Find the index of a given permutation in the sorted list of the permutations of a given string - algorithm

Question

We're given a string and a permutation of the string.
For example, an input string sandeep and a permutation psdenae.
Find the position of the given permutation in the sorted list of the permutations of the original string.

Answer 1

The total number of permutation of a given string of length n would be n! (if all characters are different), thus it would not be possible to explore all the combinations.
This question is actually like the mathematics P & C question
Find the rank of the word "stack" when arranged in dictionary order.
Given the input string as NILSU
Take a word which we have to find the rank. Take "SUNIL" for example.
Now arrange the letter of "SUNIL" in alphabetical order.
It will be. "I L N S U".
Now take the first letter. Its "I". Now check, is the letter "I" the
first letter of "SUNIL"? No. The number of words that can be formed
starting with I will be 4!, so we know that there will be 4! words
before "SUNIL".
I = 4! = 24
Now go for the second letter. Its "L". Now check once again if this
letter we want in first position? No. So the number of words can be
formed starting with "L" will be 4!.
L = 4! = 24
Now go for "N". Is this we want? No. Write down the number of words
can be formed starting with "N", once again 4!
N = 4! = 24
Now go for "S". Is this what we want? Yes. Now remove the letter from
the alphabetically ordered word. It will now be "I L N U"
Write S and check the word once again in the list. Is we want SI? No.
So the number of words can be formed starting with SI will be 3!
[S]:I-> 3! = 6
Go for L. is we want SL? No. So it will be 3!.
[S]:L-> 3! = 6
Go for N. is we want SN? No.
[S]:N-> 3! = 6
Go for SU. Is this we want? Yes. Cut the letter U from the list and
then it will be "I L N". Now try I. is we want SUI? No. So the number
of words can be formed which starts from SUI will be 2!
[SU]:I-> 2! = 2 Now go for L. Do we want "SUL". No. so the number of
words starting with SUL will be 2!.
[SU]:L-> 2! = 2
Now go for N. Is we want SUN? Yes, now remove that letter. and this
will be "I L". Do we want "SUNI"? Yes. Remove that letter. The only
letter left is "L".
Now go for L. Do we want SUNIL? Yes. SUNIL were the first options, so
we have 1!. [SUN][I][L] = 1! = 1
Now add the whole numbers we get. The sum will be.
24 + 24 + 24 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 95.
So the word SUNIL will be at 95th position if we count the words that can be created using the letters of SUNIL arranged in dictionary order.
Thus through this method you could solve this problem quite easily.

Answer 2

Building off #Algorithmist 's answer, and his comment to his answer, and using the principle discussed in this post for when there are repeated letters, I made the following algorithm in JavaScript that works for all letter-based words even with repeated letter instances.
function anagramPosition(string) {
var index = 1;
var remainingLetters = string.length - 1;
var frequencies = {};
var splitString = string.split("");
var sortedStringLetters = string.split("").sort();
sortedStringLetters.forEach(function(val, i) {
if (!frequencies[val]) {
frequencies[val] = 1;
} else {
frequencies[val]++;
}
})
function factorial(coefficient) {
var temp = coefficient;
var permutations = coefficient;
while (temp-- > 2) {
permutations *= temp;
}
return permutations;
}
function getSubPermutations(object, currentLetter) {
object[currentLetter]--;
var denominator = 1;
for (var key in object) {
var subPermutations = factorial(object[key]);
subPermutations !== 0 ? denominator *= subPermutations : null;
}
object[currentLetter]++;
return denominator;
}
var splitStringIndex = 0;
while (sortedStringLetters.length) {
for (var i = 0; i < sortedStringLetters.length; i++) {
if (sortedStringLetters[i] !== splitString[splitStringIndex]) {
if (sortedStringLetters[i] !== sortedStringLetters[i+1]) {
var permutations = factorial(remainingLetters);
index += permutations / getSubPermutations(frequencies, sortedStringLetters[i]);
} else {
continue;
}
} else {
splitStringIndex++;
frequencies[sortedStringLetters[i]]--;
sortedStringLetters.splice(i, 1);
remainingLetters--;
break;
}
}
}
return index;
}
anagramPosition("ARCTIC") // => 42
I didn't comment the code but I did try to make the variable names as explanatory as possible. If you run it through a debugger process using your dev tools console and throw in a few console.logs you should be able to see how it uses the formula in the above-linked S.O. post.

