This article is based on Free Code Camp Basic Algorithm Scripting “Check for Palindromes”.

A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of characters which reads the same backward or forward. The word “palindrome” was first coined by the English playwright Ben Jonson in the 17th century, from the Greek roots palin (“again”) and dromos (“way, direction”). — src. Wikipedia

In this article, I’m going to explain two approaches, first with built-in functions and second using a for loop.

Algorithm Challenge

Return true if the given string is a palindrome. Otherwise, return false.



A palindrome is a word or sentence that’s spelled the same way both forward and backward, ignoring punctuation, case, and spacing.



Note. You’ll need to remove all non-alphanumeric characters (punctuation, spaces and symbols) and turn everything lower case in order to check for palindromes.



We’ll pass strings with varying formats, such as “racecar”, “RaceCar”, and “race CAR” among others.

function palindrome(str) { return true; } palindrome("eye");

Provided test cases

palindrome(“race car”) should return true

should return true palindrome(“not a palindrome”) should return false

should return false palindrome(“A man, a plan, a canal. Panama”) should return true

should return true palindrome(“never odd or even”) should return true

should return true palindrome(“nope”) should return false

should return false palindrome(“almostomla”) should return false

should return false palindrome(“My age is 0, 0 si ega ym.”) should return true

should return true palindrome(“1 eye for of 1 eye.”) should return false

should return false palindrome(“0_0 (: /-\ :) 0–0”) should return true

Which Regular Expression will we need to pass the last test case?

Regular expressions are patterns used to match character combinations in strings.

When the search for a match requires something more than a direct match, the pattern includes special characters.

To pass the last test case, we can use two Regular Expressions: /[^A-Za-z0–9]/g or /[\W_]/g

\W removes all non-alphanumeric characters:

\W matches any non-word character

matches any non-word character \W is equivalent to [^A-Za-z0–9_]

is equivalent to [^A-Za-z0–9_] \W matches anything that is not enclosed in the brackets

What does that mean?

[^A-Z] matches anything that is not enclosed between A and Z [^a-z] matches anything that is not enclosed between a and z [^0-9] matches anything that is not enclosed between 0 and 9 [^_] matches anything that does not enclose _

But in our test case, we need palindrome(“0_0 (: /-\ :) 0–0”) to return true, which means “_(: /-\ :)–” has to be matched.

We will need to add “_” to pass this specific test case.

We now have “\W_”

We will also need to add the g flag for global search.

We finally have “/[\W_]/g”

/[\W_]/g was used for pure demonstrative purpose to show how RegExp works. /[^A-Za-z0–9]/g is the easiest RegExp to choose.

1. Check for Palindromes With Built-In Functions

For this solution, we will use several methods:

The toLowerCase() method to return the calling string value converted to lowercase.

method to return the calling string value converted to lowercase. The replace() method to return a new string with some or all matches of a pattern replaced by a replacement. We will use one of the RegExp we just created earlier.

method to return a new string with some or all matches of a pattern replaced by a replacement. We will use one of the RegExp we just created earlier. The split() method splits a String object into an array of strings by separating the string into sub strings.

method splits a String object into an array of strings by separating the string into sub strings. The reverse() method reverses an array in place. The first array element becomes the last and the last becomes the first.

method reverses an array in place. The first array element becomes the last and the last becomes the first. The join() method joins all elements of an array into a string.

function palindrome(str) { // Step 1. Lowercase the string and use the RegExp to remove unwanted characters from it var re = /[\W_]/g; // or var re = /[^A-Za-z0-9]/g; var lowRegStr = str.toLowerCase().replace(re, ''); // str.toLowerCase() = "A man, a plan, a canal. Panama".toLowerCase() = "a man, a plan, a canal. panama" // str.replace(/[\W_]/g, '') = "a man, a plan, a canal. panama".replace(/[\W_]/g, '') = "amanaplanacanalpanama" // var lowRegStr = "amanaplanacanalpanama"; // Step 2. Use the same chaining methods with built-in functions from the previous article 'Three Ways to Reverse a String in JavaScript' var reverseStr = lowRegStr.split('').reverse().join(''); // lowRegStr.split('') = "amanaplanacanalpanama".split('') = ["a", "m", "a", "n", "a", "p", "l", "a", "n", "a", "c", "a", "n", "a", "l", "p", "a", "n", "a", "m", "a"] // ["a", "m", "a", "n", "a", "p", "l", "a", "n", "a", "c", "a", "n", "a", "l", "p", "a", "n", "a", "m", "a"].reverse() = ["a", "m", "a", "n", "a", "p", "l", "a", "n", "a", "c", "a", "n", "a", "l", "p", "a", "n", "a", "m", "a"] // ["a", "m", "a", "n", "a", "p", "l", "a", "n", "a", "c", "a", "n", "a", "l", "p", "a", "n", "a", "m", "a"].join('') = "amanaplanacanalpanama" // So, "amanaplanacanalpanama".split('').reverse().join('') = "amanaplanacanalpanama"; // And, var reverseStr = "amanaplanacanalpanama"; // Step 3. Check if reverseStr is strictly equals to lowRegStr and return a Boolean return reverseStr === lowRegStr; // "amanaplanacanalpanama" === "amanaplanacanalpanama"? => true } palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama");

