Develop Reference

How to check if a string is only number values

I am trying to run a recursion function where i check each character in the string to see if the character is a numeric number, however im a little stuck as the function runs and only checks the first character of the string
public static boolean isNumeric(String str) {
if(str == null)
{
return false;
}
if(str=="") {
return true;
}
char first = str.charAt(0);
if(Character.isDigit(first))
{
return true;
}
if(Character.isDigit(first) == false)
{
return false;
}
String reduced = str.substring(1);
return isNumeric((reduced)); }

Not 100% sure if I understood you correctly. If you want to check, if the string contains numeric values just see my other examples further down.
Otherwise, if you want to check, if the string contains exclusively numerical signs and digits you could do something like:
public static boolean isInteger(String numericValue) {
if (numericValue == null) return false;
try {
Integer.parseInt(numericValue);
return true;
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
return false;
}
}
Please note, that this example does only work for Integers. If you
want to use bigger numbers, we can use Long or even BigDecimal
instead. But the main idea stays the same - check, if it can be parsed.
Or probably more appealing:
public static void main(String args[]) {
System.out.println(MyClass.isNumeric(""));
System.out.println(MyClass.isNumeric(null));
System.out.println(MyClass.isNumeric("abc"));
System.out.println(MyClass.isNumeric("a2b"));
System.out.println(MyClass.isNumeric("1a2b3"));
System.out.println(MyClass.isNumeric("42"));
System.out.println(MyClass.isNumeric("-100"));
}
public static boolean isNumeric(String str) {
if (str == null) return false; // handle null-pointer
if (str.length() == 0) return false; // handle empty strings
// to make sure that the input is numeric, we have to go through the characters
for (char c : str.toCharArray()) {
if (!Character.isDigit(c)) return false; // we found a non-digit character so we can early return
}
return true;
}
This will only print true for 42. The other examples contain other characters, too.
There are multiple issues with your code:
if(str=="") {
return true;
}
For string comparison you should use the String.equals() method - there are alternatives to that for example for your use-case you could use the convenience method String.isEmpty() or you could also just check the length of the string.
if(Character.isDigit(first))
{
return true;
}
if(Character.isDigit(first) == false)
{
return false;
}
This is some kind of if-else structure here. No need to check the same condition twice. Besides, it won't work with your recursive approach, because for what you want to achieve you need the current state which is "have I already found a digit". You could solve that with a memoized recursive function where you pass the current state along as a second argument to each subsequent call.
In your case it will return the result of the latest iteration / the
latest character.
You could do something like the following instead of using recursion. Recursion is fine, but it also comes with some costs. For example is it arguably harder to read and maintain.
public static void main() { ... } // same as above
public static boolean isNumeric(String str) {
if (str == null) return false; // handle null-pointer
if (str.length() == 0) return false; // handle empty strings
boolean atLeastOneDigit = false;
// to make sure that the input is numeric, we have to go through the characters
// until we find the first one then we can early return
for (char c : str.toCharArray()) {
if (Character.isDigit(c)) {
atLeastOneDigit = true; // we found a digit, therefore it must be numeric
break; // early return to save some iterations
}
}
return atLeastOneDigit;
}
The output of the program is:
false
false
false
true
true
true
true
Another alternative is to use Regex:
private static final Pattern digitRegex = Pattern.compile("\\d+");
public static main() { ... } // same as above
public static boolean isNumeric(String str) {
if (str == null) return false;
Matcher matcher = MyClass.digitRegex.matcher(str);
return matcher.find();
}

I am trying to explain you to solve this problem by two string methods that is isDigit(character) and charAt(i). In this case we will try to solve this problem by for loop. we will apply for loop in order to check every character of a string whether it is digit or not. If it is digit we will return true otherwise false.
Code is looks like this :
import java.lang.*;
import java.util.Scanner;
class Main {
public boolean containsDigit(String str) {
byte flag = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {
if (Character.isDigit(str.charAt(i))) {
flag = 1;
}
}
if (flag == 1) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("Enter a string : ");
String str = sc.nextLine();
Main test = new Main();
boolean chkDigit = test.containsDigit(str);
if (chkDigit == true) {
System.out.println("String contains digit.");
} else {
System.out.println("String doesn't contain any digit.");
}
}
}

