这是一个更快的解决方案，因为它不受字符串连接计算复杂度O(n^2)的影响。另一方面它是无循环的，完全递归的

public static void main(String[] args) {
    permutation("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ");
}

private static void permutation(String str) {
    char[] stringArray = str.toCharArray();
    printPermutation(stringArray, 0, stringArray.length, 0, 1);
}

private static void printPermutation(char[] string, int loopCounter, int length, int indexFrom, int indexTo) {
    // Stop condition
    if (loopCounter == length)
        return;

    /* 
     When reaching the end of the array:
     1- Reset loop indices.
     2- Increase length counter. 
    */ 
    if (indexTo == length) {
        indexFrom = 0;
        indexTo = 1;
        ++loopCounter;
    }

    // Print.
    System.out.println(string);

    // Swap from / to indices.
    char temp = string[indexFrom];
    string[indexFrom] = string[indexTo];
    string[indexTo] = temp;

    // Go for next iteration.
    printPermutation(string, loopCounter, length, ++indexFrom, ++indexTo);
}

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

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。

在python中

def perms(in_str, prefix=""):
if not len(in_str) :
    print(prefix)
else:        
    for i in range(0, len(in_str)):
        perms(in_str[:i] + in_str[i + 1:], prefix + in_str[i])

perms('ASD')

倒计时Quickperm算法的通用实现，表示#1(可伸缩，非递归)。

/**
 * Generate permutations based on the
 * Countdown <a href="http://quickperm.org/">Quickperm algorithm</>.
 */
public static <T> List<List<T>> generatePermutations(List<T> list) {
    List<T> in = new ArrayList<>(list);
    List<List<T>> out = new ArrayList<>(factorial(list.size()));

    int n = list.size();
    int[] p = new int[n +1];
    for (int i = 0; i < p.length; i ++) {
        p[i] = i;
    }
    int i = 0;
    while (i < n) {
        p[i]--;
        int j = 0;
        if (i % 2 != 0) { // odd?
            j = p[i];
        }
        // swap
        T iTmp = in.get(i);
        in.set(i, in.get(j));
        in.set(j, iTmp);

        i = 1;
        while (p[i] == 0){
            p[i] = i;
            i++;
        }
        out.add(new ArrayList<>(in));
    }
    return out;
}

private static int factorial(int num) {
    int count = num;
    while (num != 1) {
        count *= --num;
    }
    return count;
}

它需要list，因为泛型不能很好地使用数组。

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);

}

}