Unordered version of itertools.permutations

Question

The following program constructs a URL from a list using the itertools.permutations.

def url_construct_function():
    for i in range(1, len(samplelist)):
        for item in list(permutations(samplelist, i)):

1. Suppose there are 3 items presented in the sample list: a,b,c
2. itertools.permutations provides a good description around various possible ordered combinations
   • a
   • b
   • c
   • a,b
   • a,c
   • b,a
   • b,c
   • c,a
   • c,b

I want to make the program understand that a,b and b,a are the same.

Answer 1

itertools.combinations works like itertools.permutations and does what you are looking for (and what the name suggests)

from itertools import combinations
...
    for item in list(combinations(samplelist, i)):
    ...
a
b
c
a, b
a, c
b, c

as in combinations, unlike permutations, order doesn't matter. All neatly covered in the docs.