function palindrome(str) { var re = /[\W_]/g; var lowRegStr = str.toLowerCase().replace(re, ''); var reverseStr = lowRegStr.split('').reverse().join(''); return reverseStr === lowRegStr; } palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama");

2. Check for Palindromes With a FOR loop

Half-indexing (len/2) has benefits when processing large strings. We check the end from each part and divide the number of iterations inside the FOR loop by two.

function palindrome(str) { // Step 1. The first part is the same as earlier var re = /[^A-Za-z0-9]/g; // or var re = /[\W_]/g; str = str.toLowerCase().replace(re, ''); // Step 2. Create the FOR loop var len = str.length; // var len = "A man, a plan, a canal. Panama".length = 30 for (var i = 0; i < len/2; i++) { if (str[i] !== str[len - 1 - i]) { // As long as the characters from each part match, the FOR loop will go on return false; // When the characters don't match anymore, false is returned and we exit the FOR loop } /* Here len/2 = 15 For each iteration: i = ? i < len/2 i++ if(str[i] !== str[len - 1 - i])? 1st iteration: 0 yes 1 if(str[0] !== str[15 - 1 - 0])? => if("a" !== "a")? // false 2nd iteration: 1 yes 2 if(str[1] !== str[15 - 1 - 1])? => if("m" !== "m")? // false 3rd iteration: 2 yes 3 if(str[2] !== str[15 - 1 - 2])? => if("a" !== "a")? // false 4th iteration: 3 yes 4 if(str[3] !== str[15 - 1 - 3])? => if("n" !== "n")? // false 5th iteration: 4 yes 5 if(str[4] !== str[15 - 1 - 4])? => if("a" !== "a")? // false 6th iteration: 5 yes 6 if(str[5] !== str[15 - 1 - 5])? => if("p" !== "p")? // false 7th iteration: 6 yes 7 if(str[6] !== str[15 - 1 - 6])? => if("l" !== "l")? // false 8th iteration: 7 yes 8 if(str[7] !== str[15 - 1 - 7])? => if("a" !== "a")? // false 9th iteration: 8 yes 9 if(str[8] !== str[15 - 1 - 8])? => if("n" !== "n")? // false 10th iteration: 9 yes 10 if(str[9] !== str[15 - 1 - 9])? => if("a" !== "a")? // false 11th iteration: 10 yes 11 if(str[10] !== str[15 - 1 - 10])? => if("c" !== "c")? // false 12th iteration: 11 yes 12 if(str[11] !== str[15 - 1 - 11])? => if("a" !== "a")? // false 13th iteration: 12 yes 13 if(str[12] !== str[15 - 1 - 12])? => if("n" !== "n")? // false 14th iteration: 13 yes 14 if(str[13] !== str[15 - 1 - 13])? => if("a" !== "a")? // false 15th iteration: 14 yes 15 if(str[14] !== str[15 - 1 - 14])? => if("l" !== "l")? // false 16th iteration: 15 no End of the FOR Loop*/ } return true; // Both parts are strictly equal, it returns true => The string is a palindrome } palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama");

function palindrome(str) { var re = /[^A-Za-z0-9]/g; str = str.toLowerCase().replace(re, ''); var len = str.length; for (var i = 0; i < len/2; i++) { if (str[i] !== str[len - 1 - i]) { return false; } } return true; } palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal. Panama");

I hope you found this helpful. This is part of my “How to Solve FCC Algorithms” series of articles on the Free Code Camp Algorithm Challenges, where I propose several solutions and explain step-by-step what happens under the hood.

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