For functions in $C^k(\mathbb {R})$ which commute with a translation, we prove a theorem on approximation by entire functions which commute with the same translation, with a requirement that the values of the entire function and its derivatives on a specified countable set belong to specified dense sets. Using this theorem, we show that if A and B are countable dense subsets of the unit circle $T\subseteq \mathbb {C}$ with $1\notin A$ , $1\notin B$ , then there is an analytic function $h\colon \mathbb {C}\setminus \{0\}\to \mathbb {C}$ that restricts to an order isomorphism of the arc $T\setminus \{1\}$ onto itself and satisfies $h(A)=B$ and $h'(z)\not =0$ when $z\in T$ . This answers a question of P. M. Gauthier.

In this paper we primarily consider two natural subgroups of the autohomeomorphism group of the real line $\mathbb{R}$, endowed with the compact-open topology. First, we prove that the subgroup of homeomorphisms that map the set of rational numbers $\mathbb{Q}$ onto itself is homeomorphic to the infinite power of $\mathbb{Q}$ with the product topology. Secondly, the group consisting of homeomorphisms that map the pseudoboundary onto itself is shown to be homeomorphic to the hyperspace of nonempty compact subsets of $\mathbb{Q}$ with the Vietoris topology. We obtain similar results for the Cantor set but we also prove that these results do not extend to ${{\mathbb{R}}^{n}}$ for $n\ge 2$, by linking the groups in question with Erdős space.