此解决方案实现了一个生成器，以避免在内存中保留所有排列：

def permutations (orig_list):
    if not isinstance(orig_list, list):
        orig_list = list(orig_list)

    yield orig_list

    if len(orig_list) == 1:
        return

    for n in sorted(orig_list):
        new_list = orig_list[:]
        pos = new_list.index(n)
        del(new_list[pos])
        new_list.insert(0, n)
        for resto in permutations(new_list[1:]):
            if new_list[:1] + resto <> orig_list:
                yield new_list[:1] + resto

def permutation(word, first_char=None):
    if word == None or len(word) == 0: return []
    if len(word) == 1: return [word]

    result = []
    first_char = word[0]
    for sub_word in permutation(word[1:], first_char):
        result += insert(first_char, sub_word)
    return sorted(result)

def insert(ch, sub_word):
    arr = [ch + sub_word]
    for i in range(len(sub_word)):
        arr.append(sub_word[i:] + ch + sub_word[:i])
    return arr


assert permutation(None) == []
assert permutation('') == []
assert permutation('1')  == ['1']
assert permutation('12') == ['12', '21']

print permutation('abc')

输出：['abc'，'acb'，'bac'，'bca'，'cab'，'cba']

递归之美：

>>> import copy
>>> def perm(prefix,rest):
...      for e in rest:
...              new_rest=copy.copy(rest)
...              new_prefix=copy.copy(prefix)
...              new_prefix.append(e)
...              new_rest.remove(e)
...              if len(new_rest) == 0:
...                      print new_prefix + new_rest
...                      continue
...              perm(new_prefix,new_rest)
... 
>>> perm([],['a','b','c','d'])
['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']
['a', 'b', 'd', 'c']
['a', 'c', 'b', 'd']
['a', 'c', 'd', 'b']
['a', 'd', 'b', 'c']
['a', 'd', 'c', 'b']
['b', 'a', 'c', 'd']
['b', 'a', 'd', 'c']
['b', 'c', 'a', 'd']
['b', 'c', 'd', 'a']
['b', 'd', 'a', 'c']
['b', 'd', 'c', 'a']
['c', 'a', 'b', 'd']
['c', 'a', 'd', 'b']
['c', 'b', 'a', 'd']
['c', 'b', 'd', 'a']
['c', 'd', 'a', 'b']
['c', 'd', 'b', 'a']
['d', 'a', 'b', 'c']
['d', 'a', 'c', 'b']
['d', 'b', 'a', 'c']
['d', 'b', 'c', 'a']
['d', 'c', 'a', 'b']
['d', 'c', 'b', 'a']

使用标准库中的itertools.permutations：

import itertools
list(itertools.permutations([1, 2, 3]))

从这里改编的是itertools.permutations如何实现的演示：

def permutations(elements):
    if len(elements) <= 1:
        yield elements
        return
    for perm in permutations(elements[1:]):
        for i in range(len(elements)):
            # nb elements[0:1] works in both string and list contexts
            yield perm[:i] + elements[0:1] + perm[i:]

itertools.permutations文档中列出了两种替代方法

def permutations(iterable, r=None):
    # permutations('ABCD', 2) --> AB AC AD BA BC BD CA CB CD DA DB DC
    # permutations(range(3)) --> 012 021 102 120 201 210
    pool = tuple(iterable)
    n = len(pool)
    r = n if r is None else r
    if r > n:
        return
    indices = range(n)
    cycles = range(n, n-r, -1)
    yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices[:r])
    while n:
        for i in reversed(range(r)):
            cycles[i] -= 1
            if cycles[i] == 0:
                indices[i:] = indices[i+1:] + indices[i:i+1]
                cycles[i] = n - i
            else:
                j = cycles[i]
                indices[i], indices[-j] = indices[-j], indices[i]
                yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices[:r])
                break
        else:
            return

另一个基于itertools.product：

def permutations(iterable, r=None):
    pool = tuple(iterable)
    n = len(pool)
    r = n if r is None else r
    for indices in product(range(n), repeat=r):
        if len(set(indices)) == r:
            yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices)

我的Python解决方案：

def permutes(input,offset):
    if( len(input) == offset ):
        return [''.join(input)]

    result=[]        
    for i in range( offset, len(input) ):
         input[offset], input[i] = input[i], input[offset]
         result = result + permutes(input,offset+1)
         input[offset], input[i] = input[i], input[offset]
    return result

# input is a "string"
# return value is a list of strings
def permutations(input):
    return permutes( list(input), 0 )

# Main Program
print( permutations("wxyz") )

注意，该算法具有n个阶乘时间复杂度，其中n是输入列表的长度

打印跑步结果：

global result
result = [] 

def permutation(li):
if li == [] or li == None:
    return

if len(li) == 1:
    result.append(li[0])
    print result
    result.pop()
    return

for i in range(0,len(li)):
    result.append(li[i])
    permutation(li[:i] + li[i+1:])
    result.pop()    

例子：

permutation([1,2,3])

输出：

[1, 2, 3]
[1, 3, 2]
[2, 1, 3]
[2, 3, 1]
[3, 1, 2]
[3, 2, 1]