My palindrome code says that any string starting and ending with the same letter is a palindrome

I've been learning Java for about a week now and had a question about base cases in recursion in this palindrome code I'm writing.
Essentially when the input is any string that has the same first and last letter, the program prints that it is a palindrome (when it's not). The third if statement is the base case that's supposed to take care of stuff like this but it doesn't seem to be working and I can't tell why.
public static boolean isPalindrome (String inputted_string, int first_letter, int last_letter) {
boolean palindrome=false;
if (first_letter == last_letter) {
palindrome=true;
System.out.println(palindrome + "1"); //these are just here to help me find out which if statement is executing
return palindrome;
}
else if (first_letter > last_letter) {
palindrome=true;
System.out.println(palindrome + "2");
return palindrome;
}
else if (inputted_string.charAt(first_letter) != inputted_string.charAt(last_letter)) {
palindrome=false;
System.out.println(palindrome + "3");
return palindrome;
}
else if (inputted_string.charAt(first_letter) == inputted_string.charAt(last_letter)) {
palindrome=true;
System.out.println(palindrome + "4");
isPalindrome(inputted_string, first_letter+1, last_letter-1);
}
return palindrome;
}

You need to return the result of the last isPalindrome, now you always return true.
public static boolean isPalindrome (String inputted_string, int first_letter, int last_letter) {
if (first_letter >= last_letter) {
return true; //Checked all
} else if (inputted_string.charAt(first_letter) == inputted_string.charAt(last_letter)) {
return isPalindrome(inputted_string, first_letter+1, last_letter-1); // Maybe palindrome, check more
}
return false; // Nope, not palindrome
}

JAVA: comparing a String with a SubString

So here's what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm trying to make a code that does the following from 2 given Strings: a target and a source.
// Determines whether the string TARGET occurs as a substring of string SOURCE where "gaps" are allowed between characters of target.`
// That is, the characters in TARGET occur in SOURCE in their given order but do not have to be adjacent.`
// (Pictured another way, this method returns true if TARGET could be obtained from SOURCE by removing some of the letters of SOURCE.)`
// This method is case sensitive. For example,`
// containsWithGaps("hamburgers", "mug") returns true`
// containsWithGaps("hamburgers", "burrs") returns true`
// containsWithGaps("hamburgers", "hamburgers") returns true`
// containsWithGaps("hamburgers", "gum") returns false`
// containsWithGaps("hamburgers", "hamm") returns false`
// containsWithGaps("hamburgers", "") returns true`
// Parameters:`
// SOURCE - the given string in which to find the target characters`
// TARGET - the characters to be found`
// Returns:`
// true if the characters in TARGET can be found as a subsequence in SOURCE, false otherwise`
And here's the code I've written. It seems to be overly complicated for what I believe shouldn't be a difficult task, but no matter what, I still keep getting errors and it won't work if given a SOURCE string hamburgers with a TARGET string burr:
public static boolean substringWithGaps(String source, String target) {
boolean substring = false;
int[] target_index;
target_index = new int [target.length()];
if (target.length() > source.length()) {
substring = false;
}
else {
for (int i = 0; i < target.length(); i++) {
if (source.contains("" + target.charAt(i))) {
target_index[i] = target.indexOf(i);
i++;
}
else {
target_index[i] = target.indexOf(i);
i++;
}
}
for (int i = 0; i < target_index.length; i++) {
if (target_index[i] == -1) {
substring = false;
break;
}
else if (target_index[i] >= target_index[i+1]) {
substring = false;
break;
}
else {
substring = true;
}
if (target_index.length != target.length()) {
substring = false;
}
}
}
return substring;
}
Any ideas?

