这里有一个算法，它在不创建新的中间列表的情况下处理列表，类似于Ber在https://stackoverflow.com/a/108651/184528.

def permute(xs, low=0):
    if low + 1 >= len(xs):
        yield xs
    else:
        for p in permute(xs, low + 1):
            yield p        
        for i in range(low + 1, len(xs)):        
            xs[low], xs[i] = xs[i], xs[low]
            for p in permute(xs, low + 1):
                yield p        
            xs[low], xs[i] = xs[i], xs[low]

for p in permute([1, 2, 3, 4]):
    print p

您可以在这里亲自尝试代码：http://repl.it/J9v

def permuteArray (arr):

    arraySize = len(arr)

    permutedList = []

    if arraySize == 1:
        return [arr]

    i = 0

    for item in arr:

        for elem in permuteArray(arr[:i] + arr[i + 1:]):
            permutedList.append([item] + elem)

        i = i + 1    

    return permutedList

我不打算在一个新的行中穷尽所有的可能性，以使它有点独特。

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

人们确实可以对每个排列的第一个元素进行迭代，正如tzwen的答案。然而，这样编写此解决方案更有效：

def all_perms(elements):
    if len(elements) <= 1:
        yield elements  # Only permutation possible = no permutation
    else:
        # Iteration over the first element in the result permutation:
        for (index, first_elmt) in enumerate(elements):
            other_elmts = elements[:index]+elements[index+1:]
            for permutation in all_perms(other_elmts): 
                yield [first_elmt] + permutation

这个解决方案大约快了30%，显然是因为递归以len（元素）<=1而不是0结尾。它的内存效率也高得多，因为它使用了一个生成器函数（通过yield），就像Riccardo Reyes的解决方案一样。

如果用户希望在列表中保留所有排列，可以使用以下代码：

def get_permutations(nums, p_list=[], temp_items=[]):
    if not nums:
        return
    elif len(nums) == 1:
        new_items = temp_items+[nums[0]]
        p_list.append(new_items)
        return
    else:
        for i in range(len(nums)):
            temp_nums = nums[:i]+nums[i+1:]
            new_temp_items = temp_items + [nums[i]]
            get_permutations(temp_nums, p_list, new_temp_items)

nums = [1,2,3]
p_list = []

get_permutations(nums, p_list)

该算法是最有效的算法，它避免了递归调用中的数组传递和操作，适用于Python 2、3：

def permute(items):
    length = len(items)
    def inner(ix=[]):
        do_yield = len(ix) == length - 1
        for i in range(0, length):
            if i in ix: #avoid duplicates
                continue
            if do_yield:
                yield tuple([items[y] for y in ix + [i]])
            else:
                for p in inner(ix + [i]):
                    yield p
    return inner()

用法：

for p in permute((1,2,3)):
    print(p)

(1, 2, 3)
(1, 3, 2)
(2, 1, 3)
(2, 3, 1)
(3, 1, 2)
(3, 2, 1)