Generating all permutations of a given string

Question

What is an elegant way to find all the permutations of a string. E.g. permutation for ba, would be ba and ab, but what about longer st

Answer 1

/** Returns an array list containing all
 * permutations of the characters in s. */
public static ArrayList permute(String s) {
    ArrayList perms = new ArrayList<>();
    int slen = s.length();
    if (slen > 0) {
        // Add the first character from s to the perms array list.
        perms.add(Character.toString(s.charAt(0)));

        // Repeat for all additional characters in s.
        for (int i = 1;  i < slen;  ++i) {

            // Get the next character from s.
            char c = s.charAt(i);

            // For each of the strings currently in perms do the following:
            int size = perms.size();
            for (int j = 0;  j < size;  ++j) {

                // 1. remove the string
                String p = perms.remove(0);
                int plen = p.length();

                // 2. Add plen + 1 new strings to perms.  Each new string
                //    consists of the removed string with the character c
                //    inserted into it at a unique location.
                for (int k = 0;  k <= plen;  ++k) {
                    perms.add(p.substring(0, k) + c + p.substring(k));
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return perms;
}