#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use feature 'say'; use Math::Combinatorics; use List::MoreUtils qw(indexes); use Data::Printer; my $line = "L1 H1 L2 H2"; my @input = split /\s/, $line; # segregate classes my @h_vals; my @l_vals; for (@input) { push @h_vals, $_ =~ /^H\d+/g; push @l_vals, $_ =~ /^L\d+/g; } # index input based on classes my @h_indexes = indexes { $_ =~ '^H\d+' } @input; my @l_indexes = indexes { $_ =~ '^L\d+' } @input; # permute values within classes my @h_perms = permute @h_vals; my @l_perms = permute @l_vals; # get all permutations of recombined classes my @perms; for my $h_cur (@h_perms) { for my $l_cur (@l_perms) { my @current; my @h = @{$h_cur}; my @l = @{$l_cur}; for (@h_indexes) { $current[$_] = shift @h; } for (@l_indexes) { $current[$_] = shift @l; } push @perms, \@current; } } p @perms; __END__ [ [0] [ [0] "L1", [1] "H2", [2] "L2", [3] "H1" ], [1] [ [0] "L2", [1] "H2", [2] "L1", [3] "H1" ], [2] [ [0] "L1", [1] "H1", [2] "L2", [3] "H2" ], [3] [ [0] "L2", [1] "H1", [2] "L1", [3] "H2" ] ]