Single cycle permutations - prolog

Question

Let's take a permutation of numbers {1,2,3,4} which has only one cycle in it. For example it can be: (2,3,4,1). I was wondering, how can I generate all such permutations using Prolog?
I know how to generate all permutations using select.
But I can't come up with an idea for how to generate only the one-cycle (i.e. single cycle) permutations.
Could someone give me a small prompt or advice?

Answer 1

My comment was intended as a hint for producing directly the single cycle permutations, rather than generating all permutations and filtering out the ones that consist of a single cycle.
We should perhaps clarify that two representations of permutations are frequently used. xyz writes "I know how [to] generate all permutation[s]," presumably meaning something like the code I gave in this 2006 forum post. Here all permutations are represented according to the way a list rearranges the items in some "standard order" list.
Obviously there are N! permutations of all kinds. How many of these are single cycle permutations? That question is easily answered by contemplating the other form useful for permutations, namely as a product of disjoint cycles. We need to distinguish between a cycle like (1,2,3,4) and the identity permutation [1,2,3,4]. Indeed the cycle (1,2,3,4) maps 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, and 4 back to 1, so rather than the identity permutation it would be [2,3,4,1] in its list representation.
Now a cycle loops back on itself, so it is arbitrary where we choose to begin the cycle notation. If we start at 1, for example, then the cycle is determined by the ordering of the following N-1 items. This shows there are (N-1)! permutations of N things that form a single cycle (necessarily of length N). Thus we can generate all single cycle permutations in cycle form easily enough, and the problem then reduces to converting from that cycle form to the list form of a permutation. [Note that in part Mog tackled the conversion going in the other direction: given a permutation as list, ferret out a cycle contained in that permutation (and see if it is full length).]
Here's my code for generating all the one-cycle list permutations of a given "standard order" list, oneCycle(Identity,Permuted):
oneCycle([H|T],P) :-
permute(T,S),
oneCycle2permute([H|S],[H|T],P).
permute([ ],[ ]) :- !.
permute(L,[H|T]) :-
omit(H,L,Z),
permute(Z,T).
omit(H,[H|T],T).
omit(X,[H|T],[H|Z]) :-
omit(X,T,Z).
oneCycle2permute(_,[ ],[ ]) :- !.
oneCycle2permute(C,[I|Is],[P|Ps]) :-
mapCycle(C,I,P),
oneCycle2permute(C,Is,Ps).
mapCycle([X],X,X) :- !.
mapCycle([H|T],X,Y) :-
mapCycleAux(H,T,X,Y).
mapCycleAux(Y,[X],X,Y) :- !.
mapCycleAux(X,[Y|_],X,Y) :- !.
mapCycleAux(_,[X,Y|_],X,Y) :- !.
mapCycleAux(H,[_|T],X,Y) :-
mapCycleAux(H,T,X,Y).

Answer 2

Couldn't you use the function for generating all permutations, and filter out the ones that aren't 'one-cycle permutations'? (Since I'm not at all clear on what 'one-cycle permutations' are, I'm afraid I can't help with writing that filter.)

Answer 3

one-cycle([H|T], Permutation) :-
permutation([H|T], Permutation),
cycle(H, [H], [H|T], Permutation, Cycle),
length(Cycle, CycleLength),
length([H|T], ListLength),
CycleLength =:= ListLength.
The cycle/5 predicate builds the cycle corresponding to the first argument you pass it. the second argument is an accumulator, initialized to [FirstArgument], the third and fourth one are the original List and Permutation, the last one is the result (the list containing the elements of the cycle).
cycle(Current, Acc, List, Permutation, Cycle) :-
The call to corresponds/4 retrieves the item that took the place of the first argument in the permutation :
corresponds(Current, List, Permutation, R),
If this item is in the cycle we're building, it means we're done building the cycle, so we unify Cycle and the accumulator (Acc).
( member(R, Acc)
-> Cycle = Acc
If not, we go on by calling recursively our predicate with the corresponding item we found and we add it to the accumulator, so that our building cycle now holds it :
; cycle(R, [R|Acc], List, Permutation, Cycle)).
corresponds(N, [N|_], [R|_], R) :-
!.
corresponds(N, [_|L], [_|P], R) :-
corresponds(N, L, P, R).
Usage :
?- one-cycle([1, 2, 3, 4], P).
P = [2, 3, 4, 1] ;
P = [3, 1, 4, 2] ;
P = [3, 4, 2, 1] ;
P = [2, 4, 1, 3] ;
P = [4, 1, 2, 3] ;
P = [4, 3, 1, 2] ;
false.

Answer 4

Thanks to the discussion in the answer by hardmath I was able to understand what it was all about.
It seems the solution is quite simply to replace the input list's tail with its permutation to form a cycle description, then transform that into its list representation by paring up each element with its next and sorting on the first component to get the list of the second components as the result list:
single_cycled_permutation([A|B], R) :-
permutation(B, P),
cycle_pairs(A, A, P, CP),
sort( CP, SCP),
maplist( pair, SCP, _, R).
pair( X-Y, X, Y).
cycle_pairs( A, X, [Y|Z], [X-Y|W]) :-
cycle_pairs(A, Y, Z , W ).
cycle_pairs( A, X, [ ], [X-A] ).
To easier see the cycles simply remove the last goal in single_cycled_permutation:
single_cycled_pairs([A|B], SCP) :-
permutation(B, P),
cycle_pairs(A, A, P, CP),
sort( CP, SCP).
Testing:
21 ?- forall( single_cycled_pairs([1,2,3,4], SCP),
(maplist(pair,SCP,_,R), write((SCP,R)), nl)).
[1-2,2-3,3-4,4-1],[2,3,4,1]
[1-2,2-4,3-1,4-3],[2,4,1,3]
[1-3,2-4,3-2,4-1],[3,4,2,1]
[1-3,2-1,3-4,4-2],[3,1,4,2]
[1-4,2-3,3-1,4-2],[4,3,1,2]
[1-4,2-1,3-2,4-3],[4,1,2,3]
true.
See also:
Cyclic permutation
Cycles and fixed points