串的排列:

public static void main(String args[]) {
    permu(0,"ABCD");
}

static void permu(int fixed,String s) {
    char[] chr=s.toCharArray();
    if(fixed==s.length())
        System.out.println(s);
    for(int i=fixed;i<s.length();i++) {
        char c=chr[i];
        chr[i]=chr[fixed];
        chr[fixed]=c;
        permu(fixed+1,new String(chr));
    }   
}

以下是我在《破解编程面试》(P54)一书中提出的解决方案:

/**
 * List permutations of a string.
 * 
 * @param s the input string
 * @return  the list of permutations
 */
public static ArrayList<String> permutation(String s) {
    // The result
    ArrayList<String> res = new ArrayList<String>();
    // If input string's length is 1, return {s}
    if (s.length() == 1) {
        res.add(s);
    } else if (s.length() > 1) {
        int lastIndex = s.length() - 1;
        // Find out the last character
        String last = s.substring(lastIndex);
        // Rest of the string
        String rest = s.substring(0, lastIndex);
        // Perform permutation on the rest string and
        // merge with the last character
        res = merge(permutation(rest), last);
    }
    return res;
}

/**
 * @param list a result of permutation, e.g. {"ab", "ba"}
 * @param c    the last character
 * @return     a merged new list, e.g. {"cab", "acb" ... }
 */
public static ArrayList<String> merge(ArrayList<String> list, String c) {
    ArrayList<String> res = new ArrayList<>();
    // Loop through all the string in the list
    for (String s : list) {
        // For each string, insert the last character to all possible positions
        // and add them to the new list
        for (int i = 0; i <= s.length(); ++i) {
            String ps = new StringBuffer(s).insert(i, c).toString();
            res.add(ps);
        }
    }
    return res;
}

字符串"abcd"的运行输出:

第一步:合并[a]和b: [ba, ab] 步骤2:Merge [ba, ab]和c: [cba, bca, bac, cab, acb, abc] 第三步:Merge [cba, bca, bac, cab, acb, abc]和d: [dcba, cdba, cbad, cbca, bdcad

这个没有递归

public static void permute(String s) {
    if(null==s || s.isEmpty()) {
        return;
    }

    // List containing words formed in each iteration 
    List<String> strings = new LinkedList<String>();
    strings.add(String.valueOf(s.charAt(0))); // add the first element to the list

     // Temp list that holds the set of strings for 
     //  appending the current character to all position in each word in the original list
    List<String> tempList = new LinkedList<String>(); 

    for(int i=1; i< s.length(); i++) {

        for(int j=0; j<strings.size(); j++) {
            tempList.addAll(merge(s.charAt(i), strings.get(j)));
                        }
        strings.removeAll(strings);
        strings.addAll(tempList);

        tempList.removeAll(tempList);

    }

    for(int i=0; i<strings.size(); i++) {
        System.out.println(strings.get(i));
    }
}

/**
 * helper method that appends the given character at each position in the given string 
 * and returns a set of such modified strings 
 * - set removes duplicates if any(in case a character is repeated)
 */
private static Set<String> merge(Character c,  String s) {
    if(s==null || s.isEmpty()) {
        return null;
    }

    int len = s.length();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    Set<String> list = new HashSet<String>();

    for(int i=0; i<= len; i++) {
        sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.append(s.substring(0, i) + c + s.substring(i, len));
        list.add(sb.toString());
    }

    return list;
}

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;
}

/*
     * eg: abc =>{a,bc},{b,ac},{c,ab}
     * =>{ca,b},{cb,a}
     * =>cba,cab
     * =>{ba,c},{bc,a}
     * =>bca,bac
     * =>{ab,c},{ac,b}
     * =>acb,abc
     */
    public void nonRecpermute(String prefix, String word)
    {
        String[] currentstr ={prefix,word};
        Stack<String[]> stack = new Stack<String[]>();
        stack.add(currentstr);
        while(!stack.isEmpty())
        {
            currentstr = stack.pop();
            String currentPrefix = currentstr[0];
            String currentWord = currentstr[1];
            if(currentWord.equals(""))
            {
                System.out.println("Word ="+currentPrefix);
            }
            for(int i=0;i<currentWord.length();i++)
            {
                String[] newstr = new String[2];
                newstr[0]=currentPrefix + String.valueOf(currentWord.charAt(i));
                newstr[1] = currentWord.substring(0, i);
                if(i<currentWord.length()-1)
                {
                    newstr[1] = newstr[1]+currentWord.substring(i+1);
                }
                stack.push(newstr);
            }

        }

    }

基于Mark Byers的回答，我的python实现:

def permutations(string):
    if len(string) == 1:
        return [string]
    permutations=[]
    for i in range(len(string)):
        for perm in permutations(string[:i]+string[i+1:]):
            permutations.append(string[i] + perm)
    return permutations