checking if a string is a palindrome - linux

Question

I am trying to check if a string is a palindrome in bash. Here is what I came up with:
#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter a string: " string
if [[ $string|rev == $string ]]; then
echo "Palindrome"
fi
Now, echo $string|rev gives reversed string. My logic was to use it in the condition for if. That did not work out so well.
So, how can I store the "returned value" from rev into a variable? or use it directly in a condition?

Answer 1

Another variation without echo and unnecessary quoting within [[ ... ]]:
#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter a string: " string
if [[ $(rev <<< "$string") == "$string" ]]; then
echo Palindrome
fi

Answer 2

A bash-only implementation:
is_palindrome () {
local word=$1
local len=$((${#word} - 1))
local i
for ((i=0; i <= (len/2); i++)); do
[[ ${word:i:1} == ${word:len-i:1} ]] || return 1
done
return 0
}
for word in hello kayak; do
if is_palindrome $word; then
echo $word is a palindrome
else
echo $word is NOT a palindrome
fi
done
Inspired by gniourf_gniourf:
is_palindrome() {
(( ${#1} <= 1 )) && return 0
[[ ${1:0:1} != ${1: -1} ]] && return 1
is_palindrome ${1:1: 1}
}
I bet the performance of this truly recursive call really sucks.

Answer 3

Use $(command substitution):
#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter a string: " string
if [[ "$(echo "$string" | rev)" == "$string" ]]; then
echo "Palindrome"
fi

Answer 4

Maybe it is not the best implementation, but if you need something with pure sh
#!/bin/sh
#get character <str> <num_of_char>. Please, remember that indexing is from 1
get_character() {
echo "$1" | cut -c "$2"
}
for i in $(seq $((${#1} / 2))); do
if [ "$(get_character "$1" "$i")" != "$(get_character "$1" $((${#1} - i + 1)))" ]; then
echo "NO"
exit 0
fi
done
echo "YES"
and canonical way with bash as well
for i in $(seq 0 $((${#1} / 2 - 1))); do
if [ "${1:$i:1}" != "${1:$((${#1} - i - 1)):1}" ]; then
echo "NO"
exit 0
fi
done
echo "YES"

Answer 5

Skipping all punctuation marks and letter case.
input:He lived as a devil, eh?
output:Palindrome
input:Madam, I am Adam.
output:Not Palindrome
#!/bin/bash
#set -x
read -p "Enter a sentence" message
message=$(echo "$message" | \
sed -e '
s/[[:space:]]//g
s/[[:punct:]]//g
s/\!//g
y/abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz/ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ/
' )
i=0
while read -n 1 letter
do
tempArray[i]="$letter"
((i++))
done < <(echo "$message")
i=0
counter=$((${#message}-1))
while [ "$i" -ne $((${#message}/2)) ]
do
if [ "${tempArray[$i]}" = "${tempArray[$counter]}" ]
then
((i++))
((counter--))
else echo -n "Not ";break
fi
done
echo "Palindrome"
exit