                    ABCD
                    CABD
                    ACDB
                    DACB
                    BCDA
                    ACBD
                    ADCB
                    CDAB
                    DABC
                    BCAD
                    CADB
                    CDBA
                    CBAD
                    ABDC
                    ADBC
                    BDCA
                    DCBA
                    BACD
                    BADC
                    BDAC
                    CBDA
                    DBCA
                    DCAB

Listed above are   all-but-one   of the permutations of the symbols   A,   B,   C,   and   D,   except   for one permutation that's   not   listed.



Task

Find that missing permutation.



Methods

 Obvious method: 
        enumerate all permutations of   A,  B,  C,  and  D,  
        and then look for the missing permutation. 

 alternate method:
        Hint:  if all permutations were shown above,  how many 
        times would  A  appear in each position?     
        What is the  parity  of this number?

 another alternate method:
        Hint:  if you add up the letter values of each column, 
        does a missing letter   A,  B,  C,  and  D   from each
        column cause the total value for each column to be unique?



Related task

   Permutations)


def fact = { n -> [1,(1..<(n+1)).inject(1) { prod, i -> prod * i }].max() }
def missingPerms
missingPerms = {List elts, List perms ->
    perms.empty ? elts.permutations() : elts.collect { e ->
        def ePerms = perms.findAll { e == it[0] }.collect { it[1..-1] }
        ePerms.size() == fact(elts.size() - 1) ? [] \
            : missingPerms(elts - e, ePerms).collect { [e] + it }
    }.sum()
}