std::prev_permutation

 

C++

Language

Standard library headers

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Utilities library

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Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

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Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Technical Specifications

 

Algorithm library

Functions
Non-modifying sequence operations
all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) for_each countcount_if mismatch equal	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of adjacent_find search search_n
Modifying sequence operations
copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) fill fill_n transform generate generate_n removeremove_if remove_copyremove_copy_if	replacereplace_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if swap swap_ranges iter_swap reverse reverse_copy rotate rotate_copy random_shuffleshuffle (until C++17)(C++11) unique unique_copy
Partitioning operations
is_partitioned (C++11) partition partition_copy (C++11)	stable_partition partition_point (C++11)
Sorting operations (on sorted ranges)
is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11) sort	partial_sort partial_sort_copy stable_sort nth_element
Binary search operations (on sorted ranges)
lower_bound upper_bound	binary_search equal_range
Set operations (on sorted ranges)
merge inplace_merge includes	set_difference set_intersection set_symmetric_difference set_union
Heap operations
is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11) make_heap	push_heap pop_heap sort_heap
Minimum/maximum operations
max max_element min min_element minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	lexicographical_compare is_permutation (C++11) next_permutation prev_permutation
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) accumulate inner_product	adjacent_difference partial_sum
C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class BidirIt > bool prev_permutation( BidirIt first, BidirIt last);	(1)
template< class BidirIt, class Compare > bool prev_permutation( BidirIt first, BidirIt last, Compare comp);	(2)

Transforms the range [first, last) into the previous permutation from the set of all permutations that are lexicographically ordered with respect to operator< or comp. Returns true if such permutation exists, otherwise transforms the range into the last permutation (as if by std::sort(first, last); std::reverse(first, last);) and returns false.

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to permute
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns ​true if the first argument is less than the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following:  bool cmp(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b); The signature does not need to have const &, but the function object must not modify the objects passed to it. The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that an object of type BidirIt can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both of them. ​
Type requirements
- BidirIt must meet the requirements of ValueSwappable and BidirectionalIterator.

Return value

true if the new permutation precedes the old in lexicographical order. false if the first permutation was reached and the range was reset to the last permutation.

Exceptions

Any exceptions thrown from iterator operations or the element swap.

Complexity

At most (last-first)/2 swaps.

Possible implementation

template<class BidirIt> bool prev_permutation(BidirIt first, BidirIt last) { if (first == last) return false; BidirIt i = last; if (first == --i) return false;   while (1) { BidirIt i1, i2;   i1 = i; if (*i1 < *--i) { i2 = last; while (!(*--i2 < *i)) ; std::iter_swap(i, i2); std::reverse(i1, last); return true; } if (i == first) { std::reverse(first, last); return false; } } }

Example

The following code prints all six permutations of the string "abc" in reverse order

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <functional>
int main()
{
    std::string s="abc";
    std::sort(s.begin(), s.end(), std::greater<char>());
    do {
        std::cout << s << ' ';
    } while(std::prev_permutation(s.begin(), s.end()));
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

cba cab bca bac acb abc

See also

is_permutation (C++11)	determines if a sequence is a permutation of another sequence (function template)
next_permutation	generates the next greater lexicographic permutation of a range of elements (function template)