Palindrome issue with JavaScript - javascript

I need to write a code with a function that has a parameter str that evaluates if the word is a palindrome or not, it should return true, else ir should return false.
Note: I need to remove all non-alphanumeric characters.
I wrote the code below but it is giving the opposite of the result expected:
It is giving false for all the cases.
Not able to remove the underscore.
and when use console.log below the image I get.
Code:
function palindrome(str) {
var exc = /[^\w_]/gi;
var repStr = str.toLowerCase().replace(exc, "");
console.log("Replaced string id: " + repStr);
len = repStr.length -1
for (var i = 0; i <= len; i++) {
if (str[i] !== repStr[len] - i) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
console.log(palindrome("eye"));
console.log(palindrome("_eye"));
console.log(palindrome("race car"));
console.log(palindrome("not a palindrome"));
console.log(palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama"));
console.log(palindrome("never odd or even"));
console.log(palindrome("nope"));
console.log(palindrome("almostomla"));
console.log(palindrome("My age is 0, 0 si ega ym"));
console.log(palindrome("1 eye for of 1 eye."));
console.log(palindrome("0_0 (: /-\ :) 0-0"));
console.log(palindrome("five|\_/|four"));

There are 2 mistakes in your code. 1) the RegExp is not replacing the underscore as [^\w_] reads as "everything that is not a word character OR an underscore". Try
/[\W_]/g
which reads as "one of the following: any character that is not a word character, underscores"
OR
/[^0-9a-z]/g
which reads as "anything that is not: digits (from 0 to 9), english alphabet letters".
2) For it to work you need to write
if(repStr[i] !== repStr[len - i])
instead of
if(str[i] !== repStr[len] - i)

you can simply replace the two of your lines
for (var i = 0; i <= len; i++, len--) {
if (str[i] !== repStr[len]) {
check this
function palindrome(str) {
var exc = /[^\w_]/gi;
var repStr = str.toLowerCase().replace(exc, "");
console.log("Replaced string id: " + repStr);
len = repStr.length -1
for (var i = 0; i <= len; i++, len--) {
if (str[i] !== repStr[len]) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
console.log(palindrome("eye"));
console.log(palindrome("_eye"));
console.log(palindrome("race car"));
console.log(palindrome("not a palindrome"));
console.log(palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama"));
console.log(palindrome("never odd or even"));
console.log(palindrome("nope"));
console.log(palindrome("almostomla"));
console.log(palindrome("My age is 0, 0 si ega ym"));
console.log(palindrome("1 eye for of 1 eye."));
console.log(palindrome("0_0 (: /-\ :) 0-0"));
console.log(palindrome("five|\_/|four"));

Try this out:
function palindrome(str) {
const letters = str.replace(/[^a-z]/gi, ''); // replace any char that is not in the set [a-z] range
const lowercase = letters.toLowerCase();
const reversed = lowercase.split('').reverse().join('');
return lowercase === reversed;
}

Related

Check how many times a char appears in a string

Simply trying to find how many times a given character appears in a string but I can't solve it any other way then this simple for-loop. Is there a method that would solve this quicker or more eloquently other than using Regex?
function countCharacter(str, char) {
var count = 0;
for(var i = 0; i < str.length; i++){
if(str.charAt(i) === char)
count++;
}
return count;
}
There are many possible ways are available in the market.
I am adding a few of them.
Method 1:
str = "The man is as good as his word"
str.split('a')
output: (4) ["The m", "n is ", "s good ", "s his word"]
str.split('a').length - 1
output: 3
Method 2:
str = "The man is as good as his word"
str.split('').map( function(char,i)
{ if(char === 'a')
return i;
}
).filter(Boolean)
Output: (3) [5, 11, 19]
str.split('').map( function(char,i)
{ if(char === 'a')
return i;
}
).filter(Boolean).length
ouput: 3
Edit: As per comment we can also make use of filter().
str.split('').filter(function(char, i){
if(char == 'a'){
return i;
}
})
output: (3) ["a", "a", "a"]
str.split('').filter(function(char, i){
if(char == 'a'){
return i;
}
}).length
output: 3
----edited by adding more cases from answers----
there are several ways, you can use split/for/regex/reduce/indexOf like this:
function countCharacter_reduce(str, ch) {
return Array.prototype.reduce.call(str, (prev, cur) => cur === ch && ++prev && prev, 0);
}
function countCharacter_split(str, ch) {
return str.split(ch).length - 1;
}
function countCharacter_for(str, ch) {
for (var count = 0, ii = 0; ii < str.length; ii++) {
if (str[ii] === ch)
count++;
}
return count;
}
function countCharacter_regex(str, ch) {
return str.length - str.replace(new RegExp(ch, 'g'), '').length;
}
function countCharacter_indexOf(str, char) {
var start = 0;
var count = 0;
while ((start = str.indexOf(char, start) + 1) !== 0) {
count++;
}
return count;
}
performance of them by running 1,000,000 times on counting '/' in a string.
-- case1: running 1000000 times on ( 'this/is/a/path/with/extension', '/' )
countCharacter_reduce: 2389.880ms
countCharacter_regex: 496.251ms
countCharacter_split: 114.709ms
countCharacter_for: 152.012ms
countCharacter_indexOf: 90.330ms
-- case2: running 1000000 times on ( '////////////', '/' )
countCharacter_reduce: 1138.051ms
countCharacter_regex: 619.886ms
countCharacter_split: 121.945ms
countCharacter_for: 74.542ms
countCharacter_indexOf: 204.242ms
Conclusion ('>' means 'has better performance'):
for|split|indexOf > regex > reduce.
furthermore,
if the string contains more searching characters (like case2),
for>split>indexOf,
otherwise (like case1)
indexOf > split > for.
BTW: you can change the for indexOf method to fit multi-characters search (example is single character)
using reduce:
function countCharacter(str, char) {
return str.split('').reduce((a, x) => x === char ? ++a : a, 0);
}
I guess this involves regex which you wanted to avoid but it's pretty quick:
function countCharacter(str, char) {
return str.length - str.replace(new RegExp(char,"g"),"").length;
}
You can also try the str.split(char).length-1 approach suggested by Jaromanda.
Or, go all out with some fun recursion (pass 0 to startingFrom):
function countCharacter(str, char, startingFrom) {
var idx = str.indexOf(char, startingFrom);
return idx == -1 ? 0 : 1 + countCharacter(str, char, idx + 1);
}
You can get rid of the annoying extra argument at the cost of some efficiency:
function countCharacter(str, char) {
var idx = str.indexOf(char);
return idx == -1 ? 0 : 1 + countCharacter(str.substr(idx+1), char);
}
And here's a version optimized for speed (this is about 3 times faster on my browser than your original and much faster than the regex versions, according to jsperf):
function countCharacter(str, char) {
var start = 0;
var count = 0;
while((start = str.indexOf(char, start)+1) !== 0) {
count++;
}
return count;
}
Note that the indexOf approaches will generally be substantially faster than manually iterating through the string. See jsperf
Here you go. One line code
"hello".match(new RegExp('l','g')).length
replace 'l' with any char here, new RegExp('l','g').
that is
str.match(new RegExp(char,'g')).length
Have you thought of using the split() method? How about this -
function myFunction(str, char) {
return string.split(char).length - 1
}
Let me know what you think of this solution.

