Understanding and Implementing Permutations

Permutations are fundamental operations used in various fields such as algorithms, mathematics, and cryptography. In this tutorial, we will explore different ways to perform and represent permutations, along with their associated names and use cases.

1. What is a Permutation?

A permutation of a set is a rearrangement of its elements. For example, the set {1, 2, 3} has the following permutations:

{1, 2, 3}, {1, 3, 2}, {2, 1, 3}, {2, 3, 1}, {3, 1, 2}, {3, 2, 1}

The total number of possible permutations of n elements is n! (factorial of n).

2. Different Methods of Permutation

In-Place Permutation (Cycle Decomposition)

In-place permutation is a memory-efficient way to rearrange elements in a list according to a permutation vector. This method avoids additional memory allocation by performing the permutation directly within the input array.

Example: In-Place Permutation in Python

def apply_perm_in_place(arr, perm):
    n = len(arr)
    for i in range(n):
        while perm[i] != i:
            swap_idx = perm[i]
            # Swap the elements
            arr[i], arr[swap_idx] = arr[swap_idx], arr[i]
            # Update the perm array
            perm[i], perm[swap_idx] = perm[swap_idx], perm[i]

# Test the function
arr = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
perm = [2, 0, 3, 1]