FYI, I don't have much programming experience but I can usually find a way to do what I want to do. I'm going to need a bit of help this time though.
Pretend we have a cartesian graph with a bunch of random points represented by the int 1 thru int N. I want to find an algorithm for arranging all of these N points in every possible order where each point is mentioned once and only once. Please make sure you don't just give me an explanation for the permutations when N is less than 10. This needs to work (theoretically) when N is very large.
For example, if N is 5, this might be a sample of the result:
1 2 3 4 5 (first arrangement)
1 2 3 5 4
1 2 4 3 5
1 2 4 5 3
1 2 5 3 4
1 2 5 4 3
...
1 5 4 3 2
2 1 3 4 5
...
5 4 3 2 1 (last arrangement)
In case you were wondering, I'm working on a program to solve traveling salesman problems by brute force. I came up with an original algorithm and I'd like to test its efficiency against the brute force model. Thanks for your help!