checking for palindromes in js [duplicate]

I have the following:
function checkPalindrom(palindrom)
{
for( var i = palindrom.length; i > 0; i-- )
{
if( palindrom[i] = palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1 )
{
document.write('the word is palindrome.');
}else{
document.write('the word is not palindrome!');
}
}
}
checkPalindrom('wordthatwillbechecked');
What is wrong with my code? I want to check if the word is a palindrome.
Maybe I will suggest alternative solution:
function checkPalindrom (str) {
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
UPD. Keep in mind however that this is pretty much "cheating" approach, a demonstration of smart usage of language features, but not the most practical algorithm (time O(n), space O(n)). For real life application or coding interview you should definitely use loop solution. The one posted by Jason Sebring in this thread is both simple and efficient (time O(n), space O(1)).
25x faster than the standard answer
function isPalindrome(s,i) {
return (i=i||0)<0||i>=s.length>>1||s[i]==s[s.length-1-i]&&isPalindrome(s,++i);
}
use like:
isPalindrome('racecar');
as it defines "i" itself
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/namcx0yf/9/
This is ~25 times faster than the standard answer below.
function checkPalindrome(str) {
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/t0zfjfab/2/
View console for performance results.
Although the solution is difficult to read and maintain, I would recommend understanding it to demonstrate non-branching with recursion and bit shifting to impress your next interviewer.
explained
The || and && are used for control flow like "if" "else". If something left of || is true, it just exits with true. If something is false left of || it must continue. If something left of && is false, it exits as false, if something left of a && is true, it must continue. This is considered "non-branching" as it does not need if-else interupts, rather its just evaluated.
1. Used an initializer not requiring "i" to be defined as an argument. Assigns "i" to itself if defined, otherwise initialize to 0. Always is false so next OR condition is always evaluated.
(i = i || 0) < 0
2. Checks if "i" went half way but skips checking middle odd char. Bit shifted here is like division by 2 but to lowest even neighbor division by 2 result. If true then assumes palindrome since its already done. If false evaluates next OR condition.
i >= s.length >> 1
3. Compares from beginning char and end char according to "i" eventually to meet as neighbors or neighbor to middle char. If false exits and assumes NOT palindrome. If true continues on to next AND condition.
s[i] == s[s.length-1-i]
4. Calls itself again for recursion passing the original string as "s". Since "i" is defined for sure at this point, it is pre-incremented to continue checking the string's position. Returns boolean value indicating if palindrome.
isPalindrome(s,++i)
BUT...
A simple for loop is still about twice as fast as my fancy answer (aka KISS principle)
function fastestIsPalindrome(str) {
var len = Math.floor(str.length / 2);
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++)
if (str[i] !== str[str.length - i - 1])
return false;
return true;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/6L953awz/1/
The logic here is not quite correct, you need to check every letter to determine if the word is a palindrome. Currently, you print multiple times. What about doing something like:
function checkPalindrome(word) {
var l = word.length;
for (var i = 0; i < l / 2; i++) {
if (word.charAt(i) !== word.charAt(l - 1 - i)) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
if (checkPalindrome("1122332211")) {
document.write("The word is a palindrome");
} else {
document.write("The word is NOT a palindrome");
}
Which should print that it IS indeed a palindrome.
First problem
= is assign
== is compare
Second problem, Your logic here is wrong
palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1
You are subtracting one from the charAt and not the length.
Third problem, it still will be wrong since you are not reducing the length by i.
It works to me
function palindrome(str) {
/* remove special characters, spaces and make lowercase*/
var removeChar = str.replace(/[^A-Z0-9]/ig, "").toLowerCase();
/* reverse removeChar for comparison*/
var checkPalindrome = removeChar.split('').reverse().join('');
/* Check to see if str is a Palindrome*/
return (removeChar === checkPalindrome);
}
As a much clearer recursive function: http://jsfiddle.net/dmz2x117/
function isPalindrome(letters) {
var characters = letters.split(''),
firstLetter = characters.shift(),
lastLetter = characters.pop();
if (firstLetter !== lastLetter) {
return false;
}
if (characters.length < 2) {
return true;
}
return isPalindrome(characters.join(''));
}
SHORTEST CODE (31 chars)(ES6):
p=s=>s==[...s].reverse().join``
p('racecar'); //true
Keep in mind short code isn't necessarily the best. Readability and efficiency can matter more.
At least three things:
You are trying to test for equality with =, which is used for setting. You need to test with == or ===. (Probably the latter, if you don't have a reason for the former.)
You are reporting results after checking each character. But you don't know the results until you've checked enough characters.
You double-check each character-pair, as you really only need to check if, say first === last and not also if last === first.
function checkPalindrom(palindrom)
{
var flag = true;
var j = 0;
for( var i = palindrom.length-1; i > palindrom.length / 2; i-- )
{
if( palindrom[i] != palindrom[j] )
{
flag = false;
break; // why this? It'll exit the loop at once when there is a mismatch.
}
j++;
}
if( flag ) {
document.write('the word is palindrome.');
}
else {
document.write('the word is not palindrome.');
}
}
checkPalindrom('wordthatwillbechecked');
Why am I printing the result outside the loop? Otherwise, for each match in the word, it'll print "is or is not pallindrome" rather than checking the whole word.
EDIT: Updated with changes and a fix suggested by Basemm.
I've added some more to the above functions, to check strings like, "Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog".
function checkPalindrom(str) {
var str = str.replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]+/gi, '').toLowerCase();
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
Thanks
The most important thing to do when solving a Technical Test is Don't use shortcut methods -- they want to see how you think algorithmically! Not your use of methods.
Here is one that I came up with (45 minutes after I blew the test). There are a couple optimizations to make though. When writing any algorithm, its best to assume false and alter the logic if its looking to be true.
isPalindrome():
Basically, to make this run in O(N) (linear) complexity you want to have 2 iterators whose vectors point towards each other. Meaning, one iterator that starts at the beginning and one that starts at the end, each traveling inward. You could have the iterators traverse the whole array and use a condition to break/return once they meet in the middle, but it may save some work to only give each iterator a half-length by default.
for loops seem to force the use of more checks, so I used while loops - which I'm less comfortable with.
Here's the code:
/**
* TODO: If func counts out, let it return 0
* * Assume !isPalindrome (invert logic)
*/
function isPalindrome(S){
var s = S
, len = s.length
, mid = len/2;
, i = 0, j = len-1;
while(i<mid){
var l = s.charAt(i);
while(j>=mid){
var r = s.charAt(j);
if(l === r){
console.log('#while *', i, l, '...', j, r);
--j;
break;
}
console.log('#while !', i, l, '...', j, r);
return 0;
}
++i;
}
return 1;
}
var nooe = solution('neveroddoreven'); // even char length
var kayak = solution('kayak'); // odd char length
