How do you generate all the permutations of a list in Python, regardless of the type of elements in the list?

For example:

permutations([])
[]

permutations([1])
[1]

permutations([1, 2])
[1, 2]
[2, 1]

permutations([1, 2, 3])
[1, 2, 3]
[1, 3, 2]
[2, 1, 3]
[2, 3, 1]
[3, 1, 2]
[3, 2, 1]

#1 building

This solution implements a generator to avoid leaving all permutations in memory:

def permutations (orig_list):
    if not isinstance(orig_list, list):
        orig_list = list(orig_list)

    yield orig_list

    if len(orig_list) == 1:
        return

    for n in sorted(orig_list):
        new_list = orig_list[:]
        pos = new_list.index(n)
        del(new_list[pos])
        new_list.insert(0, n)
        for resto in permutations(new_list[1:]):
            if new_list[:1] + resto <> orig_list:
                yield new_list[:1] + resto

#2 building

Starting with Python 2.6 (if you are using Python 3), you can use a standard library tool: itertools.permutations .

import itertools
list(itertools.permutations([1, 2, 3]))

If you're using an older version of Python for some reason (< 2.6), or just want to know how it works, this is a good way to do it, excerpted from http://code.activestate.com/recipes/252178/ :

def all_perms(elements):
    if len(elements) <=1:
        yield elements
    else:
        for perm in all_perms(elements[1:]):
            for i in range(len(elements)):
                # nb elements[0:1] works in both string and list contexts
                yield perm[:i] + elements[0:1] + perm[i:]

Several other methods are listed in the documentation for itertools.permutations. This is a:

def permutations(iterable, r=None):
    # permutations('ABCD', 2) --> AB AC AD BA BC BD CA CB CD DA DB DC
    # permutations(range(3)) --> 012 021 102 120 201 210
    pool = tuple(iterable)
    n = len(pool)
    r = n if r is None else r
    if r > n:
        return
    indices = range(n)
    cycles = range(n, n-r, -1)
    yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices[:r])
    while n:
        for i in reversed(range(r)):
            cycles[i] -= 1
            if cycles[i] == 0:
                indices[i:] = indices[i+1:] + indices[i:i+1]
                cycles[i] = n - i
            else:
                j = cycles[i]
                indices[i], indices[-j] = indices[-j], indices[i]
                yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices[:r])
                break
        else:
            return

Another is based on itertools.product:

def permutations(iterable, r=None):
    pool = tuple(iterable)
    n = len(pool)
    r = n if r is None else r
    for indices in product(range(n), repeat=r):
        if len(set(indices)) == r:
            yield tuple(pool[i] for i in indices)

#3 building

stay Python 2.6 and In a later version:

import itertools
itertools.permutations([1,2,3])

(returned as a generator. Use list(permutations(l)) to return as a list.)

#4 building

As tzwenn replied, it is possible to iterate over the first element of each permutation. I prefer this solution:

def all_perms(elements):
    if len(elements) <= 1:
        yield elements  # Only permutation possible = no permutation
    else:
        # Iteration over the first element in the result permutation:
        for (index, first_elmt) in enumerate(elements):
            other_elmts = elements[:index]+elements[index+1:]
            for permutation in all_perms(other_elmts): 
                yield [first_elmt] + permutation

The speed of the solution has increased by about 30%, obviously thanks to recursion with len (elements) < 1 instead of 0. Like Riccardo Reyes's solution, it uses generator functions (via yield), so it also improves memory efficiency.

#5 building

The following code is an in place arrangement of a given list, implemented as a generator. Since only references to the list are returned, the list should not be modified outside the generator. The solution is non recursive, so it uses low memory. Multiple copies of the elements in the input list also work well.

def permute_in_place(a):
    a.sort()
    yield list(a)

    if len(a) <= 1:
        return

    first = 0
    last = len(a)
    while 1:
        i = last - 1

        while 1:
            i = i - 1
            if a[i] < a[i+1]:
                j = last - 1
                while not (a[i] < a[j]):
                    j = j - 1
                a[i], a[j] = a[j], a[i] # swap the values
                r = a[i+1:last]
                r.reverse()
                a[i+1:last] = r
                yield list(a)
                break
            if i == first:
                a.reverse()
                return

if __name__ == '__main__':
    for n in range(5):
        for a in permute_in_place(range(1, n+1)):
            print a
        print

    for a in permute_in_place([0, 0, 1, 1, 1]):
        print a
    print