C++ check if Palindrome

Question

Just did this simple application to check whether a string is a palindrome or not

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
void main()
{
 string str;
 cout << "Enter a string: "; getline(cin, str);
 cout << "Your string is: "; cout << str << endl;
 cout << "The reverse of the string is: ";
 int counter = 0;
 for (int reverseIdx = str.size() - 1, forwardIdx = 0; reverseIdx >= 0 && 
 forwardIdx < str.size(); reverseIdx--, forwardIdx++)
 {
 cout << str[reverseIdx];
 if (str[reverseIdx] == str[forwardIdx])
 {
 counter++;
 }
 }
 cout << endl;
 if (counter == str.size())
 {
 cout << "The string is a Palindrome!" << endl;
 }
 else
 {
 cout << "The string is not a Palindrome." << endl;
 }
}

I'm getting a string from the user, then printing out the same string (I know it's not needed in such small programs). Then using a for loop to check if every character when reversed is equal to the same character when read normally.

Then using a counter variable I am checking if it's equal to the string size, if it's then it's palindrome.

Answer 1

Advice 1: getting the job done the C++ way

You can check whether the input string is a palindrome in one line:

bool is_palindrome(std::string& text) {
 return std::equal(text.cbegin(), text.cend(), text.rbegin());
}

For Incomputable has spoken: You can make the above run in the worst case faster by the factor of two:

bool is_palindrome(std::string& text) {
 return std::equal(text.cbegin(),
 std::prev(text.cend(), text.length() / 2),
 text.rbegin());
}

For Deduplicator has spoken: In is_palindrome, change std::string& to std::string const&; this will guarantee that the input string is not modified.

Advice 2

Whatever you implementation of the palindrome checker is, have a dedicated method that does not output the result to std::cout, but rather returns a boolean indicating whether the input string is a palindrome or not.

Advice 3

void main() does not compile on modern Xcode; change to int main().

Advice 4

Please avoid

using namespace std;

since it pollutes your namespace by importing quite a lot of identifiers/type names.

Advice 5

cout << "Your string is: "; cout << str << endl;

You can write:

cout << "Your string is: " << str << endl;

Alternative implementation

I had this in mind:

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
bool is_palindrome(std::string& text) {
 return std::equal(text.cbegin(), text.cend(), text.rbegin());
}
using std::cin;
using std::cout;
using std::getline;
using std::string;
int main()
{
 string str;
 cout << "Enter a string: ";
 getline(cin, str);
 cout << "Your string is: " << str << "\n";
 cout << "Palindrome: " << std::boolalpha << is_palindrome(str) << "\n";
}

• saad.sawash: Those are actually solid recommendations! Thanks a lot!
• coderodde: @SaadAl-Sabbagh You are most welcome!
• Incomputable: @coderodde, you could also reduce amount of comparisons in the worst case by 2, changing text.cend() to std::prev(text.cend(), text.size() / 2). Happy to see you back on C++ tag, btw.
• coderodde: @Incomputable Thanks! I have mentioned the suggestion of the C++ Master such as yourself in the first advice. :-)
• Deduplicator: Well, your function should either accept a std::string_view or at least a const std::string&; it doesn't modify the passed argument at all.