ArrayList<String>();
    if (s.length() == 1) {
        out.add(s);
        return out;
    }
    char first = s.charAt(0);
    String rest = s.substring(1);
    for (String permutation : permutations(rest)) {
        out.addAll(insertAtAllPositions(first, permutation));
    }
    return out;
}
public static ArrayList<String> insertAtAllPositions(char ch, String s) {
    ArrayList<String> out = new ArrayList<String>();
    for (int i = 0; i <= s.length(); ++i) {
        String inserted = s.substring(0, i) + ch + s.substring(i);
        out.add(inserted);
    }
    return out;
}

递归Python解决方案

def permute(input_str):
    _permute("", input_str)

def _permute(prefix, str_to_permute):
    if str_to_permute == '':
        print(prefix)

    else:
        for i in range(len(str_to_permute)): 
            _permute(prefix+str_to_permute[i], str_to_permute[0:i] + str_to_permute[i+1:])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    permute('foobar')

递归是不必要的，甚至你可以直接计算任何排列，这个解决方案使用泛型来排列任何数组。

这里有关于这个algorihtm的很好的信息。

对于c#开发人员来说，这里有更有用的实现。

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String word = "12345";

    Character[] array = ArrayUtils.toObject(word.toCharArray());
    long[] factorials = Permutation.getFactorials(array.length + 1);

    for (long i = 0; i < factorials[array.length]; i++) {
        Character[] permutation = Permutation.<Character>getPermutation(i, array, factorials);
        printPermutation(permutation);
    }
}

private static void printPermutation(Character[] permutation) {
    for (int i = 0; i < permutation.length; i++) {
        System.out.print(permutation[i]);
    }
    System.out.println();
}

该算法计算每个排列的时间和空间复杂度为O(N)。

public class Permutation {
    public static <T> T[] getPermutation(long permutationNumber, T[] array, long[] factorials) {
        int[] sequence = generateSequence(permutationNumber, array.length - 1, factorials);
        T[] permutation = generatePermutation(array, sequence);

        return permutation;
    }

    public static <T> T[] generatePermutation(T[] array, int[] sequence) {
        T[] clone = array.clone();

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

        return clone;
    }

    private static int[] generateSequence(long permutationNumber, int size, long[] factorials) {
        int[] sequence = new int[size];

        for (int j = 0; j < sequence.length; j++) {
            long factorial = factorials[sequence.length - j];
            sequence[j] = (int) (permutationNumber / factorial);
            permutationNumber = (int) (permutationNumber % factorial);
        }

        return sequence;
    }

    private static <T> void swap(T[] array, int i, int j) {
        T t = array[i];
        array[i] = array[j];
        array[j] = t;
    }

    public static long[] getFactorials(int length) {
        long[] factorials = new long[length];
        long factor = 1;

        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            factor *= i <= 1 ? 1 : i;
            factorials[i] = factor;
        }

        return factorials;
    }
}