这是一个具有O(n!)时间复杂度的算法，具有纯递归和直观。

public class words {
static String combinations;
public static List<String> arrlist=new ArrayList<>();
public static void main(String[] args) {
    words obj = new words();

    String str="premandl";
    obj.getcombination(str, str.length()-1, "");
    System.out.println(arrlist);

}


public void getcombination(String str, int charIndex, String output) {

    if (str.length() == 0) {
        arrlist.add(output);
        return ;
    }

    if (charIndex == -1) {
        return ;
    }

    String character = str.toCharArray()[charIndex] + "";
    getcombination(str, --charIndex, output);

    String remaining = "";

    output = output + character;

    remaining = str.substring(0, charIndex + 1) + str.substring(charIndex + 2);

    getcombination(remaining, remaining.length() - 1, output);

}

}

作为Python生成器，带有现代类型提示:

from typing import Iterator


def permutations(string: str, prefix: str = '') -> Iterator[str]:
    if len(string) == 0:
        yield prefix
    for i, character in enumerate(string):
        yield from permutations(string[:i] + string[i + 1:], prefix + character)


for p in permutations('abcd'):
    print(p)

基于Heap算法的我的实现:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class PermutationString {
public static List<String> permute(char[] str, int n) {
    List<String> permutations = new ArrayList<>();
    if (n == 1) {
        permutations.add(new String(str));
    }
    else {
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            permutations.addAll(permute(str, n-1));
            if (n % 2 == 0) {
                swap(str, i, n-1);
            }
            else {
                swap(str, 0, n-1);
            }
        }
    }
    return permutations;
}


public static void swap(char[] str, int i, int j) {
    char temp = str[i];
    str[i] = str[j];
    str[j] = temp;
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

    List<String> permutations = permute("abcdefgh".toCharArray(), 8);

    System.out.println(permutations);

}
}

时间复杂度为O(n!* n)， O(n)为空间复杂度。

这里有一个优雅的，非递归的O(n!)解:

public static StringBuilder[] permutations(String s) {
        if (s.length() == 0)
            return null;
        int length = fact(s.length());
        StringBuilder[] sb = new StringBuilder[length];
        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            sb[i] = new StringBuilder();
        }
        for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
            char ch = s.charAt(i);
            int times = length / (i + 1);
            for (int j = 0; j < times; j++) {
                for (int k = 0; k < length / times; k++) {
                    sb[j * length / times + k].insert(k, ch);
                }
            }
        }
        return sb;
    }

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

/** Returns an array list containing all
 * permutations of the characters in s. */
public static ArrayList<String> permute(String s) {
    ArrayList<String> perms = new ArrayList<>();
    int slen = s.length();
    if (slen > 0) {
        // Add the first character from s to the perms array list.
        perms.add(Character.toString(s.charAt(0)));

        // Repeat for all additional characters in s.
        for (int i = 1;  i < slen;  ++i) {

            // Get the next character from s.
            char c = s.charAt(i);

            // For each of the strings currently in perms do the following:
            int size = perms.size();
            for (int j = 0;  j < size;  ++j) {

                // 1. remove the string
                String p = perms.remove(0);
                int plen = p.length();

                // 2. Add plen + 1 new strings to perms.  Each new string
                //    consists of the removed string with the character c
                //    inserted into it at a unique location.
                for (int k = 0;  k <= plen;  ++k) {
                    perms.add(p.substring(0, k) + c + p.substring(k));
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return perms;
}