Should be pretty simple:
public static boolean substringWithGaps(String source, String target) {
int targetIndex = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < source.length(); i++) {
if (source.charAt(i) == target.charAt(targetIndex)) {
targetIndex = targetIndex + 1;
if (targetIndex == target.length()) {
return true;
}
}
}
return false;
}
We keep an index of the next letter we need to find within target. Then we loop over source looking for that letter, and when we find it we move the index within target forward one. If the index of target ever equals the length of target, that means we found all of the characters we needed. If we loop over all of source without finding all of target, we return false.

The following should do it.
public static boolean containsWithGaps(String a, String b){
if(b.length() > a.length())
{
return false;
}
char[] targetChars = new char[b.length()];
b.getChars(0,b.length(),targetChars, 0);
int pos = 0;
for(char myChar : targetChars)
{
pos = a.indexOf(myChar, pos);
if(pos == -1)
{
return false;
}
}
return true;
}

Slight optimization in that it returns as soon as a character could not be matched (and doesn't crash if target is zero length)
public static boolean substringWithGaps(String source, String target) {
for (int i = 0, last = -1; i < target.length(); i++) {
if (-1 == (last = source.indexOf(target.charAt(i), last + 1)))
return false;
}
return true;
}

java iterative to recursive 2 nested for loop

I would like to check whether a string contains a sub list.
For example, str1 = "qwertyuiop" and str2 = "tyu" returns true.
I have written an iterative method.
public static boolean checkString(String str1, String str2) {
for (int i=0; i<str2.length(); i++) {
int j = 0;
for (; j<str1.length()&& str1.charAt(j)!=str2.charAt(i); j++) {
}
if (j== str1.length())
return false;
}
return true;
}
I am trying changing it to recursive method but not sure how as there are two nested for loops.
Thank you in advance.

I suggest you focus on other activities. Java already includes a function to do what you are implementing, and that is String.contains(CharSequence) like
if (str1.contains(str2)) { // <-- wherever you would have called "checkString"
// ...
}

public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(isSubstring("ankur", "ku"));
}
public static boolean isSubstring(String str1, String str2) {
if ((str1 == null) || (str2 == null) || str1.isEmpty()) {
return false;
} else if (str1.startsWith(str2)) {
return true;
} else {
return isSubstring(str1.substring(1), str2);
}
}
}

Creating a recursive method for Palindrome

I am trying to create a Palindrome program using recursion within Java but I am stuck, this is what I have so far:
public static void main (String[] args){
System.out.println(isPalindrome("noon"));
System.out.println(isPalindrome("Madam I'm Adam"));
System.out.println(isPalindrome("A man, a plan, a canal, Panama"));
System.out.println(isPalindrome("A Toyota"));
System.out.println(isPalindrome("Not a Palindrome"));
System.out.println(isPalindrome("asdfghfdsa"));
}
public static boolean isPalindrome(String in){
if(in.equals(" ") || in.length() == 1 ) return true;
in= in.toUpperCase();
if(Character.isLetter(in.charAt(0))
}
public static boolean isPalindromeHelper(String in){
if(in.equals("") || in.length()==1){
return true;
}
}
}
Can anyone supply a solution to my problem?