Answer 3

I tried to implement this in js. It works for string that have no repeated letters but I get a wrong count otherwise. Here is my code:
function x(str) {
var sOrdinata = str.split('').sort()
console.log('sOrdinata = '+ sOrdinata)
var str = str.split('')
console.log('str = '+str)
console.log('\n')
var pos = 1;
for(var j in str){
//console.log(j)
for(var i in sOrdinata){
if(sOrdinata[i]==str[j]){
console.log('found, position: '+ i)
sOrdinata.splice(i,1)
console.log('Nuovo sOrdinata = '+sOrdinata)
console.log('\n')
break;
}
else{
//calculate number of permutations
console.log('valore di j: '+j)
//console.log('lunghezza stringa da permutare: '+str.slice(~~j+1).length);
if(str.slice(j).length >1 ){sub = str.slice(~~j+1)}else {sub = str.slice(j)}
console.log('substring to be used for permutation: '+ sub)
prep = nrepC(sub.join(''))
console.log('prep = '+prep)
num = factorial(sub.length)
console.log('num = '+num)
den = denom(prep)
console.log('den = '+ den)
pos += num/den
console.log(num/den)
console.log('\n')
}
}
}
console.log(pos)
return pos
}
/* ------------ functions used by main --------------- */
function nrepC(str){
var obj={}
var repeats=[]
var res= [];
for(x = 0, length = str.length; x < length; x++) {
var l = str.charAt(x)
obj[l] = (isNaN(obj[l]) ? 1 : obj[l] + 1);
}
//console.log(obj)
for (var i in obj){
if(obj[i]>1) res.push(obj[i])
}
if(res.length==0){res.push(1); return res}
else return res
}
function num(vect){
var res = 1
}
function denom(vect){
var res = 1
for(var i in vect){
res*= factorial(vect[i])
}
return res
}
function factorial (n){
if (n==0 || n==1){
return 1;
}
return factorial(n-1)*n;
}

Answer 4

A bit too late but just as reference... You can use this C# code directly.
It will work but...
The only important thing is that usually, you should have unique values as your starting set. Otherwise you don't have n! permutations. You have something else (less than n!). I have a little doubt of any useful usage when item could be duplicate ones.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace WpfPermutations
{
public class PermutationOuelletLexico3<T>
{
// ************************************************************************
private T[] _sortedValues;
private bool[] _valueUsed;
public readonly long MaxIndex; // long to support 20! or less
// ************************************************************************
public PermutationOuelletLexico3(T[] sortedValues)
{
if (sortedValues.Length <= 0)
{
throw new ArgumentException("sortedValues.Lenght should be greater than 0");
}
_sortedValues = sortedValues;
Result = new T[_sortedValues.Length];
_valueUsed = new bool[_sortedValues.Length];
MaxIndex = Factorial.GetFactorial(_sortedValues.Length);
}
// ************************************************************************
public T[] Result { get; private set; }
// ************************************************************************
/// <summary>
/// Return the permutation relative to the index received, according to
/// _sortedValues.
/// Sort Index is 0 based and should be less than MaxIndex. Otherwise you get an exception.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sortIndex"></param>
/// <returns>The result is written in property: Result</returns>
public void GetValuesForIndex(long sortIndex)
{
int size = _sortedValues.Length;
if (sortIndex < 0)
{
throw new ArgumentException("sortIndex should be greater or equal to 0.");
}
if (sortIndex >= MaxIndex)
{
throw new ArgumentException("sortIndex should be less than factorial(the lenght of items)");
}
for (int n = 0; n < _valueUsed.Length; n++)
{
_valueUsed[n] = false;
}
long factorielLower = MaxIndex;
for (int index = 0; index < size; index++)
{
long factorielBigger = factorielLower;
factorielLower = Factorial.GetFactorial(size - index - 1); // factorielBigger / inverseIndex;
int resultItemIndex = (int)(sortIndex % factorielBigger / factorielLower);
int correctedResultItemIndex = 0;
for(;;)
{
if (! _valueUsed[correctedResultItemIndex])
{
resultItemIndex--;
if (resultItemIndex < 0)
{
break;
}
}
correctedResultItemIndex++;
}
Result[index] = _sortedValues[correctedResultItemIndex];
_valueUsed[correctedResultItemIndex] = true;
}
}
// ************************************************************************
/// <summary>
/// Calc the index, relative to _sortedValues, of the permutation received
/// as argument. Returned index is 0 based.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="values"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public long GetIndexOfValues(T[] values)
{
int size = _sortedValues.Length;
long valuesIndex = 0;
List<T> valuesLeft = new List<T>(_sortedValues);
for (int index = 0; index < size; index++)
{
long indexFactorial = Factorial.GetFactorial(size - 1 - index);
T value = values[index];
int indexCorrected = valuesLeft.IndexOf(value);
valuesIndex = valuesIndex + (indexCorrected * indexFactorial);
valuesLeft.Remove(value);
}
return valuesIndex;
}
// ************************************************************************
}
}

Answer 5

My approach to the problem is sort the given permutation.
Number of swappings of the characters in the string will give us the position of the pemutation in the sorted list of permutations.

Answer 6

An inefficient solution would be to successively find the previous permutations until you reach a string that cannot be permuted anymore. The number of permutations it takes to reach this state is the position of the original string.
However, if you use combinatorics you can achieve the solution faster. The previous solution will produce a very slow output if string length exceeds 12.