permutations of String Array in recursion

Question

String[] test = { "la", "li", "lo" };
language(3, test);

private String language(int n, String[] syllables) { // example of N = 3
    for (int i = 0; i < syllables.length; i++) {
        String w1 = syllables[i];
        for (int j = 0; j < syllables.length; j++) {
            String w2 = syllables[j];
            for (int x = 0; x < syllables.length; x++) {
                String w3 = syllables[x];
                System.out.println(w1 + w2 + w3);
            }
        }
    }
}

I'm trying to create a recursive method that can create any form of the String array. But I'm unable to achieve this

Variables

n = amount of syllables  
syllables = String Array of the base words 

Output

lalala
lalali
lalalo
lalila
lalili
lalolo
lilala
lolala
lilili
lololo
......

Answer 1

This will give you the result you are expecting:

String[] test = { "la", "li", "lo" };
language(3, test, "");

---

private static void language(final int n, final String[] syllables, final String currentWord) { // example of N = 3
    if (n == 0) {
        System.out.println(currentWord);
    } else {
        for (int i = 0; i < syllables.length; i++) {
            language(n - 1, syllables, currentWord + syllables[i]);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

You'd need something along these lines:

private void recursiveMethod(int numberOfSyllablesToAdd, String[] syllables, String word) {
    for (int i = 0; i < syllables.length; i++) {
        String newWord = word + syllables[i];
        if (numberOfSyllablesToAdd >= 0) {
            recursiveMethod(numberOfSyllablesToAdd - 1, syllables, newWord);
       } else {
            System.out.println(newWord);
        }
    }
}

Note: This is really ineffective for multiple reasons (like not using a StringBuilder or StringBuffer to create the words)