var kayaks = solution('kayaks');
console.log('#isPalindrome', nooe, kayak, kayaks);
Notice that if the loops count out, it returns true. All the logic should be inverted so that it by default returns false. I also used one short cut method String.prototype.charAt(n), but I felt OK with this as every language natively supports this method.
function palindromCheck(str) {
var palinArr, i,
palindrom = [],
palinArr = str.split(/[\s!.?,;:'"-()]/ig);
for (i = 0; i < palinArr.length; i++) {
if (palinArr[i].toLowerCase() === palinArr[i].split('').reverse().join('').toLowerCase() &&
palinArr[i] !== '') {
palindrom.push(palinArr[i]);
}
}
return palindrom.join(', ');
}
console.log(palindromCheck('There is a man, his name! was Bob.')); //a, Bob
Finds and upper to lower case. Split string into array, I don't know why a few white spaces remain, but I wanted to catch and single letters.
= in palindrom[i] = palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1 should be == or ===
palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1 should be palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length - i)
Sharing my fast variant which also support spaces
function isPalindrom(str) {
var ia = 0;
var ib = str.length - 1;
do {
if (str[ia] === str[ib]) continue;
// if spaces skip & retry
if (str[ia] === ' ' && ib++) continue;
if (str[ib] === ' ' && ia--) continue;
return false;
} while (++ia < --ib);
return true;
}
var palindrom="never odd or even";
var res = isPalindrom(palindrom);
document.getElementById('check').innerHTML ='"'+ palindrom + '"'+" checked to be :" +res;
<span id="check" />
Some above short anwsers is good, but it's not easy for understand, I suggest one more way:
function checkPalindrome(inputString) {
if(inputString.length == 1){
return true;
}else{
var i = 0;
var j = inputString.length -1;
while(i < j){
if(inputString[i] != inputString[j]){
return false;
}
i++;
j--;
}
}
return true;
}
I compare each character, i start form left, j start from right, until their index is not valid (i<j).
It's also working in any languages
One more solution with ES6
isPalin = str => [...str].every((c, i) => c === str[str.length-1-i]);
You can try the following
function checkPalindrom (str) {
str = str.toLowerCase();
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
if(checkPalindrom('Racecar')) {
console.log('Palindrome');
} else {
console.log('Not Palindrome');
}
function checkPalindrom(palindrom)
{
palindrom= palindrom.toLowerCase();
var flag = true;
var j;
j = (palindrom.length) -1 ;
//console.log(j);
var cnt = j / 2;
//console.log(cnt);
for( i = 0; i < cnt+1 ; i++,j-- )
{
console.log("J is => "+j);
console.log(palindrom[i] + "<==>" + palindrom[j]);
if( palindrom[i] != palindrom[j] )
{
flag = false;
break;
}
}
if( flag ) {
console.log('the word is palindrome.');
}
else {
console.log('the word is not palindrome.');
}
}
checkPalindrom('Avid diva');
I'm wondering why nobody suggested this:
ES6:
// "aba" -> true
// "acb" -> false
// "aa" -> true
// "abba" -> true
// "s" -> true
isPalindrom = (str = "") => {
if (str[0] === str[str.length - 1]) {
return str.length <= 1 ? true : isPalindrom(str.slice(1, -1))
}
return false;
}
alert(["aba", "acb", "aa", "abba", "s"].map((e, i) => isPalindrom(e)).join())
ES5:
// "aba" -> true
// "acb" -> false
// "aa" -> true
// "abba" -> true
// "s" -> true
function isPalindrom(str) => {
var str = typeof str !== "string" ? "" : str;
if (str[0] === str[str.length - 1]) {
return str.length <= 1 ? true : isPalindrom(str.slice(1, -1))
}
return false;
}
alert(["aba", "acb", "aa", "abba", "s"].map(function (e, i) {
return isPalindrom(e);
}).join());
Recursive Method:
var low;
var high;
var A = "abcdcba";
function palindrome(A , low, high){
A = A.split('');
if((low > high) || (low == high)){
return true;
}
if(A[low] === A[high]){
A = A.join('');
low = low + 1;
high = high - 1;
return palindrome(A , low, high);
}
else{
return "not a palindrome";
}
}
palindrome(A, 0, A.length-1);
I thought I'd share my own solution:
function palindrome(string){
var reverseString = '';
for(var k in string){
reverseString += string[(string.length - k) - 1];
}
if(string === reverseString){
console.log('Hey there palindrome');
}else{
console.log('You are not a palindrome');
}
}
palindrome('ana');
Hope will help someone.
I found this on an interview site:
Write an efficient function that checks whether any permutation of an
input string is a palindrome. You can ignore punctuation, we only care
about the characters.
Playing around with it I came up with this ugly piece of code :)
function checkIfPalindrome(text) {
var found = {};
var foundOne = 0;
text = text.replace(/[^a-z0-9]/gi, '').toLowerCase();
for (var i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
if (found[text[i]]) {
found[text[i]]++;
} else {
found[text[i]] = 1;
}
}
for (var x in found) {
if (found[x] === 1) {
foundOne++;
if (foundOne > 1) {
return false;
}
}
}
for (var x in found) {
if (found[x] > 2 && found[x] % 2 && foundOne) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
Just leaving it here for posterity.
How about this, using a simple flag
function checkPalindrom(str){
var flag = true;
for( var i = 0; i <= str.length-1; i++){
if( str[i] !== str[str.length - i-1]){
flag = false;
}
}
if(flag == false){
console.log('the word is not a palindrome!');
}
else{
console.log('the word is a palindrome!');
}
}
checkPalindrom('abcdcba');
(JavaScript) Using regexp, this checks for alphanumeric palindrome and disregards space and punctuation.
function palindrome(str) {
str = str.match(/[A-Za-z0-9]/gi).join("").toLowerCase();
// (/[A-Za-z0-9]/gi) above makes str alphanumeric
for(var i = 0; i < Math.floor(str.length/2); i++) { //only need to run for half the string length
if(str.charAt(i) !== str.charAt(str.length-i-1)) { // uses !== to compare characters one-by-one from the beginning and end
return "Try again.";
}
}
return "Palindrome!";
}
palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama.");
//palindrome("4_2 (: /-\ :) 2-4"); // This solution would also work on something like this.
`
function checkPalindrome (str) {
var str = str.toLowerCase();
var original = str.split(' ').join('');
var reversed = original.split(' ').reverse().join('');
return (original === reversed);
}
`
This avoids regex while also dealing with strings that have spaces and uppercase...
function isPalindrome(str) {
str = str.split("");
var str2 = str.filter(function(x){
if(x !== ' ' && x !== ',') {
return x;
}
});
return console.log(str2.join('').toLowerCase()) == console.log(str2.reverse().join('').toLowerCase());
};
isPalindrome("A car, a man, a maraca"); //true
function myPolidrome(polidrome){
var string=polidrome.split('').join(',');
for(var i=0;i<string.length;i++){
if(string.length==1){
console.log("is polidrome");
}else if(string[i]!=string.charAt(string.length-1)){
console.log("is not polidrome");
break;
}else{
return myPolidrome(polidrome.substring(1,polidrome.length-1));
}
}
}
myPolidrome("asasdsdsa");
Thought I will share my solution using Array.prototype.filter(). filter()
filters the array based on boolean values the function returns.
var inputArray=["","a","ab","aba","abab","ababa"]
var outputArray=inputArray.filter(function isPalindrome(x){
if (x.length<2) return true;
var y=x.split("").reverse().join("");
return x==y;
})
console.log(outputArray);
This worked for me.
var number = 8008
number = number + "";
numberreverse = number.split("").reverse().join('');
console.log ("The number if reversed is: " +numberreverse);
if (number == numberreverse)
console.log("Yes, this is a palindrome");
else
console.log("Nope! It isnt a palindrome");
Here is a solution that works even if the string contains non-alphanumeric characters.
function isPalindrome(str) {
str = str.toLowerCase().replace(/\W+|_/g, '');
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}

