use strict; use warnings; use Algorithm::Permute; my $p = new Algorithm::Permute([qw(c i o l n a o t)]); my %seen_permutation; my $length = 5; while ( my @res = $p->next) { my @tmp = @res[0..$length - 1]; #get first n letters of @res; my $key = join('',sort {$a cmp $b} @tmp); #return asciibetical list as key; unless ( $seen_permutation{$key} ) #skip if this pattern has been seen before { $seen_permutation{$key} = 1; my $r = new Algorithm::Permute([@tmp]); while ( my @sml = $r->next ) { print join ('',@sml), $/; } } }