Array values is not passed properly in backtracking - ruby

Question

I have written the following program to find the permutation of all the elements in an array. The values are created properly but the problem occurs when I try to assign the generated sequence into a new array. The old values will get cleared and the new values are copied as per the array size
def find_perm(nums, answer, set)
if nums.empty?
p set
answer.push(set)
p answer.object_id
p answer
return true
end
for i in (0..nums.length - 1) do
new_nums = nums.clone
new_nums.delete_at(i)
set.push(nums[i])
find_perm(new_nums, answer, set)
set.pop
end
end
def permute(nums)
answer = []
set = []
element = find_perm(nums, answer, set)
return element
end
permute([1,2,3])
This are the observations that I have found out while debugging:
[1, 2, 3]
47167191669680
[[1, 2, 3]]
[1, 3, 2]
47167191669680
[[1, 3, 2], [1, 3, 2]]
[2, 1, 3]
47167191669680
[[2, 1, 3], [2, 1, 3], [2, 1, 3]]
[2, 3, 1]
47167191669680
[[2, 3, 1], [2, 3, 1], [2, 3, 1], [2, 3, 1]]
[3, 1, 2]
47167191669680
[[3, 1, 2], [3, 1, 2], [3, 1, 2], [3, 1, 2], [3, 1, 2]]
[3, 2, 1]
47167191669680
[[3, 2, 1], [3, 2, 1], [3, 2, 1], [3, 2, 1], [3, 2, 1], [3, 2, 1]]

Answer 1

The problem was each time I was pushing the same set array into the answer array so each element in the answer array will have same reference (same object_id).
Solution: Is to clone the set array during the each push to the answer array so that each element have different reference.
The solution:
def fact(n)
return 1 if n == 1
n*fact(n-1)
end
def find_perm(nums, answer, set)
if nums.empty?
answer.push(set.clone)
end
for i in (0..nums.length - 1) do
new_nums = nums.clone
new_nums.delete_at(i)
set.push(nums[i])
find_perm(new_nums, answer, set)
set.pop
return answer if fact(nums.count) == answer.count
end
end
def permute(nums)
answer = []
set = []
element = find_perm(nums, answer, set)
return element
end
p permute([1,2,3])

Answer 2

I believe the approach you are taking is similar to the following.
Suppose we wish to obtain the permutations of the elements of the array
arr = [1, 2, 3, 4]
Begin with the array
[4]
This array has only a single perumutation:
perms3 = [[4]]
(3 in perms3 denotes the index of 4 in arr.) Now obtain the permuations of
[3, 4]
We see that is
perms2 = [[3, 4], [4, 3]]
We simply take each element of perms3 ([4] is the only one) and create two permuations by inserting 3 before 4 and then 3 after 4;
Now suppose the array were
[2, 3, 4]
Then
perms1 = [[2, 3, 4], [3, 2, 4], [3, 4, 2], [2, 4, 3], [4, 2, 3], [4, 3, 2]]
We create three 3-element arrays from [3, 4], one by inserting 2 before 3, one by inserting 2 between 3 and 4 and one by inserting 2 after 4. Simlarly, three 3-element arrays are generated from [4, 3] in a simlar way. This generates six arrays. (Indeed, 3! #=> 6).
Lastly we generating the 4! #=> 24 permuations of [1, 2, 3, 4] by inserting 1 in four locations of each element of perm1, the first four derived from perms1[0] #=> [2, 3, 4]:
[[1, 2, 3, 4], [2, 1, 3, 4], [2, 3, 1, 4], [2, 3, 4, 1]]
We can do this in code as follows.
def my_permutations(arr)
perms = [[arr.last]]
(arr.size-2).downto(0) do |i|
x = arr[i]
perms = perms.flat_map do |perm|
(0..(perm.size)).map { |i| perm.dup.insert(i, x) }
end
end
perms
end
my_permutations(arr)
#=> [[1, 2, 3, 4], [2, 1, 3, 4], [2, 3, 1, 4], [2, 3, 4, 1], [1, 3, 2, 4],
# [3, 1, 2, 4], [3, 2, 1, 4], [3, 2, 4, 1], [1, 3, 4, 2], [3, 1, 4, 2],
# [3, 4, 1, 2], [3, 4, 2, 1], [1, 2, 4, 3], [2, 1, 4, 3], [2, 4, 1, 3],
# [2, 4, 3, 1], [1, 4, 2, 3], [4, 1, 2, 3], [4, 2, 1, 3], [4, 2, 3, 1],
# [1, 4, 3, 2], [4, 1, 3, 2], [4, 3, 1, 2], [4, 3, 2, 1]]
See Enumerable#flat_map and Array#insert. Note that we need to make a copy of the array perm before invoking insert.
We could of course have gone "forward" in arr (starting with [[1]]), rather than "backward", though the elements of the array of permutations would be ordered differently.