Add a space between two words

I have some words like "Light Purple" and "Dark Red" which are stored as "LightPurple" and "DarkRed". How do I check for the uppercase letters in the word like "LightPurple" and put a space in between the words "Light" and "Purple" to form the word "Light Purple".
thanks in advance for the help
You can use a regex to add a space wherever there is a lowercase letter next to an uppercase one.
Something like this:
"LightPurple".replace(/([a-z])([A-Z])/, '$1 $2')
UPDATE: If you have more than 2 words, then you'll need to use the g flag, to match them all.
"LightPurpleCar".replace(/([a-z])([A-Z])/g, '$1 $2')
UPDATE 2: If are trying to split words like CSVFile, then you might need to use this regex instead:
"CSVFilesAreCool".replace(/([a-zA-Z])([A-Z])([a-z])/g, '$1 $2$3')
Okay, sharing my experience. I have this implement in some other languages too it works superb. For you I just created a javascript version with an example so you try this:
var camelCase = "LightPurple";
var tmp = camelCase[0];
for (i = 1; i < camelCase.length; i++)
{
var hasNextCap = false;
var hasPrevCap = false;
var charValue = camelCase.charCodeAt(i);
if (charValue > 64 && charValue < 91)
{
if (camelCase.length > i + 1)
{
var next_charValue = camelCase.charCodeAt(i + 1);
if (next_charValue > 64 && next_charValue < 91)
hasNextCap = true;
}
if (i - 1 > -1)
{
var prev_charValue = camelCase.charCodeAt(i - 1);
if (prev_charValue > 64 && prev_charValue < 91)
hasPrevCap = true;
}
if (i < camelCase.length-1 &&
(!(hasNextCap && hasPrevCap || hasPrevCap)
|| (hasPrevCap && !hasNextCap)))
tmp += " ";
}
tmp += camelCase[i];
}
Here is the demo.
You could compare each character to a string of uppercase letters.
function splitAtUpperCase(input){
var uppers = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
//start at 1 because 0 is always uppercase
for (var i=1; i<input.length; i++){
if (uppers.indexOf(input.charAt(i)) != -1){
//the uppercase letter is at i
return [input.substring(0,i),input.substring(i,input.length)];
}
}
}
The output is an array with the first and second words.
I think this is definitely not the best way to solve this problem (from an optimization perspective). But it works :)
const createSpacesBetweenWords = (char, index) => {
if (char === char.toUpperCase() && index > 0) {
return ` ${char}`;
}
return char;
};
function formatString(string) {
return string
.split('')
.map(createSpacesBetweenWords)
.join('');
}
formatString('LightPurple'); //returns a new string where words are separated by spaces

