Generating all possible combinations of strings

Question

I am trying to generate all possible combinations of a string.

e.g. for the list below: a1q5z!H9, b1q5z!H9, c1q5z!H9, d1q5z!H9, a2q5z!H9 ... etc

Rather than make lots of nested loops, I thought I would try something clever with MODULO ... but hit a wall.

This is the Javascript I have come up with - any pointers to how I might go on?

var c = [
  ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'],
  ['1', '2', '3', '4'],
  ['q', 'w', 'e', 'r'],
  ['5', '6', '7', '8'],
  ['z', 'x', 'c', 'v'],
  ['!', '"', '£', '$'],
  ['H', 'J', 'K', 'L'],
  ['9', '8', '7', '6'],
];

var o = document.getElementById('output');
var pw = "";
var chars = c.length;

for( var i = 0; i <20; i++)
{
  pw = ""
  for(var j = 0; j < chars; j++ )
    {
      pw += c[j][i%4];
    }
  op(pw);
}

function op(s)
{
  o.innerHTML = o.innerHTML + "<br>" + s;
}

This just outputs the first 20 in the list, but repeats ... I nearly have it but not quite. Any help or pointers appreciated.

Answer 1

Quite easy to write a recursive function demo.

function permutate(abc, memo) {
    var options;
    memo = memo || abc.shift().slice(0);

    if(abc.length) {
        options = abc.shift();

        return permutate(abc, memo.reduce(function(all, item){
            return all.concat(options.map(function(option){
                return item + option;
            }))
        }, []));       
    }

    return memo;
};

console.log(permutate(c).length); //65536 items

Or more imperative approach

function permutate2(abc) {
    var options, i, len, tmp, j, optionsLen, 
        memo = abc.pop().slice(0); //copy first the last array

    while(options = abc.pop()) { //replace recursion
        tmp = [];
        optionsLen = options.length;
        for(i = 0, len = memo.length; i < len; i++) { //for every element in memo
            for(j = 0; j < optionsLen; j++) { //do cartesian product with options
                tmp.push(options[j] + memo[i]);    
            }
        }
        memo = tmp;
    }

    return memo;
}