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I have a recursive function that checks if a string is a palindrome, but my assignment asks me to count the number of palindromes in a string (for example kayak has 2).
I'm really confused about how I can implement a recursive function that counts the number of palindromes. Here's my current code:
function isPalindrome(string) {
if (string.length <= 1) {
return true;
}
let [ firstLetter ] = string;
let lastLetter = string[string.length - 1];
if (firstLetter === lastLetter) {
let stringWithoutFirstAndLastLetters = string.substring(1, string.length - 1);
return isPalindrome(stringWithoutFirstAndLastLetters);
} else {
return false;
}
}
When the function gets a palindrome it is easy:
Record the input
Try again without the edges
Stop when input is three characters or less
"kayak" -> "aya"
If the input isn't a palindrome try "both ends" recursively e.g. with "kayam" try with both "kaya" and "ayam" and keep going...
We stop the recursion when a string is 3 (or less) characters. A single character is not a palindrome and checking whether a two or three characters string is a palindrome is trivial.
kayam
|
+-------------+
| |
kaya ayam
| |
+-------+ +--------+
| | | |
kay aya aya yam
const reverse =
([...xs]) =>
xs.reverse().join("");
const is_palindrome =
a =>
a.length === 1 ? false
: a.length <= 3 ? a[0] === a[a.length-1]
: a === reverse(a);
const find_palindromes = str => {
const scan =
(x, xs = []) =>
x.length <= 3 ? xs.concat(is_palindrome(x) ? x : [])
: is_palindrome(x) ? xs.concat
( x
, scan(x.slice(1, -1))
)
: xs.concat
( scan(x.slice(0, -1))
, scan(x.slice(1))
);
return [...new Set(scan(str))];
};
console.log(find_palindromes("kayak").join());
console.log(find_palindromes("kayakkayak").join());
console.log(find_palindromes("kayakcanoe").join());
console.log(find_palindromes("kayam").join());
console.log(find_palindromes("appal").join());
console.log(find_palindromes("madamimadam").join());
console.log(find_palindromes("madamimadamkayak").join());
I think the accepted answer does not actually work. It will not count palindromes unless they are centered in the string and will count substrings that are not palindromes if as long as they start and end with the same letter. The answer from CertainPerformance would probably work but I think it would result in checking a lot of strings that don't need to be checked. Here's what I came up with, I think it works for the extra tests I've added.
function countPalindromes(string) {
if (string.length <= 1) {
return 0;
}
count = 0
for ( var i = 0; i < string.length; i++ ) {
count += countPalindromesCenteredAt(string, i)
count += countPalindromesCenteredAfter(string, i)
}
return count
}
function countPalindromesCenteredAt(string, i) {
count = 0
for ( var j = 1; i-j>=0 && i+j < string.length; j++ ) {
if (string.charAt(i-j) === string.charAt(i+j)) {
count += 1
}
else {
return count
}
}
return count
}
function countPalindromesCenteredAfter(string, i) {
count = 0
for ( var j = 1; i-j>=0 && i+j < string.length; j++ ) {
if (string.charAt(i-j+1) === string.charAt(i+j)) {
count += 1
}
else {
return count
}
}
return count
}
console.log(countPalindromes("kayak"));
console.log(countPalindromes("aya"));
console.log(countPalindromes("kayakcanoe"));
console.log(countPalindromes("kcanoek"));
One method would be to first get all substrings, then validate each:
getAllSubstrings('kayak').filter(str => str.length >= 2 && isPalindrome(str))
function getAllSubstrings(str) {
var i, j, result = [];
for (i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
for (j = i + 1; j < str.length + 1; j++) {
result.push(str.slice(i, j));
}
}
return result;
}
function isPalindrome(string) {
if (string.length <= 1) {
return true;
}
let [ firstLetter ] = string;
let lastLetter = string[string.length - 1];
if (firstLetter === lastLetter) {
let stringWithoutFirstAndLastLetters = string.substring(1, string.length - 1);
return isPalindrome(stringWithoutFirstAndLastLetters);
} else {
return false;
}
}
console.log(
getAllSubstrings('kayak').filter(str => str.length >= 2 && isPalindrome(str))
);
Here's an answer similar to that from CertainPerformance, but using recursion for the helper functions:
const getSubstrings = (str) =>
str .length == 0
? []
: [
... str .split ('') .map ((_, i) => str .slice (0, str .length - i)),
... getSubstrings (str .slice (1))
]
const isPalindrome = (str) =>
str .length < 2
? true
: str [0] === str .slice (-1) [0] && isPalindrome (str .slice (1, -1))
const getPalindromicSubstrings = (str) =>
getSubstrings (str)
.filter (s => s.length > 1)
.filter (isPalindrome)
const countPalindromicSubstrings = (str) =>
getPalindromicSubstrings (str) .length
const countUniquePalindromicSubstrings = (str) =>
new Set(getPalindromicSubstrings (str)) .size
console .log (getPalindromicSubstrings ('madamimadam'))
console .log (countPalindromicSubstrings ('madamimadam'))
console .log (countUniquePalindromicSubstrings ('madamimadam'))
.as-console-wrapper {max-height: 100% !important; top: 0}
getSubstrings does just what you'd expect. getSubstrings('abcd') returns ["abcd", "abc", "ab", "a", "bcd", "bc", "b", "cd", "c", "d"].