Here I am pasting code for you:
But, I would strongly suggest you to know how it works,
from your question , you are totally unreadable.
Try understanding this code. Read the comments from code
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Palindromes
{
public static boolean isPal(String s)
{
if(s.length() == 0 || s.length() == 1)
// if length =0 OR 1 then it is
return true;
if(s.charAt(0) == s.charAt(s.length()-1))
// check for first and last char of String:
// if they are same then do the same thing for a substring
// with first and last char removed. and carry on this
// until you string completes or condition fails
return isPal(s.substring(1, s.length()-1));
// if its not the case than string is not.
return false;
}
public static void main(String[]args)
{
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("type a word to check if its a palindrome or not");
String x = sc.nextLine();
if(isPal(x))
System.out.println(x + " is a palindrome");
else
System.out.println(x + " is not a palindrome");
}
}

Well:
It's not clear why you've got two methods with the same signature. What are they meant to accomplish?
In the first method, why are you testing for testing for a single space or any single character?
You might want to consider generalizing your termination condition to "if the length is less than two"
Consider how you want to recurse. One option:
Check that the first letter is equal to the last letter. If not, return false
Now take a substring to effectively remove the first and last letters, and recurse
Is this meant to be an exercise in recursion? That's certainly one way of doing it, but it's far from the only way.
I'm not going to spell it out any more clearly than that for the moment, because I suspect this is homework - indeed some may consider the help above as too much (I'm certainly slightly hesitant myself). If you have any problems with the above hints, update your question to show how far you've got.

public static boolean isPalindrome(String in){
if(in.equals(" ") || in.length() < 2 ) return true;
if(in.charAt(0).equalsIgnoreCase(in.charAt(in.length-1))
return isPalindrome(in.substring(1,in.length-2));
else
return false;
}
Maybe you need something like this. Not tested, I'm not sure about string indexes, but it's a start point.

I think, recursion isn't the best way to solve this problem, but one recursive way I see here is shown below:
String str = prepareString(originalString); //make upper case, remove some characters
isPalindrome(str);
public boolean isPalindrome(String str) {
return str.length() == 1 || isPalindrome(str, 0);
}
private boolean isPalindrome(String str, int i) {
if (i > str.length / 2) {
return true;
}
if (!str.charAt(i).equals(str.charAt(str.length() - 1 - i))) {
return false;
}
return isPalindrome(str, i+1);
}

Here is my go at it:
public class Test {
public static boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
return s.length() <= 1 ||
(s.charAt(0) == s.charAt(s.length() - 1) &&
isPalindrome(s.substring(1, s.length() - 1)));
}
public static boolean isPalindromeForgiving(String s) {
return isPalindrome(s.toLowerCase().replaceAll("[\\s\\pP]", ""));
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// True (odd length)
System.out.println(isPalindrome("asdfghgfdsa"));
// True (even length)
System.out.println(isPalindrome("asdfggfdsa"));
// False
System.out.println(isPalindrome("not palindrome"));
// True (but very forgiving :)
System.out.println(isPalindromeForgiving("madam I'm Adam"));
}
}

public class palin
{
static boolean isPalin(String s, int i, int j)
{
boolean b=true;
if(s.charAt(i)==s.charAt(j))
{
if(i<=j)
isPalin(s,(i+1),(j-1));
}
else
{
b=false;
}
return b;
}
public static void main()
{
String s1="madam";
if(isPalin(s1, 0, s1.length()-1)==true)
System.out.println(s1+" is palindrome");
else
System.out.println(s1+" is not palindrome");
}
}

Some of the codes are string heavy. Instead of creating substring which creates new object, we can just pass on indexes in recursive calls like below:
private static boolean isPalindrome(String str, int left, int right) {
if(left >= right) {
return true;
}
else {
if(str.charAt(left) == str.charAt(right)) {
return isPalindrome(str, ++left, --right);
}
else {
return false;
}
}
}
public static void main(String []args){
String str = "abcdcbb";
System.out.println(isPalindrome(str, 0, str.length()-1));
}

