Merge pull request #49 from MIT-Emerging-Talent/is_palindrome

Is palindrome (second pull request after revert merge)

.vscode/settings.json

@@ -122,5 +122,8 @@
       "source.fixAll.ruff": "explicit",
       "source.organizeImports.ruff": "explicit"
     }
-  }
+  },
+  "cSpell.words": [
+    "Alamassi"
+  ]
 }

solutions/__init__.py

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+

solutions/is_palindrome.py

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+"""
+A module for checking if a string is a palindrome.
+
+Module contents:
+    - is_palindrome: checks whether a given string is a palindrome,
+    ignoring spaces, punctuation, and case differences.
+
+Created on 2024-12-30
+@author: Huda Alamassi
+"""
+
+import unicodedata
+
+
+def is_palindrome(text_to_check: str) -> bool:
+    """
+
+    The function takes in a string and returns True if the string is a palindrome
+    (reads the same backward as forward ignoring spaces, punctuation,
+    and case differences) and False otherwise.
+
+
+    Arguments:
+    text_to_check (str): The input string to be checked.
+
+    Returns:
+    bool:
+        - True if the string is a palindrome after removing spaces, punctuation,
+        and case differences.
+        - False if the string is not a palindrome or contains only spaces/punctuation.
+
+    Raises:
+    AssertionError: If the input is not a string.
+
+    Examples:
+        >>> is_palindrome("radar")
+        True
+
+        >>> is_palindrome("hello")
+        False
+
+        >>> is_palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!")
+        True
+
+        >>> is_palindrome("No 'x' in Nixon")
+        True
+
+    """
+    # validate input type
+    assert isinstance(text_to_check, str), "text_to_check must be a string"
+
+    # ensure case-insensitivity
+    text_to_check = text_to_check.lower()
+
+    # whitespace should not impact the palindrome check
+    text_to_check = "".join(text_to_check.split())
+
+    # punctuation should not impact the palindrome check
+    cleaned_text = ""
+    for text_char in text_to_check:
+        if not unicodedata.category(text_char).startswith("P"):
+            cleaned_text += text_char
+
+    # exclude empty or non-informative strings
+    if cleaned_text == "":
+        return False
+
+    reversed_text = cleaned_text[::-1]
+
+    return reversed_text == cleaned_text

solutions/tests/__init__.py

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+