python - how to create an array of all combinations of n character series out of k given characters

Question

I am trying to find a way to create an array where I would have all the variations made out of a set of characters

given ABC, I want to have all possible n-elements combination
for example

A A A B B
A B C A A
A B C A B
A B C B A
etc.

is there any function which would give me something like this? I had a look at the print list(itertools.permutations('ABC',5)) but it seems not to work as the 5 is bigger then the number of given characters.

Answer 1

I believe what you are looking for is product :

list(product('ABC', repeat=5))

Output:

[('A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A'),
 ('A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'B'),
 ('A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'C'),
 ('A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'A'),
 ('A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B'),
 ('A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'C'),
 ('A', 'A', 'A', 'C', 'A'),
 ('A', 'A', 'A', 'C', 'B'),
 ...