Here are three simple implementations, first the oneliner:
public static boolean oneLinerPalin(String str){
return str.equals(new StringBuffer(str).reverse().toString());
}
This is ofcourse quite slow since it creates a stringbuffer and reverses it, and the whole string is always checked nomatter if it is a palindrome or not, so here is an implementation that only checks the required amount of chars and does it in place, so no extra stringBuffers:
public static boolean isPalindrome(String str){
if(str.isEmpty()) return true;
int last = str.length() - 1;
for(int i = 0; i <= last / 2;i++)
if(str.charAt(i) != str.charAt(last - i))
return false;
return true;
}
And recursively:
public static boolean recursivePalin(String str){
return check(str, 0, str.length() - 1);
}
private static boolean check (String str,int start,int stop){
return stop - start < 2 ||
str.charAt(start) == str.charAt(stop) &&
check(str, start + 1, stop - 1);
}

public static boolean isPalindrome(String str)
{
int len = str.length();
int i, j;
j = len - 1;
for (i = 0; i <= (len - 1)/2; i++)
{
if (str.charAt(i) != str.charAt(j))
return false;
j--;
}
return true;
}

Try this:
package javaapplicationtest;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String source = "mango";
boolean isPalindrome = true;
//looping through the string and checking char by char from reverse
for(int loop = 0; loop < source.length(); loop++){
if( source.charAt(loop) != source.charAt(source.length()-loop-1)){
isPalindrome = false;
break;
}
}
if(isPalindrome == false){
System.out.println("Not a palindrome");
}
else
System.out.println("Pailndrome");
}
}

String source = "liril";
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(source);
String r = sb.reverse().toString();
if (source.equals(r)) {
System.out.println("Palindrome ...");
} else {
System.out.println("Not a palindrome...");
}

public class chkPalindrome{
public static String isPalindrome(String pal){
if(pal.length() == 1){
return pal;
}
else{
String tmp= "";
tmp = tmp + pal.charAt(pal.length()-1)+isPalindrome(pal.substring(0,pal.length()-1));
return tmp;
}
}
public static void main(String []args){
chkPalindrome hwObj = new chkPalindrome();
String palind = "MADAM";
String retVal= hwObj.isPalindrome(palind);
if(retVal.equals(palind))
System.out.println(palind+" is Palindrome");
else
System.out.println(palind+" is Not Palindrome");
}
}

Here is a recursive method that will ignore specified characters:
public static boolean isPal(String rest, String ignore) {
int rLen = rest.length();
if (rLen < 2)
return true;
char first = rest.charAt(0)
char last = rest.charAt(rLen-1);
boolean skip = ignore.indexOf(first) != -1 || ignore.indexOf(last) != -1;
return skip || first == last && isPal(rest.substring(1, rLen-1), ignore);
}
Use it like this:
isPal("Madam I'm Adam".toLowerCase(), " ,'");
isPal("A man, a plan, a canal, Panama".toLowerCase(), " ,'");
It does not make sense to include case insensitivity in the recursive method since it only needs to be done once, unless you are not allowed to use the .toLowerCase() method.

there's no code smaller than this:
public static boolean palindrome(String x){
return (x.charAt(0) == x.charAt(x.length()-1)) &&
(x.length()<4 || palindrome(x.substring(1, x.length()-1)));
}
if you want to check something:
public static boolean palindrome(String x){
if(x==null || x.length()==0){
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Not a valid string.");
}
return (x.charAt(0) == x.charAt(x.length()-1)) &&
(x.length()<4 || palindrome(x.substring(1, x.length()-1)));
}
LOL B-]

public static boolean isPalindrome(String p)
{
if(p.length() == 0 || p.length() == 1)
// if length =0 OR 1 then it is
return true;
if(p.substring(0,1).equalsIgnoreCase(p.substring(p.length()-1)))
return isPalindrome(p.substring(1, p.length()-1));
return false;
}
This solution is not case sensitive. Hence, for example, if you have the following word : "adinida", then you will get true if you do "Adninida" or "adninida" or "adinidA", which is what we want.
I like #JigarJoshi answer, but the only problem with his approach is that it will give you false for words which contains caps.