Palindrome check in Javascript

I have the following:
function checkPalindrom(palindrom)
{
for( var i = palindrom.length; i > 0; i-- )
{
if( palindrom[i] = palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1 )
{
document.write('the word is palindrome.');
}else{
document.write('the word is not palindrome!');
}
}
}
checkPalindrom('wordthatwillbechecked');
What is wrong with my code? I want to check if the word is a palindrome.
Maybe I will suggest alternative solution:
function checkPalindrom (str) {
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
UPD. Keep in mind however that this is pretty much "cheating" approach, a demonstration of smart usage of language features, but not the most practical algorithm (time O(n), space O(n)). For real life application or coding interview you should definitely use loop solution. The one posted by Jason Sebring in this thread is both simple and efficient (time O(n), space O(1)).
25x faster than the standard answer
function isPalindrome(s,i) {
return (i=i||0)<0||i>=s.length>>1||s[i]==s[s.length-1-i]&&isPalindrome(s,++i);
}
use like:
isPalindrome('racecar');
as it defines "i" itself
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/namcx0yf/9/
This is ~25 times faster than the standard answer below.
function checkPalindrome(str) {
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/t0zfjfab/2/
View console for performance results.
Although the solution is difficult to read and maintain, I would recommend understanding it to demonstrate non-branching with recursion and bit shifting to impress your next interviewer.
explained
The || and && are used for control flow like "if" "else". If something left of || is true, it just exits with true. If something is false left of || it must continue. If something left of && is false, it exits as false, if something left of a && is true, it must continue. This is considered "non-branching" as it does not need if-else interupts, rather its just evaluated.
1. Used an initializer not requiring "i" to be defined as an argument. Assigns "i" to itself if defined, otherwise initialize to 0. Always is false so next OR condition is always evaluated.
(i = i || 0) < 0
2. Checks if "i" went half way but skips checking middle odd char. Bit shifted here is like division by 2 but to lowest even neighbor division by 2 result. If true then assumes palindrome since its already done. If false evaluates next OR condition.
i >= s.length >> 1
3. Compares from beginning char and end char according to "i" eventually to meet as neighbors or neighbor to middle char. If false exits and assumes NOT palindrome. If true continues on to next AND condition.
s[i] == s[s.length-1-i]
4. Calls itself again for recursion passing the original string as "s". Since "i" is defined for sure at this point, it is pre-incremented to continue checking the string's position. Returns boolean value indicating if palindrome.
isPalindrome(s,++i)
BUT...
A simple for loop is still about twice as fast as my fancy answer (aka KISS principle)
function fastestIsPalindrome(str) {
var len = Math.floor(str.length / 2);
for (var i = 0; i < len; i++)
if (str[i] !== str[str.length - i - 1])
return false;
return true;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/6L953awz/1/
The logic here is not quite correct, you need to check every letter to determine if the word is a palindrome. Currently, you print multiple times. What about doing something like:
function checkPalindrome(word) {
var l = word.length;
for (var i = 0; i < l / 2; i++) {
if (word.charAt(i) !== word.charAt(l - 1 - i)) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
if (checkPalindrome("1122332211")) {
document.write("The word is a palindrome");
} else {
document.write("The word is NOT a palindrome");
}
Which should print that it IS indeed a palindrome.
First problem
= is assign
== is compare
Second problem, Your logic here is wrong
palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1
You are subtracting one from the charAt and not the length.
Third problem, it still will be wrong since you are not reducing the length by i.
It works to me
function palindrome(str) {
/* remove special characters, spaces and make lowercase*/
var removeChar = str.replace(/[^A-Z0-9]/ig, "").toLowerCase();
/* reverse removeChar for comparison*/
var checkPalindrome = removeChar.split('').reverse().join('');
/* Check to see if str is a Palindrome*/
return (removeChar === checkPalindrome);
}
As a much clearer recursive function: http://jsfiddle.net/dmz2x117/
function isPalindrome(letters) {
var characters = letters.split(''),
firstLetter = characters.shift(),
lastLetter = characters.pop();
if (firstLetter !== lastLetter) {
return false;
}
if (characters.length < 2) {
return true;
}
return isPalindrome(characters.join(''));
}
SHORTEST CODE (31 chars)(ES6):
p=s=>s==[...s].reverse().join``
p('racecar'); //true
Keep in mind short code isn't necessarily the best. Readability and efficiency can matter more.
At least three things:
You are trying to test for equality with =, which is used for setting. You need to test with == or ===. (Probably the latter, if you don't have a reason for the former.)
