Permutations in VBA Excel

Question

I am trying to generate all the possible combinations of an array of characters. The input array has n characters, 5 <= n <= 7, and I would like to generate a second a

Answer 1

Just found one way to make it recursively and avoid double results. The code is pretty ugly cause I didn't have time to think how to use the loops here.

Public Function Permutacao(card1 As String, card2 As String, card3 As String, card4 As String, card5 As String, Optional card6 As String, Optional card7 As String)
  Dim A(1 To 7) As String
  Dim aux_A(1 To 7, 1 To 6) As String
  Dim aux2_A(1 To 6, 1 To 5) As String
  Dim final_A(1 To 42, 1 To 6) As String
  n = 5
  A(1) = card1
  A(2) = card2
  A(3) = card3
  A(4) = card4
  A(5) = card5
  If Not IsMissing(card6) Then
    A(6) = card6
    n = 6
  End If
  If Not IsMissing(card7) Then
    A(7) = card7
    n = 7
  End If
  If n = 5 Then
    final_A(1, 1) = A(1)
    final_A(1, 2) = A(2)
    final_A(1, 3) = A(3)
    final_A(1, 4) = A(4)
    final_A(1, 5) = A(5)
    ElseIf n = 6 Then
      k = 1
      final_A(k, 1) = A(1)
      final_A(k, 2) = A(2)
      final_A(k, 3) = A(3)
      final_A(k, 4) = A(4)
      final_A(k, 5) = A(5)
      k = 2
      final_A(k, 1) = A(1)
      final_A(k, 2) = A(2)
      final_A(k, 3) = A(3)
      final_A(k, 4) = A(4)
      final_A(k, 5) = A(6)
      k = 3
      final_A(k, 1) = A(1)
      final_A(k, 2) = A(2)
      final_A(k, 3) = A(3)
      final_A(k, 4) = A(6)
      final_A(k, 5) = A(5)
      k = 4
      final_A(k, 1) = A(1)
      final_A(k, 2) = A(2)
      final_A(k, 3) = A(6)
      final_A(k, 4) = A(4)
      final_A(k, 5) = A(5)
      k = 5
      final_A(k, 1) = A(1)
      final_A(k, 2) = A(6)
      final_A(k, 3) = A(3)
      final_A(k, 4) = A(4)
      final_A(k, 5) = A(5)
      k = 6
      final_A(k, 1) = A(6)
      final_A(k, 2) = A(2)
      final_A(k, 3) = A(3)
      final_A(k, 4) = A(4)
      final_A(k, 5) = A(5)
    ElseIf n = 7 Then
    k = 1
    aux_A(k, 1) = A(1)
    aux_A(k, 2) = A(2)
    aux_A(k, 3) = A(3)
    aux_A(k, 4) = A(4)
    aux_A(k, 5) = A(5)
    aux_A(k, 6) = A(6)
    k = 2
    aux_A(k, 1) = A(1)
    aux_A(k, 2) = A(2)
    aux_A(k, 3) = A(3)
    aux_A(k, 4) = A(4)
    aux_A(k, 5) = A(5)
    aux_A(k, 6) = A(7)
    k = 3
    aux_A(k, 1) = A(1)
    aux_A(k, 2) = A(2)
    aux_A(k, 3) = A(3)
    aux_A(k, 4) = A(4)
    aux_A(k, 5) = A(7)
    aux_A(k, 6) = A(6)
    k = 4
    aux_A(k, 1) = A(1)
    aux_A(k, 2) = A(2)
    aux_A(k, 3) = A(3)
    aux_A(k, 4) = A(7)
    aux_A(k, 5) = A(5)
    aux_A(k, 6) = A(6)
    k = 5
    aux_A(k, 1) = A(1)
    aux_A(k, 2) = A(2)
    aux_A(k, 3) = A(7)
    aux_A(k, 4) = A(4)
    aux_A(k, 5) = A(5)
    aux_A(k, 6) = A(6)
    k = 6
    aux_A(k, 1) = A(1)
    aux_A(k, 2) = A(7)
    aux_A(k, 3) = A(3)
    aux_A(k, 4) = A(4)
    aux_A(k, 5) = A(5)
    aux_A(k, 6) = A(6)
    k = 7
    aux_A(k, 1) = A(7)
    aux_A(k, 2) = A(2)
    aux_A(k, 3) = A(3)
    aux_A(k, 4) = A(4)
    aux_A(k, 5) = A(5)
    aux_A(k, 6) = A(6)
    c = 1
    k = 1
    While k <= 7
      If k < 2 Then
        final_A(c, 1) = aux_A(k, 1)
        final_A(c, 2) = aux_A(k, 2)
        final_A(c, 3) = aux_A(k, 3)
        final_A(c, 4) = aux_A(k, 4)
        final_A(c, 5) = aux_A(k, 5)
        c = c + 1
      End If
      
      If k < 3 Then
        final_A(c, 1) = aux_A(k, 1)
        final_A(c, 2) = aux_A(k, 2)
        final_A(c, 3) = aux_A(k, 3)
        final_A(c, 4) = aux_A(k, 4)
        final_A(c, 5) = aux_A(k, 6)
        c = c + 1
      End If
      
      If k < 4 Then
        final_A(c, 1) = aux_A(k, 1)
        final_A(c, 2) = aux_A(k, 2)
        final_A(c, 3) = aux_A(k, 3)
        final_A(c, 4) = aux_A(k, 6)
        final_A(c, 5) = aux_A(k, 5)
      c = c + 1
      End If
      
      If k < 5 Then
        final_A(c, 1) = aux_A(k, 1)
        final_A(c, 2) = aux_A(k, 2)
        final_A(c, 3) = aux_A(k, 6)
        final_A(c, 4) = aux_A(k, 4)
        final_A(c, 5) = aux_A(k, 5)
        c = c + 1
      End If
      
      If k < 6 Then
        final_A(c, 1) = aux_A(k, 1)
        final_A(c, 2) = aux_A(k, 6)
        final_A(c, 3) = aux_A(k, 3)
        final_A(c, 4) = aux_A(k, 4)
        final_A(c, 5) = aux_A(k, 5)
        c = c + 1
      End If
      
      If k < 7 Then
        final_A(c, 1) = aux_A(k, 6)
        final_A(c, 2) = aux_A(k, 2)
        final_A(c, 3) = aux_A(k, 3)
        final_A(c, 4) = aux_A(k, 4)
        final_A(c, 5) = aux_A(k, 5)
        c = c + 1
      End If
      k = k + 1
    Wend
  End If
  Permutacao = final_A
End Function