Palindrome example:
static boolean isPalindrome(String sentence) {
/*If the length of the string is 0 or 1(no more string to check),
*return true, as the base case. Then compare to see if the first
*and last letters are equal, by cutting off the first and last
*letters each time the function is recursively called.*/
int length = sentence.length();
if (length >= 1)
return true;
else {
char first = Character.toLowerCase(sentence.charAt(0));
char last = Character.toLowerCase(sentence.charAt(length-1));
if (Character.isLetter(first) && Character.isLetter(last)) {
if (first == last) {
String shorter = sentence.substring(1, length-1);
return isPalindrome(shorter);
} else {
return false;
}
} else if (!Character.isLetter(last)) {
String shorter = sentence.substring(0, length-1);
return isPalindrome(shorter);
} else {
String shorter = sentence.substring(1);
return isPalindrome(shorter);
}
}
}
Called by:
System.out.println(r.isPalindrome("Madam, I'm Adam"));
Will print true if palindrome, will print false if not.
If the length of the string is 0 or 1(no more string to check), return true, as the base case. This base case will be referred to by function call right before this. Then compare to see if the first and last letters are equal, by cutting off the first and last letters each time the function is recursively called.

Here is the code for palindrome check without creating many strings
public static boolean isPalindrome(String str){
return isPalindrome(str,0,str.length()-1);
}
public static boolean isPalindrome(String str, int start, int end){
if(start >= end)
return true;
else
return (str.charAt(start) == str.charAt(end)) && isPalindrome(str, start+1, end-1);
}

public class PlaindromeNumbers {
int func1(int n)
{
if(n==1)
return 1;
return n*func1(n-1);
}
static boolean check=false;
int func(int no)
{
String a=""+no;
String reverse = new StringBuffer(a).reverse().toString();
if(a.equals(reverse))
{
if(!a.contains("0"))
{
System.out.println("hey");
check=true;
return Integer.parseInt(a);
}
}
// else
// {
func(no++);
if(check==true)
{
return 0;
}
return 0;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO code application logic here
Scanner in=new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Enter testcase");
int testcase=in.nextInt();
while(testcase>0)
{
int a=in.nextInt();
PlaindromeNumbers obj=new PlaindromeNumbers();
System.out.println(obj.func(a));
testcase--;
}
}
}

/**
* Function to check a String is palindrome or not
* #param s input String
* #return true if Palindrome
*/
public boolean checkPalindrome(String s) {
if (s.length() == 1 || s.isEmpty())
return true;
boolean palindrome = checkPalindrome(s.substring(1, s.length() - 1));
return palindrome && s.charAt(0) == s.charAt(s.length() - 1);
}

Simple Solution
2 Scenario --(Odd or Even length String)
Base condition& Algo recursive(ch, i, j)
i==j //even len
if i< j recurve call (ch, i +1,j-1)
else return ch[i] ==ch[j]// Extra base condition for old length
public class HelloWorld {
static boolean ispalindrome(char ch[], int i, int j) {
if (i == j) return true;
if (i < j) {
if (ch[i] != ch[j])
return false;
else
return ispalindrome(ch, i + 1, j - 1);
}
if (ch[i] != ch[j])
return false;
else
return true;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(ispalindrome("jatin".toCharArray(), 0, 4));
System.out.println(ispalindrome("nitin".toCharArray(), 0, 4));
System.out.println(ispalindrome("jatinn".toCharArray(), 0, 5));
System.out.println(ispalindrome("nittin".toCharArray(), 0, 5));
}
}

for you to achieve that, you not only need to know how recursion works but you also need to understand the String method.
here is a sample code that I used to achieve it: -
class PalindromeRecursive {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Enter a string");
String input=sc.next();
System.out.println("is "+ input + "a palindrome : " + isPalindrome(input));
}
public static boolean isPalindrome(String s)
{
int low=0;
int high=s.length()-1;
while(low<high)
{
if(s.charAt(low)!=s.charAt(high))
return false;
isPalindrome(s.substring(low++,high--));
}
return true;
}
}