isPalindrome says that the empty string and single-character strings are automatically palindromes and that for another string we check that the two end characters match, recurring on the remainder.
getPalindromicSubstrings finds all the substrings that are palindromes, skipping those of length 1.
countPalindromicSubstrings returns a count of those.
countUniquePalindromicSubstrings uses a Set to filter out duplicates and returns that count.
We could also easily write a getUniquePalindromicSubstrings in a similar manner if needed.
getSubstrings is the only function with any complexity. It operates by repeatedly slicing our string from to a value varying from length down to 1, then recurring on the string starting with the second character, stopping when our input is empty.
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('');
}
Have the function DashInsert(num) insert dashes ('-') between each two odd numbers in num. For example: if num is 454793 the output should be 4547-9-3. Don't count zero as an odd number.
Here is my code (not working). When I run it, I get the same response as an infinite loop where I have to kill the page but I can't see why. I know there are ways to do this by keeping it as a string but now I'm wondering why my way isn't working. Thanks...
function DashInsert(num) {
num = num.split("");
for (i = 1; i < num.length; i++) {
if (num[i - 1] % 2 != 0 && num[i] % 2 != 0) {
num.splice(i, 0, "-");
}
}
num = num.join("");
return num;
}
Using num.splice you are inserting new entries into the array, therefor increasing its length – and that makes the value of i “running behind” the increasing length of the array, so the break condition is never met.
And apart from that, on the next iteration after inserting a -, num[i-1] will be that - character, and therefor you are practically trying to check if '-' % 2 != 0 … that makes little sense as well.
So, when you insert a - into the array, you have to increase i by one as well – that will a) account for the length of the array having increased by one, and also it will check the next digit after the - on the next iteration:
function DashInsert(num) {
num = num.split("");
for (i = 1; i < num.length; i++) {
if (num[i - 1] % 2 != 0 && num[i] % 2 != 0) {
num.splice(i, 0, "-");
i++; // <- this is the IMPORTANT part!
}
}
num = num.join("");
return num;
}
alert(DashInsert("454793"));
http://jsfiddle.net/37wA9/
Once you insert a dash -, the if statement is checking this '-'%2 != 0 which is always true and thus inserts another dash, ad infinitum.
Here's one way to do it with replace using a regex and function:
function DashInsert(n) {
var f = function(m,i,s) { return m&s[i+1]&1 ? m+'-' : m; };
return String(n).replace(/\d/g,f);
}
DashInsert(454793) // "4547-9-3"
When you are adding a dash, this dash will be processed as a number on the next iteration. You need to forward one step.
function DashInsert(num) {
var num = num.split("");
for (var i = 1; i < num.length; i++) {
if ((num[i - 1] % 2 != 0) && (num[i] % 2 != 0)) {
num.splice(i, 0, "-");
i++; // This is the only thing that needs changing
}
}
num = num.join("");
return num;
}
It's because there are cases when you use the % operator on dash '-' itself, e.g. right after you splice a dash into the array.
You can correct this behavior by using a clone array.
function DashInsert(num) {
num = num.split("");
var clone = num.slice(0);
var offset = 0;
for (i = 1; i < num.length; i++) {
if (num[i - 1] % 2 != 0 && num[i] % 2 != 0) {
clone.splice(i + offset, 0, "-");
offset++;
}
}
return clone.join("");
}
alert(DashInsert("45739"));
Output: 45-7-3-9
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/262Bf/
To complement the great answers already given, I would like to share an alternative implementation, that doesn't modify arrays in-place:
function DashInsert(num) {
var characters = num.split("");
var numbers = characters.map(function(chr) {
return parseInt(chr, 10);
});
var withDashes = numbers.reduce(function(result, current) {
var lastNumber = result[result.length - 1];
if(lastNumber == null || current % 2 === 0 || lastNumber % 2 === 0) {
return result.concat(current);
} else {
return result.concat("-", current);
}
}, []);
return withDashes.join("");
}
It's longer, but IMHO reveals the intention better, and avoids the original issue.
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('');
}
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];
}