Introduction
As each programmer must have experienced, often you can modify a function only a little to meet the new requirement. Here I present such an example for permutation -- to enumerate all element arrangements for an ascending ordered list. For instance, for a string “abc” where 'a'<'b'<'c', we have permutations “abc”, “acb”, “bac”, “bca”, “cab”, and “cba”, while for a half ordered “cab”, the result is “cab” and “cba”. The following function picked from the STL header file “algorithm” shows how to generate the next permutation from the previous one.
template<class _BidIt> inline
bool next_permutation(_BidIt _First, _BidIt _Last)
{
_BidIt _Next = _Last;
if (_First ==_Last || _First == --_Next) return (false);
for (; ; )
{
_BidIt _Next1 = _Next;
if (*--_Next < *_Next1)
{
_BidIt _Mid = _Last;
for (; !(*_Next < *--_Mid);) ;
std::iter_swap(_Next, _Mid);
std::reverse(_Next1, _Last);
return (true);
}
if (_Next == _First)
{
std::reverse(_First, _Last);
return (false);
}
}
}
To obtain all permutations, just set a loop like this:
do v.insert(v.end(), s);
while (next_permutation(s.begin(), s.end()));
Where s
is a work string for character permutation and v
is a vector to collect permuted s
iteratively. In practice, we may meet some permutation variations, two of which are then discussed in this article.
With Non-Ordered Elements
First, consider a permutation variation in a list without a predicate defined for element comparison, in other words, a list without intrinsic order. So, the algorithm cannot rely on the comparisons by the “less than” operator “<
” in next_permutation()
. For example, either from string “abc” or “cab”, we always want all six permutations as mentioned above.
For this, I adapt the STL function to _next_permutation()
by adding the third “map” parameter as shown in the following:
template<class _BidIt> inline
bool _next_permutation(_BidIt _First, _BidIt _Last, Position_Map* pMap)
{
_BidIt _Next = _Last;
if (_First ==_Last || _First == --_Next) return (false);
for (; ; )
{
_BidIt _Next1 = _Next;
if (pMap? (*pMap)[*--_Next] < (*pMap)[*_Next1]: *--_Next < *_Next1)
{
_BidIt _Mid = _Last;
for (; !(pMap? (*pMap)[*_Next] < (*pMap)[*--_Mid]: *_Next < *--_Mid););
std::iter_swap(_Next, _Mid);
std::reverse(_Next1, _Last);
return (true);
}
if (_Next == _First)
{
std::reverse(_First, _Last);
return (false);
}
}
}
vector<string> StlPermutation(const char* sz, bool bOrdered)
{
vector<string> v;
string s = sz;
Position_Map mapPos;
if (!bOrdered)
for (unsigned int i=0; i<s.length(); i++)
mapPos.insert(Position_Pair(s[i], i));
do v.insert(v.end(), s);
while (_next_permutation(s.begin(), s.end(), bOrdered? NULL: &mapPos));
return v;
}
In the caller StlPermutation()
, if an input is considered as non-ordered when bOrdered
is false, I set a position map that acts as a media for an artificial (simulated) comparison. Then, if this pMap
is passed into _next_permutation()
, I use comparison (*pMap)[*i]<(*pMap)[*j]
for a non-ordered situation, instead of *i<*j
. Now, just two condition changes there make it a dual function.
A Recursive Solution
Another way for non-ordered permutation is using recursion. Although not so efficient as iteration, it is easier to construct naturally mirroring the problem. I create a recursive function as follows, more concise than Steinhaus-Johnson-Trotter algorithm.
vector<string> RecPermutation(const char* sz)
{
vector<string> v, v1;
string s1; char ch;
int nLen = strlen(sz);
if (nLen==1)
v.insert(v.end(), sz);
else
{
for (int i=0; i<nLen; i++)
{
ch = sz[i];
s1 = sz;
s1.erase(i, 1);
v1 = RecPermutation(s1.c_str());
for (int i=0; i < (int)v1.size(); i++)
{
s1 = ch + v1[i];
v.insert(v.end(), s1);
}
}
}
return v;
}
In this RecPermutation()
, I strip each character aside, make a recursive call for the rest of the string, and once it returns, concatenates that character with permuted results. Obviously, this is more comprehensible than _next_permutation()
.
With Repeated Elements
Sometimes, we see a variation of non-ordered permutation where repeated elements are allowed. For instance, given “aab” or “aba”, the desired permutation pattern might be “aab”, “aba”, and “baa”, but from RecPermutation()
, we still get six strings with each of the three appearing twice. Also, by a little modification of RecPermutation()
, I achieved this method in the following function:
vector<string> RecPermutation(const char* sz, bool bRepeated)
{
vector<string> v, v1;
string s1; char ch;
int nLen = strlen(sz);
if (nLen==1)
v.insert(v.end(), sz);
else
{
for (int i=0; i<nLen; i++)
{
ch = sz[i];
if (!bRepeated)
{
for (int j=0; j<i; j++)
if (ch==sz[j]) break;
if (j<i) continue;
}
s1 = sz;
s1.erase(i, 1);
v1 = RecPermutation(s1.c_str(), bRepeated);
for (int i=0; i < (int)v1.size(); i++)
{
s1 = ch + v1[i];
v.insert(v.end(), s1);
}
}
}
return v;
}
As you see, I add the second parameter bAllowRepeated
, and when this flag is false, I check the stripped character to skip repeated one if any. This simply enhances RecPermutation()
as an alternative usage. Try to imagine altering an iteration function this way – really not easy!
Test and Comparison
Surely, you can search online for more permutation solutions. Among them, it’s worthy of mentioning this solution, created by Phillip Fuchs. There the iterative algorithm is pretty impressive and works efficiently for a non-ordered and non-repeated element list. I included his Example2 in my test program to examine an input "ijabcdefgh" as shown below:
Also, I made a comparison using the Permute.exe release build in my 2.2GHz P4 XP laptop, as shown in the following table:
Function Parameter Second(s) #Permutations
-----------------------------------------------------------
_next_permutation bOrdered=true 1 403,200
_next_permutation bOrdered=false 6 3,628,800
RecPermutation bRepeated=true 45 3,628,800
RecPermutation bRepeated=false 45 3,628,800
Philip's example_02 5 3,628,800
As expected, the ordered _next_permutation()
generates only part of permutations for the partially ascending "ijabcdefgh", while the non-ordered _next_permutation()
generates all. The recursive RecPermutation()
takes 45 seconds, not efficient as STL iteration (6 seconds), while Phillip’s example is a bit better than _next_permutation()
. However, only the enhanced RecPermutation()
excludes redundant permutations in a repeated element list, where the additional expense looks trivial.
This member has not yet provided a Biography. Assume it's interesting and varied, and probably something to do with programming.