simple recursion help

[Alex Martelli]

Steven Bethard <steven.bethard at gmail.com> wrote:

> drs <drs <at> remove-to-send-mail-ecpsoftware.com> writes:
> > 
> > I am looking for a list of all unique strings of length x whose
> > elements are from the set a, b, and c.
> 
> Does anyone know what this operation is called?  It's not permutations or
> combinations as I understand them since permutations and combinations do
> not allow repetition.  I assume there was already a solution for this
> somewhere, but I didn't know what term to google for.

There's been a recent thread where the OP called them 'permutations',
somebody commented they're 'variations'.  In that thread you'll find a
bazillion solutions, recursive and non, with or without itertools, &c.


Alex