permutations -- produce all permutations of a list

Synopsis

Usage:

permutations x
Inputs:
- x, a visible list or an integer
Outputs:
- a list of all the permutations of the visible list x, or, if x is an integer, of the list of integers from 0 through n-1

Description

i1 : permutations {a,b,c,d}

o1 = {{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}}

o1 : List

i2 : permutations 3

o2 = {{0, 1, 2}, {0, 2, 1}, {1, 0, 2}, {1, 2, 0}, {2, 0, 1}, {2, 1, 0}}

o2 : List

Ways to use permutations :

permutations(VisibleList)
permutations(ZZ)

For the programmer

The object permutations is a method function.