You are reporting results after checking each character. But you don't know the results until you've checked enough characters.
You double-check each character-pair, as you really only need to check if, say first === last and not also if last === first.
function checkPalindrom(palindrom)
{
var flag = true;
var j = 0;
for( var i = palindrom.length-1; i > palindrom.length / 2; i-- )
{
if( palindrom[i] != palindrom[j] )
{
flag = false;
break; // why this? It'll exit the loop at once when there is a mismatch.
}
j++;
}
if( flag ) {
document.write('the word is palindrome.');
}
else {
document.write('the word is not palindrome.');
}
}
checkPalindrom('wordthatwillbechecked');
Why am I printing the result outside the loop? Otherwise, for each match in the word, it'll print "is or is not pallindrome" rather than checking the whole word.
EDIT: Updated with changes and a fix suggested by Basemm.
I've added some more to the above functions, to check strings like, "Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog".
function checkPalindrom(str) {
var str = str.replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]+/gi, '').toLowerCase();
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
Thanks
The most important thing to do when solving a Technical Test is Don't use shortcut methods -- they want to see how you think algorithmically! Not your use of methods.
Here is one that I came up with (45 minutes after I blew the test). There are a couple optimizations to make though. When writing any algorithm, its best to assume false and alter the logic if its looking to be true.
isPalindrome():
Basically, to make this run in O(N) (linear) complexity you want to have 2 iterators whose vectors point towards each other. Meaning, one iterator that starts at the beginning and one that starts at the end, each traveling inward. You could have the iterators traverse the whole array and use a condition to break/return once they meet in the middle, but it may save some work to only give each iterator a half-length by default.
for loops seem to force the use of more checks, so I used while loops - which I'm less comfortable with.
Here's the code:
/**
* TODO: If func counts out, let it return 0
* * Assume !isPalindrome (invert logic)
*/
function isPalindrome(S){
var s = S
, len = s.length
, mid = len/2;
, i = 0, j = len-1;
while(i<mid){
var l = s.charAt(i);
while(j>=mid){
var r = s.charAt(j);
if(l === r){
console.log('#while *', i, l, '...', j, r);
--j;
break;
}
console.log('#while !', i, l, '...', j, r);
return 0;
}
++i;
}
return 1;
}
var nooe = solution('neveroddoreven'); // even char length
var kayak = solution('kayak'); // odd char length
var kayaks = solution('kayaks');
console.log('#isPalindrome', nooe, kayak, kayaks);
Notice that if the loops count out, it returns true. All the logic should be inverted so that it by default returns false. I also used one short cut method String.prototype.charAt(n), but I felt OK with this as every language natively supports this method.
function palindromCheck(str) {
var palinArr, i,
palindrom = [],
palinArr = str.split(/[\s!.?,;:'"-()]/ig);
for (i = 0; i < palinArr.length; i++) {
if (palinArr[i].toLowerCase() === palinArr[i].split('').reverse().join('').toLowerCase() &&
palinArr[i] !== '') {
palindrom.push(palinArr[i]);
}
}
return palindrom.join(', ');
}
console.log(palindromCheck('There is a man, his name! was Bob.')); //a, Bob
Finds and upper to lower case. Split string into array, I don't know why a few white spaces remain, but I wanted to catch and single letters.
= in palindrom[i] = palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1 should be == or ===
palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length)-1 should be palindrom.charAt(palindrom.length - i)
Sharing my fast variant which also support spaces
function isPalindrom(str) {
var ia = 0;
var ib = str.length - 1;
do {
if (str[ia] === str[ib]) continue;
// if spaces skip & retry
if (str[ia] === ' ' && ib++) continue;
if (str[ib] === ' ' && ia--) continue;
return false;
} while (++ia < --ib);
return true;
}
var palindrom="never odd or even";
var res = isPalindrom(palindrom);
document.getElementById('check').innerHTML ='"'+ palindrom + '"'+" checked to be :" +res;
<span id="check" />
Some above short anwsers is good, but it's not easy for understand, I suggest one more way:
function checkPalindrome(inputString) {
if(inputString.length == 1){
return true;
}else{
var i = 0;
var j = inputString.length -1;
while(i < j){
if(inputString[i] != inputString[j]){
return false;
}
i++;
j--;
}
}
return true;
}
I compare each character, i start form left, j start from right, until their index is not valid (i<j).
It's also working in any languages
One more solution with ES6
isPalin = str => [...str].every((c, i) => c === str[str.length-1-i]);
You can try the following
function checkPalindrom (str) {
str = str.toLowerCase();
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
if(checkPalindrom('Racecar')) {
console.log('Palindrome');
} else {
console.log('Not Palindrome');
}
function checkPalindrom(palindrom)
{
palindrom= palindrom.toLowerCase();
var flag = true;
var j;
j = (palindrom.length) -1 ;
//console.log(j);
var cnt = j / 2;
//console.log(cnt);
for( i = 0; i < cnt+1 ; i++,j-- )
{
console.log("J is => "+j);
