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From: PerlFAQ Server on 28 Apr 2010 00:00
This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq4.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

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4.51: How do I permute N elements of a list?

Use the "List::Permutor" module on CPAN. If the list is actually an
array, try the "Algorithm::Permute" module (also on CPAN). It's written
in XS code and is very efficient:

use Algorithm::Permute;

my @array = 'a'..'d';
my $p_iterator = Algorithm::Permute->new ( \@array );

while (my @perm = $p_iterator->next) {
print "next permutation: (@perm)\n";
}

For even faster execution, you could do:

use Algorithm::Permute;

my @array = 'a'..'d';

Algorithm::Permute::permute {
print "next permutation: (@array)\n";
} @array;

Here's a little program that generates all permutations of all the words
on each line of input. The algorithm embodied in the "permute()"
function is discussed in Volume 4 (still unpublished) of Knuth's *The
Art of Computer Programming* and will work on any list:

#!/usr/bin/perl -n
# Fischer-Krause ordered permutation generator

sub permute (&@) {
my $code = shift;
my @idx = 0..$#_;
while ( $code->(@_[@idx]) ) {
my $p = $#idx;
--$p while $idx[$p-1] > $idx[$p];
my $q = $p or return;
push @idx, reverse splice @idx, $p;
++$q while $idx[$p-1] > $idx[$q];
@idx[$p-1,$q]=@idx[$q,$p-1];
}
}

permute { print "@_\n" } split;

The "Algorithm::Loops" module also provides the "NextPermute" and
"NextPermuteNum" functions which efficiently find all unique
permutations of an array, even if it contains duplicate values,
modifying it in-place: if its elements are in reverse-sorted order then
the array is reversed, making it sorted, and it returns false; otherwise
the next permutation is returned.

"NextPermute" uses string order and "NextPermuteNum" numeric order, so
you can enumerate all the permutations of 0..9 like this:

use Algorithm::Loops qw(NextPermuteNum);

my @list= 0..9;
do { print "@list\n" } while NextPermuteNum @list;



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corrections to examples that do not work on particular platforms.
Working code is greatly appreciated.

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