A multi-set is a set in which all the elements may not be unique.How to enumerate all the possible permutations among the set elements?
Generating all the possible permutations and then discarding the repeated ones is highly inefficient. Various algorithms exist to directly generate the permutations of a multiset in lexicographical order or other kind of ordering. Takaoka's algorithm is a good example, but probably that of Aaron Williams is better
http://webhome.csc.uvic.ca/~haron/CoolMulti.pdf
moreover, it has been implemented in the R package ''multicool''.
Btw, if you just want the total number of distinct permutations, the answer is the Multinomial coefficient: e.g., if you have, say, n_a elements 'a', n_b elements 'b', n_c elements 'c', the total number of distinct permutations is (n_a+n_b+n_c)!/(n_a!n_b!n_c!)