console.log(palindrom[i] + "<==>" + palindrom[j]);
if( palindrom[i] != palindrom[j] )
{
flag = false;
break;
}
}
if( flag ) {
console.log('the word is palindrome.');
}
else {
console.log('the word is not palindrome.');
}
}
checkPalindrom('Avid diva');
I'm wondering why nobody suggested this:
ES6:
// "aba" -> true
// "acb" -> false
// "aa" -> true
// "abba" -> true
// "s" -> true
isPalindrom = (str = "") => {
if (str[0] === str[str.length - 1]) {
return str.length <= 1 ? true : isPalindrom(str.slice(1, -1))
}
return false;
}
alert(["aba", "acb", "aa", "abba", "s"].map((e, i) => isPalindrom(e)).join())
ES5:
// "aba" -> true
// "acb" -> false
// "aa" -> true
// "abba" -> true
// "s" -> true
function isPalindrom(str) => {
var str = typeof str !== "string" ? "" : str;
if (str[0] === str[str.length - 1]) {
return str.length <= 1 ? true : isPalindrom(str.slice(1, -1))
}
return false;
}
alert(["aba", "acb", "aa", "abba", "s"].map(function (e, i) {
return isPalindrom(e);
}).join());
Recursive Method:
var low;
var high;
var A = "abcdcba";
function palindrome(A , low, high){
A = A.split('');
if((low > high) || (low == high)){
return true;
}
if(A[low] === A[high]){
A = A.join('');
low = low + 1;
high = high - 1;
return palindrome(A , low, high);
}
else{
return "not a palindrome";
}
}
palindrome(A, 0, A.length-1);
I thought I'd share my own solution:
function palindrome(string){
var reverseString = '';
for(var k in string){
reverseString += string[(string.length - k) - 1];
}
if(string === reverseString){
console.log('Hey there palindrome');
}else{
console.log('You are not a palindrome');
}
}
palindrome('ana');
Hope will help someone.
I found this on an interview site:
Write an efficient function that checks whether any permutation of an
input string is a palindrome. You can ignore punctuation, we only care
about the characters.
Playing around with it I came up with this ugly piece of code :)
function checkIfPalindrome(text) {
var found = {};
var foundOne = 0;
text = text.replace(/[^a-z0-9]/gi, '').toLowerCase();
for (var i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
if (found[text[i]]) {
found[text[i]]++;
} else {
found[text[i]] = 1;
}
}
for (var x in found) {
if (found[x] === 1) {
foundOne++;
if (foundOne > 1) {
return false;
}
}
}
for (var x in found) {
if (found[x] > 2 && found[x] % 2 && foundOne) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
Just leaving it here for posterity.
How about this, using a simple flag
function checkPalindrom(str){
var flag = true;
for( var i = 0; i <= str.length-1; i++){
if( str[i] !== str[str.length - i-1]){
flag = false;
}
}
if(flag == false){
console.log('the word is not a palindrome!');
}
else{
console.log('the word is a palindrome!');
}
}
checkPalindrom('abcdcba');
(JavaScript) Using regexp, this checks for alphanumeric palindrome and disregards space and punctuation.
function palindrome(str) {
str = str.match(/[A-Za-z0-9]/gi).join("").toLowerCase();
// (/[A-Za-z0-9]/gi) above makes str alphanumeric
for(var i = 0; i < Math.floor(str.length/2); i++) { //only need to run for half the string length
if(str.charAt(i) !== str.charAt(str.length-i-1)) { // uses !== to compare characters one-by-one from the beginning and end
return "Try again.";
}
}
return "Palindrome!";
}
palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama.");
//palindrome("4_2 (: /-\ :) 2-4"); // This solution would also work on something like this.
`
function checkPalindrome (str) {
var str = str.toLowerCase();
var original = str.split(' ').join('');
var reversed = original.split(' ').reverse().join('');
return (original === reversed);
}
`
This avoids regex while also dealing with strings that have spaces and uppercase...
function isPalindrome(str) {
str = str.split("");
var str2 = str.filter(function(x){
if(x !== ' ' && x !== ',') {
return x;
}
});
return console.log(str2.join('').toLowerCase()) == console.log(str2.reverse().join('').toLowerCase());
};
isPalindrome("A car, a man, a maraca"); //true
function myPolidrome(polidrome){
var string=polidrome.split('').join(',');
for(var i=0;i<string.length;i++){
if(string.length==1){
console.log("is polidrome");
}else if(string[i]!=string.charAt(string.length-1)){
console.log("is not polidrome");
break;
}else{
return myPolidrome(polidrome.substring(1,polidrome.length-1));
}
}
}
myPolidrome("asasdsdsa");
Thought I will share my solution using Array.prototype.filter(). filter()
filters the array based on boolean values the function returns.
var inputArray=["","a","ab","aba","abab","ababa"]
var outputArray=inputArray.filter(function isPalindrome(x){
if (x.length<2) return true;
var y=x.split("").reverse().join("");
return x==y;
})
console.log(outputArray);
This worked for me.
var number = 8008
number = number + "";
numberreverse = number.split("").reverse().join('');
console.log ("The number if reversed is: " +numberreverse);
if (number == numberreverse)
console.log("Yes, this is a palindrome");
else
console.log("Nope! It isnt a palindrome");
Here is a solution that works even if the string contains non-alphanumeric characters.
function isPalindrome(str) {
str = str.toLowerCase().replace(/\W+|_/g, '');
return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}

