Lazy permutations

permutations.R

require(itertools)
    
permutations <- function(iterable) {
  # Returns permutations of iterable. Based on code given in the documentation
  # of the `permutation` function in the Python itertools module:
  #   http://docs.python.org/library/itertools.html#itertools.permutations
  n <- length(iterable)
  indicies <- seq(n)
  cycles <- rev(indicies)
  stop_iteration <- FALSE

  nextEl <- function(){
    if (stop_iteration){ stop('StopIteration', call. = FALSE) }
    if (cycles[1] == 1){ stop_iteration <<- TRUE } # Triggered on last iteration

    for (i in rev(seq(n))) {
      cycles[i] <<- cycles[i] - 1
      if ( cycles[i] == 0 ){
        if (i < n){
          indicies[i:n] <<- c(indicies[(i+1):n], indicies[i])
        }
        cycles[i] <<- n - i + 1
      }else{
        j <- cycles[i]
        indicies[c(i, n-j+1)] <<- c(indicies[n-j+1], indicies[i])
        return( iterable[indicies] )
      }
    }
  }

  # chain is used to return a copy of the original sequence 
  # before returning permutations. 
  return( chain(list(iterable), new_iterator(nextElem = nextEl)) )

}