Shuffle an array as many as possible

Question

I have an array like this

[0,2,3]

The possible shuffling of this array are

[0,2,3], [2,3,0], [3,0,2], [3,2,0], [0,3,2],         


        

Answer 1

All permutations of a set can be found by selecting an element in the set and recursively permuting (rearranging) the remaining elements. Backtracking approach can be used for finding the solution.

Algorithm steps (source):

Pseudocode (source):

permute(i) 
   if i == N  output A[N] 
   else 
      for j = i to N do 
         swap(A[i], A[j]) 
         permute(i+1) 
         swap(A[i], A[j])

Javascript implementation (jsFiddle):

Array.prototype.clone = function () {
    return this.slice(0);
};

var input = [1, 2, 3, 4];
var output = [];

function permute(i) {
    if (i == input.length)
        output.push(input.clone());
    else {
        for (var j = i; j < input.length; j++) {
            swap(i, j);
            permute(i + 1);
            swap(i, j); // backtrack
        }
    }
};

function swap(i, j) {
    var temp = input[i];
    input[i] = input[j];
    input[j] = temp;
}

permute(0);
console.log(output);