Finding the nth occurrence of a character in a string in javascript

I am working on a javascript code to find the nth occurrence of a character in a string. Using the indexOf() function we are able to get the first occurrence of the character. Now the challenge is to get the nth occurrence of the character. I was able to get the second third occurrence and so on using the code given below:
function myFunction() {
var str = "abcdefabcddesadfasddsfsd.";
var n = str.indexOf("d");
document.write("First occurence " +n );
var n1 = str.indexOf("d",parseInt(n+1));
document.write("Second occurence " +n1 );
var n2 = str.indexOf("d",parseInt(n1+1));
document.write("Third occurence " +n2 );
var n3 = str.indexOf("d",parseInt(n2+1));
document.write("Fourth occurence " +n3);
// and so on ...
}
The result is given below
First occurence 3
Second occurence 9
Third occurence 10
Fourth occurence 14
Fifth occurence 18
Sixth occurence 19
I would like to generalize the script so that I am able to find the nth occurrence of the character as the above code requires us to repeat the script n times. Let me know if there is a better method or alternative to do the same. It would be nice if we just give the occurrence (at run time) to get the index of that character.
The following are some of my questions:
How do we do it in JavaScript?
Does any framework provide any functionality to do the same implementation in an easier way or what are the alternate methods to implement the same in other frameworks /languages?
function nth_occurrence (string, char, nth) {
var first_index = string.indexOf(char);
var length_up_to_first_index = first_index + 1;
if (nth == 1) {
return first_index;
} else {
var string_after_first_occurrence = string.slice(length_up_to_first_index);
var next_occurrence = nth_occurrence(string_after_first_occurrence, char, nth - 1);
if (next_occurrence === -1) {
return -1;
} else {
return length_up_to_first_index + next_occurrence;
}
}
}
// Returns 16. The index of the third 'c' character.
nth_occurrence('aaaaacabkhjecdddchjke', 'c', 3);
// Returns -1. There is no third 'c' character.
nth_occurrence('aaaaacabkhjecdddhjke', 'c', 3);
You can do it easily by implementing a function using charAt(), like this:
function nth_ocurrence(str, needle, nth) {
for (i=0;i<str.length;i++) {
if (str.charAt(i) == needle) {
if (!--nth) {
return i;
}
}
}
return false;
}
alert( nth_ocurrence('aaaaacabkhjecdddchjke', 'c', 3) );//alerts 16
Thanks to CQQL for let me know what OP really wanted. I updated a bit my original function to achieve the new behaviour.
indexOf takes a second argument, the character index in the string to begin the search.
function nthChar(string, character, n){
var count= 0, i=0;
while(count<n && (i=string.indexOf(character,i)+1)){
count++;
}
if(count== n) return i-1;
return NaN;
}
var s= 'abcbbasdbgasdnnaabaasdert';
nthChar(s,'a',7);
So a nice way to do this is to extend the string class like so:
(function() {
String.prototype.nthOccurrenceIndex = function(charToMatch, occurrenceIndex) {
var char, index, matches, _i, _len;
matches = 0;
index = 0;
for (_i = 0, _len = this.length; _i < _len; _i++) {
char = this[_i];
if (char === charToMatch) {
matches += 1;
if (matches === occurrenceIndex) {
return index;
}
}
index += 1;
}
return -1;
};
}).call(this);
The much more concise CoffeeScript version:
String.prototype.nthOccurrenceIndex = (charToMatch, occurrenceIndex)->
matches = 0
index = 0
for char in #
if char is charToMatch
matches += 1
return index if matches is occurrenceIndex
index += 1
-1
So now you can do stuff like:
"abcabc".nthOccurrenceIndex('a', 1)
# -> 0
"abcabc".nthOccurrenceIndex('a', 2)
# -> 3
"abcabc".nthOccurrenceIndex('a', 3)
# -> -1
A maybe clearer function. Recursive and copy the mechanism of indexOf:
Doesn't cause an error if an incorrect number for nth (ie <= 0). It will return -1 like you can give a negative number (or greater than the length of the string) asfromIndex to indexOf.
Can take a fromIndex argument (the same than for indexOf: An integer representing the index at which to start the search; the default value is 0.)
function indexOfNth (string, char, nth, fromIndex=0) {
let indexChar = string.indexOf(char, fromIndex);
if (indexChar === -1){
return -1;
} else if (nth === 1) {
return indexChar;
} else {
return indexOfNth(string, char, nth-1, indexChar+1);
}
}
let test = 'string for research purpose';
console.log('first s:', indexOfNth(test, 's', 1));
console.log('second s:', indexOfNth(test, 's', 2));
console.log('15th s:', indexOfNth(test, 's', 15));
console.log('first z:', indexOfNth(test, 'z', 1));
console.log('-1th s:', indexOfNth(test, 's', -1));
console.log('first s starting from index=1:', indexOfNth(test, 's', 1, 1));
function nthIndexOf(search, n) {
var myArray = [];
for(var i = 0; i < myStr.length; i++) {
if(myStr.slice(i, i + search.length) === search) {
myArray.push(i);
}
}
return myArray[n - 1];
}

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